BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Hcnrg HI, Sage 1891 'ISry^v . S/MZ^L 'i\)^' ft I 'm D^T£ Dug JIC2352 1880 " ""'""^^"V Ubrary / The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030484913 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK For the Campaign of 1 880. A FULL HISTORY OF GENERAL JAMES A. GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE, WITH OTHER POLITICAL INFORMATION. By B. A. HINSDALE, A.M., PRESIDENT OV HIKAM COLLEGE. New York: D. APPLETON & CO., I,. 3, & 5 Bond Street. THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIG-I^ OF 1880. A FULL HISTORY OF GENERAL JAMES A. GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE, WITH OTSEB POLITICAL INFORMATION. BY B. A. HINSDALE, A. M., PRESIDENT OF HIRAM COLLEOE. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 1880. P3 INTEODUOTIOI^r. It is believed that this book embodies a new idea. Political handbooks are common enough. Those of Mr. Edward McPherson, in particular, are widely known and highly valued. Such books,, however, consist for the most part of political documents and statistics : Bills, Acts of Congress, Messages, Orders, Resolutions, Platforms, Records of Votes, and Election Returns. Little of this kind of material will be found in this work. Its range of infor- mation is fully shown by the Table of Contents, but it will be well to indicate here its leading features. These are two in number : First. To present to the American people the Republican candidate for President as a Public Man. This will be done by presenting the public life and services of General Garfield in an historical sketch, and by presenting such extracts from his speeches and papers as will exhibit, in a compendious form, his opinions on the leading political questions of the last twenty years, and especially those that enter into the present canvass. It is many years since a man with so full a political record has been a candidate for President. Perhaps no man was ever a candidate for this high office who had traversed so many fields of thought and discussion. Sometimes the candidates have been successful soldiers or little-known civilians, with either no civic history or a very short one. But an independent journal has very justly said of General Garfield : " He has been for many years an industrious member of Congress, ■who has borne a prominent and able part in the work of legislation, has long had a considerable share in shaping or carrying all measures of importance, and whose opinions on the great topics of the day are perfectly well hnownP In doing this work, General Garfield has freely uttered his thoughts on all the leading topics of the times, and the central idea of this text-book is to put into the hands of the reader authentic materials for judging his record. Second. To present a variety of other political information that will be useful to the intelligent citizen, and especially to speakers and writers in the Presidential canvass. 4 INTEODUCTION. Quotations from leading Democratic politicians, from educators, scholars, and the religious press, will show the impression that General Garfield has made on these classes of citizens. A sketch of the Vice-Presidential candidate. Gen- eral Chester A. Arthur, is also included. The recent history of the two great parties is given, as are also the platforms for 1880 and the letters of acceptance of the candidates. The current charges against General Garfield are fully pre- sented and examined. It should be added that the pamphlet editions of Gen- eral Garfield's speeches are followed in all cases where such editions have ap- peared. These speeches were revised by the author, and are therefore more authoritative than the " Globe " and " Record " reports. It is proper to add that the author was strongly solicited by a Chicago firm to write a life of General Garfield. This he would have done, had it not been for the General's desire that he should undertake the present work. It may be further added that the author has known General Garfield intimately for nearly thirty years ; that he has been a close and interested observer of his life as student, teacher, soldier, and statesman ; and that he has spared no pains to make this work, in all that relates to General Garfield's public life, full and authentic. The General himself has materially contributed to this end by furnishing interesting lines of inquiry. However, he is responsible for nothing found in this book, except what is quoted from him in terms. B. A. Hinsdale. HiEAM, O., July S8, 1880. CONTENTS, PART I. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. CHAPTER I. PAQK The Orange Boy. — Abram and Eliza Gar- field ; Birth and Boyhood of James A. Garfield ; Stories about him ... 7 CHAPTER II. Garfield the Student. — School at Chester; History there told in a Letter; Early Character ; Hiram and its Institute ; Student and Teacher ; Williams Col- lege ; Letter of President Chadbourne . 8 CHAPTER III. The Hiram Teacher. — Relations to Hiram ; Range of Teaching ; Character as a Teacher; Letter of Garfield to a Stu- dent ; Chapel Lectures ; as School Ad- ministrator, Preacher, and Popular Lec- turer 11 CHAPTER rv. Politics and the Ohio Senate. — ^Entry into Politics; Speeches from 1856 to 1860; elected to State Senate ; Services in ; admitted to the Bar . . . .14 CHAPTER V. Garfield the Soldier. — Lieutenant-Colonel ; Colonel of the Forty-second Regiment ; Sandy Valley Campaign ; Brigadier-Gen- eral ; Shiloh ; in Alabama ; Sick-leave ; in Washington ; Rosecrans's Chief of Staff ; Garfield on moving the Army ; TuUahoma Campaign ; Chickamauga ; Major-General ; elected to Congress . IV CHAPTER VI. CONQEESSMAN GaRFIELD . . . .22 Thirty-eighth Congress. On Military Committee ; Speeches on Draft Bill, on Confiscation of Rebel Property, on Commerce between the States, on the Abolition of Slavery; Investigation of the Treasury ; Oration at Ravenna, 0. . 23 Thirty-ninth Congress. Member of Ways and Means Committee ; Speeches on the Public Debt and Specie Payments, on the Tariff, on National Bureau of Education, on Freedman's Bureau; Argument in the Milligau- Bowles Case ; Trip to Europe ; Sermon in Chester Cathedral . . . .27 Fortieth Congress. Speech in Jefferson, 0., on Finances ; Chair- man of the Military Committee ; Report on the Army ; Speeches on Reconstruc- tion, on Impeachment, on the Currency, on Taxing U. S. Bonds, on Mr. Stevens's Record; Oration at Arlington . .31 Forty-first Congress. Chairmain of the Committee on Banking and Currency; Efforts to improve the National Census ; the Act to strengthen the Public Credit ; Bill to increase Bank- ing Facilities ; Speeches on said Bill, on Public Expenditures and Civil Service, on the McGarrahan Claim; Gold-Panic Investigation and Report . . .35 Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses. Chairman of Committee on Appropriations ; Studies of the Subject of Appropria- tions ; Article in " North American Re- view " ; Speech on enforcing the Four- teenth Amendment; Removal of the Flatheads ; Credit Mobilier and Salary Charges in the Nineteenth Ohio Dis- trict . . .... 39 Forty-forurth Congress. Democratic House ; on Ways and Means Committee; Reply to B. H. Hill; Re- ply to L. Q. C. Lamar ; Visit to Loui- siana ; the Electoral Commission Bill ; Speech on ; Member of Commission ; Sen- ator Thurman's Construction of the Bill 46 CONTENTS. Forty-fifth Congress. vmi^ Speech on the Kepeal of the Resumption Law ; Speech in Keply to W. D. Kelley ; Chicago Address ; Speeches on Bland Sil- ver Bill, on the " Wood Tariff Bill," on the Policy of Pacification and Prosecu- tions in Louisiana . . . .65 Forty-sixth Congress. Failure of the Army and Legislative Appro- priation Bills in the Forty-fifth Con- gress ; Extra Session ; Struggle on the Appropriations ; Garfield's Speeches ; Special Deputy Marshals ; Garfield elect- ed Senator ; nominated for the Presi- dency at Chicago 59 CHAPTER VII. The Stump, the Bar, and the Platform. — Number and Character of General Gar- field's Stump Speeches ; the Milligau Case again ; Literary Addresses ; Peri- odical Literature ; General Studies ; Let- ter of Garfield on the Poet Horace ; Let- ter from Professor J. N. Demmon ; Ar- ticles from "The Golden Age," "The Chicago Tribune," and " The Rockland Journal " 70 CHAPTER VIIL Leading Teaits of Character summed up. — Mind and Studies; Moral Nature; Re- ligion ; Character as a Public Man ; Courage and Independence ; Enthusi- asm awakened by his Nomination ; Fit- ness for the Presidency . . . YS PART II. GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. I. Sketch of General Arthur's Life . . 84 II. His Letter accepting the Vice-Presiden- tial Nomination 86 PART III. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. List of Speeches that have appeared in Pamphlet Editions . . .89 I. National Aid to Education . . 90 IL The Abolition of Slavery ... 94 III. The Revived Doctrine of State Sov- ereignty 100 IV. The Civil Service . . . .107 V. Congress and the Executive . . 109 VI. On the Bill to strengthen the Public Credit . . Ill VII. Gustave Schleicher . . 112 Vm. The Tariff .... . 116 IX. The Currency . . 122 X. The Democratic Party . 133 XI. Counting the Electoral Vote . 144 XII. Martial Law . 149 XIII. Letter of Acceptance . . 160 PART IV. PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. I. Senator Hoar . 153 IL Hon. Carl Schurz . 154 IIL G. A. Townsend . 166 IV. General Rosecrans . 167 V. National Republican League . 158 VL " The Nation " . . 159 VIL Hon. J. S. Black 160 VIIL Colonel Donn Piatt . . 161 IX. Hon. Wm. Springer . . 162 X. Hon. R. M. Speer . 162 XI. Hon. H. B. Payne . . 163 XIL Hon. A. G. Thurmau and the "New York World " 163 PART V. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS I. " The Christian Standard " . . 164 11. " The American Christian Review " . 164 IIL " The Christian Union " . 165 IV. " The Methodist " . 166 V. " The Evangelist " . 16'7 PART VI. CHARGES AGAINST GENERA, L GAR- FIELD STATED AND EXAM INED. I. The Credit Mobilier Company . 170 IL The so-called " Salary Grab " . 185 IIL De Golyer .... . 190 APPENDIX. I. Republican and Democratic Platforms from 1856 to 1880 inclusive . . 194 II. " The Chicago Tribune " on Democratic Platforms 213 in. General Hancock's Letter of Acceptance 215 PAET I. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. PREFATORY NOTE. James A. Gaeeield is eminently a many- sided man. He has distinguished himself in many kinds of activity. His history is full of kaleidoscopic changes and surprises. On the whole, it would he hard to name an American now on the stage of political ac- tion who offers to the hiographer a more inviting theme. To present and illustrate him in all his aspects and lights, is the cho- sen and pleasing duty of a score of biogra- phers. Such is not the scope of this sketch. For the most part, it will be confined to his public life. Beginning with his boyhood, the story will expand as we enter the stu- dent period ; will widen out still further in the teacher and soldier periods; and will fully cover the Congressman. The stump and the bar, literature and the study, will also receive attention. Still, all the time, the central point will be the public man. CHAPTER I. THE ORANGE BOT. " I have planted four saplings In these woods ; I must now leave them to your care." — Abram QarfieWs last words to Tm wife. Abeam Gaefield, the father of General Garfield, with Eliza Ballou, his wife, he born in New York of Massachusetts stock, and she born in New Hampshire, moved into the woods of Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in the month of January, 1830. Mr. Garfield had bought there fifty acres of land that he and his wife expected to clear up and pay for by the labor of their hands, and to make a home for themselves and their children. In 1833, before the debt was discharged, Garfield died ft-om over- work, exposure, and bad medical treatment. His widow was left in exceedingly strait- ened circumstances, with four small chil- dren. She was surrounded by a dense for- est, broken only by the occasional clearings of the settlers. Twenty acres of the narrow strip of land were sold at once to meet the crisis. On the remaining thirty, with such help as relatives and friends — nearly as poor as herself— could give, she kept the family together, and reared the children to adult age. James Abeam Gaefield, Republican can- didate for President in the campaign of 1880, was the youngest of these four chil- dren. He was born November 19, 1831, and was eighteen months old at the time of his father's death. The United States is still a young country, and most readers have enough knowledge of pioneer life, either from experience or tradition, to see at a glance the main features of his external life: A log-house, a forest, plain fare and rough clothes, few books and papers, a pio- neer district school, neighborhood meetings, loggings, raisings, " bees," hard work, pinch- ing economy, an occasional visit to the neighboring villages or to Cleveland, come at once into view. Young Garfield's life did THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. not materially differ from the lives of otlier boys in the Orange woods. Naturally the Garfields, as they had lost the husband and father, fell behind most of their neighbors in property, so that their labor was more severe, and their poverty more pinching. Some attention must be paid to the early opening of his mind and the unfolding of his character. Young James Garfield ranked high in the neighborhood in respect to ability, edu- cation, and character. He took the district- school course of study in the old-fashioned way: spelling, reading, writing, geography, grammar, and arithmetic. By the time that he was seventeen years old, he had learned what the district school could teach him. It does not appear that, up to this age, he had contemplated wider studies. This is a noticeable fact in the life of one who has so highly distinguished himself in the intellec- tual field. His passion was to go to sea and become a sailor. Had this passion been gratified, he might now be the captain of a Pacific whaler, or of an Atlantic steamer ; he might even have found his way to a high place in the navy ; but he would hardly have been a candidate for President of the United States. This is a very slight account of the first period in General Garfield's life. His boy- hood was in many respects remarkable. After relating an interesting political anec- dote of Lord Melbourne, Mr. Bagehot says : " I can not vouch for its truth ; Lord Mel- bourne's is a character about which men make stories." Something like this may be said of General Garfield's life, especially his early hfe. Men like to make and tell stories about it. But even when the fables have been torn away, plenty of the picturesque and romantic remains. Garfield the bare- footed boy, the wood-chopper, the canal- boat driver, and the carpenter does not come within my range. That Garfield will be taken care of by the biographers. But here it may be said that his fierce strug- gle for existence was his first, and perhaps most valuable school. Poverty, self-denial, and hardy toil meted out to him their severe discipline. One has wisely said, "The man of culture is the man who has formed his ideals through labor and self- denial." In this sense no one could be better cultured. In this school were formed his habits of application, of endurance, and of indomitable purpose. The familiar wood- chopping and canal-driving stories, which I have neither time nor desire to tell, have a three-fold significance : first, they reveal the nature of his early life ; second, taken with his subsequent history, they show the power of the man ; third, they teach that there is one country on the globe where a boy need not be born on the steps of the throne or in the seats of wealth to rise to distinguished place ; but that the best which America has to ofi'er is within the reach of the poor boy's brain and heart and hand. CHAPTER IL GAEFIBLD THE STUDENT : OHESTEE, HIEAM, AND WILLIAMSTOWN. " General Garfield, as a student, was one who would at any time impress himself upon the mem- ory of his instructora by his manliness and excel- lence of character." — President CJiadbowrne. How young Garfield's attention was turned in the direction of wider study, what his first studies of the wider order were, where and under what circumstances they were prosecuted, he has himself well told in a letter to the trustees of Geauga Seminary, at Chester, Ohio, written in 1867, and inclosing a contribution for renovating the seminary building at that place : In accordance with your request, I will make a brief statement of my connection with Geauga Seminary. I do this with the more readiness be- cause it is a source of great pleasure to me to recall the persons and scenes connected with the beginnings of my student life. In the winter of 184S-'9 I was at my moth- er's house in Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, suffering from a three months' siege of fever and ague, which I had brought from the Ohio canal the preceding summer. Samuel D. Bates, now a distin- guished minister of the gospel in Marion, Ohio, was that winter teaching the district school near my mother's. He had attended the seminary at Cheater, and urged several of the young men in the neighborhood to return there with him in the spring. Being yet too ill to return to my plan of becoming a sailor on the lake, I resolved to GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 9 attend school one term and postpone Bailin" until autumn. Accordingly, I joined two other young men, and, with the necessary provisions for boarding ourselves, we reached Chester March 6, 1849, and rented a room in an unpainted frame house nearly west from the seminary and across the street from it. I bought the second algebra I ever saw, and commenced the study of it there. Studied also natural philosophy and grammar. I attended there in the fall of 1849, and dur- ing the following winter taught my first school. Returned to the seminary again in the spring of 1850. 1 commenced the study of Latin and fin- ished algebra and botany. At the close of the spring term I made my first public speech. It was a six minutes' oration at the annual exhibi- tion. My diary shows the anxiety and solicitude through which I passed in its preparation and delivery. During the summer vacation of 1850 I worked at the carpenter's trade in Chester. Among oth- er things, I helped to build a two-story house on the east side of the road, a little way south of the seminary grounds. Attended school during the fall term of 1850, and commenced the study of Greek. Worked mornings, evenings, and Sat- urdays at my trade, and thus paid my way. After the first term at Chester I never received any pe- cuniary assistance. The cost of living, however, was much less than it now is. In my second term at Chester I had board, lodging, and washing for one dollar and six cents per week. By this time, it was clear that James Garfield would not " run " on the canal nor sail the ocean ; his mind had now got its proper direction. But morals and religion, not mental abilities and studies, are the basis of character. Hence it should be said that, from the first, he was honest, truthful, seri- ous, and reverent. He had already made a public profession of religion, and united with the Disciples of Christ, of which body he has always remained a member. Members of the family belonged to the same body. In the fall of 1851 he found his way to the Western Eeserve Eclectic Institute, at Hi- ram, Portage County, Ohio. As Hiram was the centre of his life from 1851 to 1877, it wiU be well to give a short account both of the place and of the school. In 1850, when the Disciples planted their Institute there, Hiram was a township of Western Reserve farmers. The " Centre " was a cross-roads, with two churches and half a dozen other buildings. The Institute building, a plain but substantially built brick structure, was put on the top of a windy hill in the middle of a corn-field. One of the cannon that General Scott's soldiers dragged to the city of Mexico in 1847, planted on the roof of the new structure, would not have commanded a score of farm-houaes. The reasons that controlled the location of the school are not to us material. Here the scho'ol began at the time that Garfield was closing his studies at Chester. It had been in operation two terms when he offered himself for enrollment. Hiram furnished a location ; the Board of Trustees, a building and the first teachers; the surrounding country, students ; but the spiritual Hiram made itself. Everything was new. Society, traditions, the genius of the school, had to be evolved from the forces of the teachers and pupils, limited by the general and local environment. Let no one be surprised when I say, such a school as this was the best of all places for young Mr. Garfield. There was freedom, opportunity, a large society of rapidly and eagerly opening young minds, instructors who were learned enough to in- struct him, and abundant scope for ability and force of character, of which he had a superabundance. At first he found room for his activity in the double work of student and janitor; later, in the double work of student and teacher. Eew of the students who came to Hiram in that day had more than a district- school education, though some had attended the high-schools and academies scattered over the country; so that Garfield, al- though he had made but slight progress in the classics and the higher mathema- tics previous to his arrival, ranked well up with the first scholars. In abihty, all ac- knowledged that he was the peer of any; soon his superiority to all others was gener- ally conceded. His mind was now reaching out in all directions ; and all the more widely because the elastic course of study, and the absence of traditionary trammels, gave him room. He was a vast elemental force, and nothing was so essential as space and oppor- tunity. Hiram was now forming her future teachers, as well as creating her own oul- 10 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOB THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ture. Naturally, then, when he had been only one year in the school, he was given a place in the corps of .teachers. In the cata- logue of 1853-'4 his name appears both with the pupils and the teachers : " James A. Garfield, Cuyahoga County," and "J. A. Garfield, Teacher in the English Depart- ment and of the Ancient Languages." His admission to the Faculty page may be an index to a certain rawness in the school ; but it gave to his talents and ambition the play that an older school with higher stand- ards could not have afforded him. I shall not here speak of him as a teacher further than to say: in two years' service he had demoQstrated his great ability in that capa- city, had won the hearts of the students generally, and had wrought in the minds of the school authorities the conviction that his further services would be indispensable on his return from college. His letter quoted above shows that he had had some expe- rience in teaching in a district school, before he went to Hiram. Garfield had now been three years in Hiram. Some time before he had got be- yond all the classes, and so was compelled to carry on his studies privately. While teaching five or six hours a day, he was doing more than a student's full work in course studies, not to speak of studies that were discursive, and of other outside work. He now took his Ohio training to an old seat of learning, Williams College, Massa- chusetts. If it had been well for him that his preparation had been made in a new wes- tern school, it was well that now he went to a New England college. His studies had been prosecuted with such vigor that he felt confident of his ability to finish the course in one year; but feeling his need of longer training, and of closer intimacy with eastern educators, he wisely concluded to devote two years to the work. Accordingly, he entered the junior class in the fall of 1854, and gradu- ated with the highest honors in 1866. Besides what he had done for himself in the two years, he had made a lasting impression upon his fellow students and the faculty. The furrow plowed in college by most students, even strong ones, is soon effaced ; but Hiram- prepared pupils who followed him to Wil- liams years afterward, brought back the report that Garfield was not forgotten, but was being closely watched by instructors and students alike as a "Williams man." On commencement day he gave the " Meta- physical Oration." He had received no pe- cuniary assistance since his first term at Chester. By careful economy he saved some money from his first Hiram earnings ; this he carried to Williams, but he left college with a debt of five hundred dollars that had to be discharged. Before returning to Hiram Hill, the reader will be glad to read in this place this testimonial from one of Garfield's instructors, now the President of Williams College : "Williams College, Williamstoww, ) Masbachhsetts, July 8, 1S80. f President B. A. Hinsdale : Mt dear Sir : Your note comes to me in the midst of the hurry of commencement week. I can only give in substance what I have stated in my speeches respecting General Garfield's char- acter as a student in Williams College. He grad- uated in 1856, soon after I began my work here as professor. The students who came under my instruction then made a much stronger impression upon me than those of a later day, since my atten- tion has been called to other interests than those of the lecture-room. But General Garfield, as a student, was one who would at any time impress himself upon the memory of his instructors by his manliness and excellence of character. He was one whom his teachers would never suspect as guilty of a dishonest or mean act, and one whom a dishonest or mean man would not approach. College life is, in some respects, a severe test of character. False notions of honor often prevail among students, so that, under sanction of ." col- lege custom," things are sometimes done by young men which they would scorn to do in other places. There was a ma.nliness and honesty about General Garfield that give him power to see and do what was for his own good and the honor of the col- lege. His life as a student was pure and noble. His moral and religious character and marked in- tellectual ability gave great promise of success in the world. His course since he entered active life has seemed to move on in the same hue in which he moved here. He has been distinguished for hard work, clear insight into great questions of public interest, strong convictions, and manly courage. I know of no better example among our pub- lic men of success fairly won. With such a man as President, we might fairly expect that the GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 11 country would have an administration pure and honest in its purpose, and successful in all the affairs that the Executive could control. Very truly yours, P. A. Chadbouisne. CHAPTER III. THE HIRAM TEAOHEK. " Eight proud are we the world should know As hero him vro long ago Found truest helper, friend." —Mrs. E. C. Olader. The Hiram board tad anticipated Mr. Garfield's return by electing him teacher of ancient languages and literature. After one year's service, being then twenty-six years old, he was made the head of the Institution with the title. Chairman of the Board of In- structors, and in 1858 he was made Principal in name as well as in fact. He held this oflSce until he entered the army, in the fall of 1861, though compelled to resign his work to the hands of his associates, save such as he could do at Columbus or on his .occasional visits home, while serving in the Ohio Senate, in the winters of 1859-'60 and 1860-61. Even when he became a soldier, though it was apparent to all intelligent ob- servers that Hiram school was too small a theatre for his activity, the board, wishing rather than hoping that he might return, de- termined at all events not to part with his name, kept him nominally at the head two years longer. In 1866 and 1866 he was Ad- visory Principal and Lecturer. Then his name finally disappeared from the Faculty page of the catalogue, but to stand to this day among the Trustees. Such is the chro- nology of his post-college connection with the Eclectic Institute. But I should be doing the public an injustice were I not to charac- terize him as a teacher and school adminis- trator. The Hiram catalogues from 1857 to 1861 show that the field of instruction was regu- larly allotted to the difierent instructors. But the published scheme was not fully carried out in practice. This was owing to a variety of causes. In the first place, a great majority of the students were irregular. following no systematic courses of study. From its very nature the Hiram army could not take on a regular brigade and division organization, each group with its appropri- ate ofiBcer. Hence, the teachers were com- pelled to accommodate themselves to the wants of the school. But more, these teachers believed in breadth as well as in depth ; and from choice they did what ne- cessity also required, since in this way they would better avoid deep and narrow ruts, keep their minds fresh and eager, as well as carry their individual methods and personal force through the whole school. Still, in general, each one worked within certain lines, though those lines were not very straight or rigid. Mr. Garfield taught Latin, Greek, the higher mathematics, history, philosophy, English literature, English analysis, rhetoric, criticism, and occasionally one of the natur- al sciences. No man at the age of twenty- six or even thirty is profoundly versed in all' these branches of learning, but his knowledge of them was fully adequate to all demands. Many young men and women were then preparing in Hiram for college, often going up to the junior, and occasionally to the senior year in their preparations. Students pursuing selected studies sometimes called for senior studies, and always found their demands satisfied. Though especially enthusiastic in particular lines of study and teaching, it was hard to see that Mr. Garfield did not teach Csssar, Homer, geometry, English grammar, metaphysics, and geology equally well. On the whole, he perhaps took least interest in the mathematical studies; but among the others it would be hard to name his favorites. In fact, of all the branches of knowledge taught in a college, there was no one that did not at some time engage his special attention and awaken his enthusiasm. It is not beneath the dignity of history to record, that he always taught the class in English analysis, through which most of the better minds at some time passed ; and that this study, often made dry and irk- some, he clothed with light and filled with fire. Hundreds of eyes will kindle to-day at mention of " Garfield's Analysis Class." His weekly rhetorical class (called in Hiram phrase " Garfield's division "), with its es- 12 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. says, declamations, debates, and criticisms, was a great theatre of interest and improve- ment. His method of conducting a recita- tion was his own, combining the question that required a text-book answer, the topic to be handled, the call for the pupil's own opinion, and the teacher's discussion of the matter in hand. As a drill-master, many teachers surpassed him ; but as an educator in the best sense, he stood with the first. His class-room glowed with life. Probably no pupil remembers having spent in it a dull hour. While placing its proper valuation upon learning and information, his great aim was to awaken the faculties of the student. There is a process known to the laboratory as energizing a magnet. By passing electri- cal currents around a bar of common iron, the electrician gives the bar magnetic virtue. There is an analogous process known to the educator ; the most important work that he can render the student is to energize him. Among the teachers whom I have known, Garfield stood alone as an energizer of young men and women. He revealed the world to the student, and the student to himself. He called out thought, set the faculties in full play, awakened courage, widened the field of mental vision, and poured in abundant measures of inspiration. In those days boys of ability and charac- ter often found their way to Hiram to take a few studies, but with no thought of pursu- ing an extended course of study. As their minds began to open, they began to reach out beyond the tether fixed by past educa- tion or present circumstances. Sometimes the fathers of these boys held them to the farm or the shop by the firm hand of pa- rental counsel, or even of authority. Mr. Gar- field was quick to find these boys out. He seemed to read them by intuition. He had had similar experiences. He knew a mind that was teeming with new facts, ideas, and impressions, and could enter into its daily struggle. He saw that these boys were capa- ble of wider action than the fai-m or the shop, and he sought to lead them out into the broader field. He counseled and encour- aged them, and sought in all ways to steady them in the transitit)n from the old to the new. He carried his expostulations to the heart of the parent. He has been known to say that he never found more pleasure than in " capturing boys." His conscious method was, to arouse a keen interest in the world of thought and learning, to interest them in the school, to place before them hi^h ideals; his unconscious method, to pour into them his own spirit, and to attach them to him- self. That he knew how to say the right word at the right time, is shown by the fol- lowing quotation from a letter written in 1857 to a young district-school teacher who was then wrestling with his own life-ques- tion : I am glad to hear of your success in teach- ing, 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 under- take 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 (intelUgent) farmers and mechanics, and in many respects these pass the most independent and happy lives. But God has endowed some of his children with desires and capabihties 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 capabili- ties for occupying positions of high and impor- tant trust in the scenes of active life ; and I am sure you will not call it flattery in me, nor ego- tism in yourself, to say so. Tell me, Burke, do you not feel a spirit stirrmg within you that longs to know, to do, and to dare, to hold converse with the great world of thought, and 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 un- satisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, and they will for ever cling round your heart till you obey their mandate. They are the voice of that nature which God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you and GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 13 your fellow men. Kow 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. Suppose you could not be^n 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 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 BO when teachers' wages were much lower than they are now. It is a great truth that " where there is a will there's 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 I you in your work ; but if you can not 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. Garfield's associates were able and effec- tive teachers, respected and esteemed by the pupils ; but those who had reached his zone always strained a point, if necessary, to be in at least one of his classes. One of his most valuable offices was his morning lectures in chapel to all the scholars. In those days the term attendance at Hiram ranged from one hundred and eighty to three hundred students, covering a wide range of ability and education. He did not give a lecture every morning, but one or more series were expected every term. He had brought back from Williams the best thoughts of Dr. Mark Hopkins; in the fertile soil of his mind, these, as well as thoughts gathered from other sources, became the seeds of fresh thoughts innumerable, and he sowed the harvest again with unstinted hand.. He ranged over the fields of Bible history, mor- als, education, teaching, science, literature, practical afEairs, history, and life ques- tions. These lectures may not have been finished ad unguem ; but they abounded in fresh facts, striking illustrations, and sugges- tive thoughts, and were warm with the breath of his own life. Occasionally he would give us from manuscript a finished address, col- ored more warmly, perhaps, thau his mature taste would justify. In this exhilarating atmosphere, ethics and religion were not forgotten. Particular pains were taken to place before the students ideals of life and character nobly wrought, and instinct with courage, manliness, and truth. Though bounding with life and spirits himself, he was full of what Dr. Thomas Arnold called "moral thoughtfuhiess," and he strove to make his pupils temperate, morally serious, and reverent to truth. He was eminently successful as a school administrator. He had nothing of the marti- net or the regulation schoolmaster about him. He was not one of those who are great in little things. He perfectly under- stood what wow, and what was not, essential to good order ; and he secured the first all the easier because he was indifferent to the second. He had a code of formulated rules, sufficiently long and rigorous we boys thought, that he expected us to obey ; but his own personality was worth far more as a controlling power than any rules could be. He was firm but kind, exacting but sympa- thetic. He was fuUy alive to the sentiment of justice, and respected, even in the most unworthy, human nature and human rights. Then, as since, he was full of appreciation and generosity. Naturally, Garfield the teacher drew his pupils to himself with extraordinary power. Never have I seen such devotion to another teacher. An old Hiram student, now holding a responsible office in the public schools of Cleveland, speaking of the old times before Garfield went to college, says in a private letter : " Then began to grow up in me an admiration and love for Garfield that has never abated, and the like of which I have never known. A bow of recognition 14 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. or a single word from him was to me an in- spiration." And such wonld be the general testimony. In all this there was method ; not the method of crafty art, as the cyn- ical might say, but the method of nature, the method of a great mind and a noble heart. I take my leave of this Hiram teacher with affirming my conviction that, other things being equal. General Garfield has never been greater than he was in Hiram from 1857 to 1861. He left the quiet of the academy for the roar of the field and the forum at the age of thirty years, but not until he had demonstrated his fitness for the highest educational work and honors. It must not be supposed, however, that the field of his activity in those years has now been fully canvassed. With all the rest he was a preacher. As the Disciples were a new body, originating in a revolt from the old theological and ecclesiastical standards, they gave more room to personal force and inspiration than the older and more conven- tional churches. Presumably, he never in- tended to devote himself to the ministry. Certainly he did not after returning from college. He never had any other ordina- tion from his brethren than their general approval and encouragement. From 1856 to 1861 his pulpit ministrations were in large request. Eecalling his sermons at the distance of twenty years, I should say they were stronger in the ethical than in the theological and ecclesiastical elements. "What is more, in 1858 he entered his name in a Cleveland law firm, as a student at law, but he carried on his studies by him- self at Hiram. Then he lectured, with great acceptance, before popular audiences, on scientific, literary, educational, and moral topics. He was in great request as an in- structor and lecturer at teachers' institutes. He became greatly interested in geology, and expounded the facts and principles of that science before numerous audiences. In the winter of 1859-'60, he was drawn into a public debate with a Mr. Denton, an anti- Christian and spiritualistic lecturer and de- bater. The subject was the development theory. That was before Mr. Darwin gave the evolution doctrine its new shaping, and the point of the discussion was the merits of development as it was left by Lamarck and the author of the " Vestiges." All this time he was pushing his general studies in all directions. In college he had become interested in the German literature, and had contributed to the " Quarterly " an appre- ciative paper on the poet Komer. He now became more interested than ever in Ger- many and German topics. If it be tme, as tradition asserts, that one of his ancestors was a German woman, the principle of he- redity may explain his admiration of the Ger- man patience, thoroughness, and profundity. One of his old maxims, to be construed rhetorically, of course, is, that "hard work is the only genius " ; a maxim that well de- scribes the German mental habit. One of his lectures on Germany, I well remember, sent one pupil post-haste to the library in search of Motley's "Dutch Republic," a work just from Harper's press, that he had mentioned in his discourse. But I must now leave Hiram village and school to follow its leading spirit into the world of wider action. CHAPTER IV. POLITICS AND THE OHIO SENATE. Up to 1856 General Garfield had taken no particular interest in public affairs. He had been occupied with other matters. But now that his general education was finished, and he was ready to devote himself to the work of the world, his political pulses began to stir. A year or two before, the Repubh- can party bad sprung up as an immediate consequent of the Kansas-Nebraska legisla- tion. Its original mission was thus stated by its present standard-bearer in his speech nominating Secretary Sherman at Chicago : Long famiUarity with traffic in the bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority of our people. The baleful doc- trine of State sovereignty had shaken and weak- ened the noblest and most beneficent powers of' the National Government, and the grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin territories of the West, and dragging them into the den of external bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was born. It drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which God has Ughted In every GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 15 human heart, and which all the powers of igno- rance and tyranny can never wholly extinguish. The Republican party came to deliver and save the Republic. It entered the arena where the beleaguered and assailed territories were strug- gling for freedom, and drew around it the sacred circle of liberty, which the demon of slavery has never dared to crdSs. It made them free for ever. Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young party, under the leadership of that great man who, on this spot twenty years ago, was made its leader, it entered the National Capital and as- sumed the high duties of government. A young party witli sncli aims as these could but appeal to his reason, his feelings, and his imagination. Even before leaving college he enrolled himself under the Repub- lican banner. He cast his first vote that year. His graduation coincided with the nomination of John 0. Fremont to the Pres- idency, and the story of the " Pathfinder " also awoke his interest and enthusiasm. He made some speeches that campaign in Hiram and the neighboring villages. Of course he was then a tyro in politics, but his speeches had the marks of his greatest later efforts. They were well reasoned, candid, earnest, and often eloquent. As the Eepublican platform then contained but one plank — resistance to the spread of slavery in the national terri- tories — the central point of all his speeches was the constitutionality and Tightness of the Wilmot proviso. Here was room to in- terpret the Constitution, to trace the legisla- tion of Congress on the subject, to discuss the general character of slavery, and to mark the destructive consequences of its spread. At no time in our history, perhaps, has a stump orator had a better opportunity to make effective speeches. The national mind and conscience were awakening from their long slumber. Historical, logical, economi- cal, and moral elements could be blended and fused in the appeal to the popular heart. Mr. Garfield soon rose to the level of the argument. The next year the field of his efforts was wider. He now became a recog- nized political force in the county, and even received caUs to go beyond its borders. The year 1858 witnessed a still farther growth of his power and influence. Likewise 18S9. This year a Legislature was to be chosen ; and, as naming the Republican candidate for Sen- 2 ator from the Portage-Summit district be- longed to the first-named county, he was put forward as a candidate for the nomination. Other and older candidates were in the field, but after a spirited contest he was nominated. As the district was strongly Eepublican, he was elected as a matter of course. Thus, in three years from the making of his first political speech he found himself a Senator of Ohio. We are now to accompany him to the Senate-Chamber at Columbus. "When Mr. Garfield took his seat in the Chamber he was the youngest member of the body, being twenty-eight years old. He entered at once upon his new duties with the thoroughness, ability, and zeal that have characterized all his life, public and private. In the college literary society, and in various public assemblies, he had acquired a good knowledge of parliamentary law. This he now hastened to perfect. That he might the better know his fellow Senators in their district relations, he took a map of Ohio, marked off the senatorial districts by draw- ing hues around them with his pen, and then wrote each man's name on the face of his district. Some able men sat in that senate: General J. D. Cox and Hon. James Monroe, both since well known in the national service; Messrs. Harrison, Key, Schleigh, and others. The Portage Senator soon took rank as one of the best speakers on the floor. He was also a valuable man on committees and in party counsels. No Senator was more frequently called to his councils by the President of the Senate when knotty points of order were to be untied or cut. The Republicans were in the majority; but there were two kinds of Republicans, conservatives and radicals. Garfield, Cos, and Monroe have been called the " Radical triumvirate." Between the two sections of the party the passages-at- arms were sometimes as lively as between the Republicans and the Democrats. But, while a radical, his views and his sympa- thies were as broad then as now. A few days after the session of 1860 opened, the Legislatures and Executives of Tennessee and Kentucky met in Louisville, to cele- brate the completion of the railroad that joins Louisville and Nashville. A resolution was carried through the Ohio Legislature 16 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. inviting these Tennesseeans and Kentuck- ians to extend their visit to Oolumhus, at the expense of the State of Ohio. Our young Senator was the mover of the resolu- tion, and he was sent to Louisville as chair- man of the committee of invitation. His speech of invitation, delivered at the Louis- ville banquet in response to the toast to Ohio, was widely read and much admired at the time. Technically, it was what was then called a "Union-saving" speech; it is also a good sample of Garfield's early oratory. Only a short passage can be reproduced: " Brethren, we have too long heard of the North and the South. Their angry words have too long vexed the hearts of our fellow citizens. But there is a third voice to be heard ere long. I hope and believe the day is not far distant when the great West shall speak, and that voice shall be heard from sea to sea. In that voice shall be heard no terms of doubt or uncertainty ; no note of disunion shall be heard in that utterance." Nor was this a mere bit of rhetoric. The orator meant it all. But, while he allowed no man to surpass him in devotion to the Union of sentiment and feeling, he also knew how to contend for the Union of the Constitution and the laws. Ordinarily there is not much scope for statesmanship in an Ohio Legislature. But it so happened that Garfield sat in that one Legislature which, for a generation, opened the widest field to statesmanlike abilities, especially at its second session. With the presidential election of 1860 the war-cloud rose in the Southern sky. The great ques- tions that were sprung by the secession or- dinances of the Southern States, and the final issue of arms at Sumter, cast mere State questions into the shade. State legislators found themselves dealing with national ques- tions. "Has a State a right to secede?" " Can a State be coerced ? " " Shall Ohio be put in a state of preparation for war? " were some of the questions which absorbed the attention both of the Legislature and the public mind. It was a time when men's hearts were failing them for feai- ; prior to April 13, 1861, even the Northern mind had not got its set ; but Mr. Garfield's course was straightforward and manly throughout. He was willing to yield anything that could be yielded in safety and honor to allay South- ern feeling ; but he was not willing to yield the Union as a fact, or to pare away the in- tegrity and the supremacy of the national authority. He thought the spring of 1861 an inopportune time to adopt the Oorwin amendment to the Constitution, forbidding Congress ever to legislate upon slavery in the States. He opposed the meeting of the famous Washington Peace Commissioners until after President Lincoln should be in- augurated. To those who denied the right of the national Government to coerce a se- ceded State, he put the question: "Would you give up the forts and other government property in those States, or would you fight to maintain your right to them?" As a matter of course, he ardently supported the " Million Bill," and the other measures taken to prepare Ohio for the great contest of arms. All of General Garfield's well-known characteristics as a legislator appeared in the Ohio Senate in 1860 and 1861. His effective- ness as a debater, and his thoroughness as a committee man, have already been mention- ed. Withal, he was the student of law, poh- tics, and government then that he is now. He spent most of his evenings to a late hour in the library, investigating questions that were before the Senate or the country, or, as was often the case, other questions in which he had become interested. He accumulated great bundles of notes and memoranda, many of which probably remain unused to this day. As chairman of committees, or as a special committee of one, he wrote and laid before the Senate several valuable reports. His re- port on the " Bill to define and punish trea- son against the State of Ohio " won for its author this compliment from Mr. Justice Swayne : " I should be very willing to put my name to that report." An able report on weights and measures is also deserving of mention. This sketch of Garfield in the Ohio Sen- ate must suiHce. Any man can see that in this young Senator we have the future Con- gressman in brilliant promise. Before taking the next step in his life, I should remark that, the second winter at Columbus, he was examined for admission to the bar, and was admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 17 CHAPTER V. GARFIB^D THK 80LDIEE. " I found him to be a competent and efficient officer, an earnest and devoted patriot, and a man of the highest honor." — General Boaecrans. TaB part that Mr. Garfield took in pre- paring Ohio for the war has been shown in the sketch of his career in the Senate. From the first, he was ready to adjourn any old plans of his own, and to enter the army in person, provided his services should be need- ed. He so informed the authorities at Co- lumbus. Eeturning from the Senate to Hi- ram, he aided in bringing to a successful close the school work of the year 1860-'61. The first battle of Bull Run, fought July 21, 1861, destroyed the confidence of the last man in Mr. Seward's "ninety-days" prophe- cies, and revealed to the most skeptical that the rebellion could not be put down with- out a war. July 27th, Governor Dennison addressed the Senator at Hiram, stating that he was organizing some new regiments, and asking Garfield if he would take a lieuten- ant-colonelcy in one of them. Returning home, August Yth, from a few weeks' ab- sence, he found the Governor's letter await- ing him. He immediately replied that he would take the place, if still open, provided the regiment was to have a "West Point colo- nel. Receiving a favorable reply, he went to Columbus the 15th, and on the 16th was mustered into the service as a lieutenant- colonel. The same day he reported at Camp Chase to General Hill for such duty as might be assigned, " in connection with a tempo- rary command, for purposes of instruction in camp duty and discipline." This was the beginning of a military career of two years and three months; a career, it is believed, that was as able and distinguished as that of any volunteer officer in the war. After a few weeks of duty at Camp Chase, he was detailed to recruit the Forty- second regiment of Ohio volunteers. Suc- ceeding in this service, he was commissioned Colonel of the regiment, September 5th. This promotion was wholly unsolicited. His qual- ifications for the office were Ms great and versatile abilities, and such knowledge of military science and art as he had gained by assiduous study in the months that had elapsed since the conflict of arms began. He now set to woi-k to prepare his command for active duty. On December 14th, the regiment was ordered by General Bnell, com- manding the Department of the Ohio, to proceed with dispatch to Prestonburg, Ken- tucky. At nine o'clock p. m. the next day it was in Cincinnati. Here, in obedi- ance to farther orders, Colonel Garfield sent the regiment by boat to the mouth of the Big Sandy River, and then took the cars to Louisville to report to General Buell. To quote from Captain F. H. Mason's history of the Forty-second Regiment : * On the evening of the 16th, Colonel Garfield reached Louisville and sought General Buell at his headquarters. He found a cold, silent, aus- tere man, who asked a few direct questions, re- vealed nothing, and eyed the new comer with a curious, searching expression, as though trying to look into the untried Colonel, and divine whether he would succeed or fail. Taking a map, Gen- eral Buell pointed out the position of Marshall's forces in eastern Kentucky, marked the location in which the Union troops in that district were posted, explained the nature of the country and its supplies, and then dismissed his visitor with the remark : " If you were in command of the sub-department of eastern Kentucky, what would you do ? Come here to-morrow morning at nine o'clock and tell me." Colonel Garfield returned to his hotel, procured a map of Kentucky, the last census report, paper, pen, and ink, and sat down to his task. He studied the roads, re- sources, and population of every county in east- ern Kentucky. At daylight he was still at work, but at nine o'clock he was at General Buell's headquarters with a sketch of his plans. Buell read it and made it the basis of his Special Order No. 36, Army of the Ohio, December 11, 1861, by which the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, was organized. The forces constituting the brigade were four regiments of infantry, and several squadrons of cavalry. Order No. 35 directed the Colonel commanding the brigade to pro- ceed to the valley of the Big Sandy River, and to repel the rebels then invading the valley in force under the command of Gen- eral Humphrey Marshall. The duty assigned ♦ Page 12. 18 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. was difficult and responsible ; and that Gen- eral Buell should assign it to a volunteer officer having no knowledge of war, save what he had gathered in a few weeks' time, may well excite surprise. The explanation is, in part, the scarcity in those days of experienced officers; and, for the rest, the extraordinary confidence in his abilities and character with which General Garfield, all his life, has inspired men with whom he has come into contact. That memorandum sub- mitted at Louisville, the morning of Decem- ber 17th, convinced the cold, silent, austere Buell of Garfield's fitness to command. The history of the Sandy Valley cam- paign can not be given here save in the most general terms. While Garfield's main force moved up the river, one regiment struck across the country from Paris toward Pres- tonburg. Early in January, a junction of the forces was effected high up the valley, and on the 10th they were in front of Mar- shall's entire force, prepared stubbornly to resist their further advance. The battle of Middle Creek followed, in which Marshall, though his forces largely outnumbered Gar- field's, to say nothing of hia defensive po- sition, was defeated. The rebel General abandoned his position, burned his stores and camp furniture, and began a retreat that did not end until he reached Abingdon, Vir- ginia. After this victory, to clear the val- ley of the rebels was an easy task. Compared with the stupendous opera- tions of after days, this campaign seems a trifling affair ; but it was widely heralded at the time, its success gave Union men every- where great cheer, and it proved that there was in the Ohio school-teacher and Senator the making of a soldier. Garfield's success, both in the campaign and in the battle, was due to the audacity of inexperience as well as to his able handling of the forces when once the venture had been made. He said afterward : " It was a very rash and impru- dent afiair on my part. If I had been an officer of more experience, I probably should not have made the attack. As it was, hav- ing gone into the army with the notion that fighting was our business, I didn't know any better." His success makes one wonder what might have happened if the command- ers of the great armies, east and west, in those gloomy winter days of 1861-'63, had shown some of the same rashness and impru- dence ! The battle of Middle Creek starts some curious thoughts, considered from an- other standpoint. A well-known memoran- dum of General McDowell's relates that, at eight o'clock the evening of January 10, 1863, he was closeted with President Lin- coln at the White House. General Franklin, Secretaries Seward and Chase, and the As- sistant Secretary of War were also present. To quote McDowell's memorandum : * The President was greatly disturbed at the state of affairs. Spoke of the exhausted condi- tion of the treasury ; of the loss of public credit ; of the Jacobinism of Congress ; of the delicate condition of our foreign relations ; of the bad news he had received from the West, particularly as contained in a letter from General Halleck on the state of affairs in Missouri ; of the want of cooperation between Generals Halleck and Buell ; but more than all, the sickness of General Mc- Clellan. The President said he was in great dis- tress, and as he had been to General McClellan'a house and the General did not ask to see him, and as he must talk to somebody, he had sent for General Franklin and myself to obtain our opin- ion as to the possibility of soon commencing active operations with the Army of the Potomac. To use his own expression, if something was not soon done, the bottom would be out of tbe whole affair; and if General McClellan did not want to use the army, he would like to borrow it, provided he could see how it could be made to do something. In those days, events that we now deem of slight importance often made an extraordi- nary impression upon men's minds ; and one can not help wondering what the effect on that small circle of men would have been, especially on the President, had the news been flashed to them that an Ohio school- master, with an inferior force, had just de- feated a rebel general, and was at that hour pursuing him in the woods of eastern Ken- tucky I Taken in its connections, the Sandy Val- ley campaign was not of slight importance. Marshall's force was one of the two rebel armies planted on General Buell's left flank to prevent his advancing against Bowling Green. The other was Zollicoffer's force, i * "Ohio In the War," vol. i, p. 6T5. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 19 defeated by General Thomas at Mill Springs. The defeat of two armies not only cleared a large part of the State of the Confederates, but, with the operations of Foote and Grant in another quarter, left Buell free to begin operations in central Kentucky. In fact, the rebels did not wait for Buell's attack, but fell back on Nashville, and then beyond that city. What is more, Middle Greek was the first of the victories that won so much territory from the enemy, and also did so much to tone up the Union mind in the spring of 1862 : Middle Creek, Mill Springs, Fort Henry, Island No. 10, and Memphis. In a warm congratulatory order, General Buell spoke of the Valley campaign as "calling into action the highest qualities of a soldier — fortitude, perseverance, courage." The authorities at Washington made the Colonel who had conducted it a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, dating his commission January 10, 1862. As he had been the youngest man in the Ohio Senate two years before, 80 now he was the youngest General in the army. This work finished. General Garfield was ordered to leave a small force at Piketon, to hold the Sandy Valley, and then to transfer the rest of the command to Louisville. There the Eighteenth Brigade was assigned to the command of General G. W. Morgan, des- tined for service at Cumberland Gap. Its old commander was directed to join General Buell, who, with the Army of the Ohio, was then beyond Nashville, hastening to effect a junction with Grant at Pittsburg Landing before Grant should be struck by the rebel General Johnston. Overtaking the army thirty miles beyond Columbia, he was as- signed to the command of the Twentieth Brigade, then a part of General Wood's di- vision. It has seemed fitting to mark with some detail and distinctness the entry of General Garfield into the army, and his first soldier experience. For the next ten months his services must be summed up in a para- graph. With his command, he reached the field of Shiloh early in the afternoon of the sec- ond day of the battle, and contributed to the final repulse of the enemy. The next day he moved with Sherman to the front, and shared in a sharp engagement with the rear guard of the retreating army. Later, he participated in the operations before Corinth, and his command was among the first to en- ter that town on its evacuation by Beaure- gard. Then he was given the duty of re- building the bridges and reopening the rail- road between Corinth and Decatur. Cross- ing the Tennessee at Decatur, he made his headquarters at Huntsville, Alabama, the rest of the campaign. Here he served on several courts-martial, notably the one that tried General Turchin. By this time it was midsummer, and the intense heat, ma- larial atmosphere, and hard work, together with a tendency to fever and ague, con- tracted on the canal years before, brought on a severe attack of that disease. About the first of August, he went home on sick-leave. At the same time Secretary Stanton, who had a high opinion of him, ordered Garfield to Cumberland Gap to suc- ceed Morgan in that command. He was un- able to leave his bed, and could not go. In obedience to further orders, he reported in person to the Secretary late in September, 1862. October 25th, he was detailed as a member of the Court of Inquiry created to investigate the case of General McDowell. November 8th, he was ordered to report for duty to General Hunter, to take part in a pro- jected expedition to South Carolina. As the second of tliese orders superseded the first, so a third soon superseded the second. No- vember 26th, he was detailed as a member of the General Court-martial for the trial of General Fitz John Porter. On this court he served during its sessions. General Hunter, who was the President of the court, greatly desired that Garfield might be assigned to his command in the South ; but an official order, dated January 14, 1863, sent him to the Army of the Cumberland, then under the command of General Rosecrans. He reached Eosecrans's headquarters, at Murfreesboro, near the end of February, 1863. From this time till the close of his army life, we must proceed more slowly. General Eosecrans had won a brilliant victory at Stone Eiver in the preceding De- cember. His army had suffered so heavily in men and in material that, the battle over, it stood in need of almost complete reor- ganization. When General Garfield arrived 20 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOB THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. at headquarters, the work on hand was the preparation of the army for ofEensive operations. The commanding General of- fered him his choice : to command a brigade or to be Chief of the Staff of the Army. There had been no chief of staff since a can- non-shot carried away the head of Garesoh6, the 30th of December previous. Finally, he decided in favor of the latter, and Eose- crans accordingly issued the appropriate or- der, February 28th. General Garfield im- mediately entered upon his new duties, and, before he left the army in September follow- ing, he had come to have more influence over his commander than any other man in the army. Early in the spring he directed Captain D. G. Swaim, his adjutant, to or- ganize a Bureau of Military Information. "By a system of police and secret reports,'' says Captain Mason, "very fuU and trust- worthy information was obtained of the or- ganization, strength, and position of the enemy's forces." The Captain adds that " this bureau was the most perfect machine of the kind organized during the war.'' General Eosecrans was a man of brilliant mind ; he had also eminent soldier qualities ; but be was sensitive, absorbed in details, given to asperities, and had a fatal faculty for getting into complications with the mili- tary authorities at Washington. His Chief of Staff labored to the utmost, and with some success, to bring about and preserve a better understanding. He saw that the or- ganization of the army was defective ; that two of the corps commanders were wholly unfit for their places ; and he strove without success to have these commanders super- seded by capable men. From January to June the Array of the Cumberland lay at Murfreesboro. The President and "War Sec- retary insisted that it should move. Gen- eral Garfield added his urgency to theirs ; but Eosecrans said he was not ready, and that an offensive movement would be haz- ardous. Unfortunately, most of the lead- ing generals supported him in this opinion ; and when he called on the corps, division, and cavalry generals for their opinion, not one out of the seventeen concurred with Garfield. The information that came to Garfield by way of Swaim's bureau, satis- fied him that the time for a great blow was most opportune. Accordingly, he took the seventeen letters written by the generals, ; collated them, summarized their substance, supplemented the whole by a cogent argu- ment supporting his own opinion, and car- ried the document to the Commanding Gen- eral of the Army. Mr. Whitelaw Eeid, in his " Ohio in the "War," ventures to pronounce this report " the ablest military document submitted by a chief of staff to his superior during the war." * After looking over the whole field of the army's operations, counting the forces of all arms, and describing their equipment, as well as mustering the rebel army and gauging its power, he declares that, leaving behind all the troops that were necessary to hold the works at Murfreesboro, " there will he left 65,137 bayonets and sabers to throw against Bragg's 41,680." He "begs leave also to submit the following considerations,'' which are given as exhibiting the fuUness of his information of the subject in hand, the sweep of bis mind, and the courage of his opinions : t 1. Bragg's army is now weaker than it has been since the battle of Stone Kiver, or is likely to be again for the present, while our army has reached Its maximum strength, and we have no right to expect reenf orcements for several months, if at all. 2. Whatever be the result at Vicksburg, the determination of its fate will ^ve large reen- f orcements to Bragg. J£ Grant is successful, his army will require many weeks to recover from the shock and strain of his late campaign, while Johnston will send back to Bragg a force suf- ficient to insure the safety of Tennessee. If Grant fails, the same result will inevitably fol- low, so far as Bragg's army is concerned. 3. No man can predict with certainty the result of any battle, however great the disparity in numbers. Such results are in the hands of God. But, viewing the question in the light of human calculation, I refuse to entertain a doubt that this army, which in January last defeated Bragg's superior numbers, can overwhelm his present greatly inferior forces. 4. The most unfavorable course for us that Bragg could take would be to fall back without giving us battle ; but this would be very disastrous to him. Besides the loss of materiel of war and the abandonment of the rich and abundant bar- * Tol. i, p. 752. + Ibid., pp. 758-756. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 21 vest now nearly ripe in Middle Tennessee, he would lose heavily by desertion. It is well known that a widespread dissatisfaction exists among his Kentucky and Tennessee troops. They are already deserting in large numbers. A retreat would greatly increase both the desire and the opportunity for desertion, and would very mate- rially reduce his physical and moral strength. While it would lengthen our communications, it would give us possession of McMinnville, and en- able us to threaten Chattanooga and East Ten- nessee ; and it would not be unreasonable to ex- pect an early occupation of the former place, 6. But the chances are more than even that a sudden and rapid movement would compel a gen- eral engagement, and the defeat of Bragg would be in the highest degree disastrous to the rebel- lion. 6. The turbulent aspect of politics in the loy- al States renders a decisive blow against the ene- my at this time of the highest importance to the success of the Government at the polls and in the enforcement of the Conscription act. T. The Government and the War Department believe that this army ought to move upon the enemy. The army desires it, and the country is anxiously hoping for it. 8. Our true objective point is the rebel army, whose last reserves are substantially in the field ; and an effective blow will crush the shell, and soon be followed by the collapse of the rebel government. 9. You have, in my judgment, wisely delayed a general movement hitherto, till your army could be massed and your cavalry could be mounted. Your mobile force can now be con- centrated in twenty-four hours, and your cavalry, if not equal in numerical strength to that of the enemy, is greatly superior in efficiency. For these reasons I believe an immediate advance of all our available forces is advisable, and, under the providence of God, will be successful. This paper was irresistible. General Rose- crans said the army must move, and a few- days later opened the TuUahoma campaign, which Mr. Eeid describes as a campaign* " perfect in its conception, excellent in its general execution, and only hindered from resulting in the complete destruction of the opposing army by the delays which had too long postponed its commencement." It is proper to say that, at the opening of the campaign, the generals were still in- * Ibid., p. T66. credulous ; and that General Crittenden, the morning the advance began, actually rode up to Garfield's tent, as Garfield was putting on his rubber coat preparatory to mounting his horse, and said, in the manner that had marked his father, Senator Crittenden : " It is understood, sir, by the general oflBcers of the army, that this movement is your work. I wish you to understand that it is a rash and fatal movement, for which you will be held responsible." The author of this text-book thought that he noticed a bit of pardonable pride in Garfield when, in giving a history of this campaign in his Hiram library a few weeks later, he said : " I had the satisfaction of hav- ing these generals acknowledge, at the end of the campaign, that they were wrong and that I was right." TuUohama reached. General Kosecrans again delayed, and the old difiiculties with the War Department again sprang up. But the advance on Chattanooga finally began. Sending two or three brigades to occupy the attention of the enemy in front of that town, Eosecrans, with the main body of the army, crossed the Tennessee some distance lower down, and struck the line of Bragg's com- munication with the country in his rear. The rebel General evacuated the town, and marched rapidly up the valley of Chickamau- ga Creek, to prevent his being crushed be- between Rosecrans's army and the river. Through the incompetence of one of the corps commanders, a day or two was lost to the main army, thereby enabling Bragg to escape the immediate blow prepared for him. The Union General now concentrated his forces ; the rebel General gathered in every available reenforoement ; and, on the 19th of September, the great battle of Chickamau- ga began. We are here interested in this two days' confiict only as concerns General Garfield. He performed to the full the duties of his position as Chief of Staff, and much more. It is said that he wrote every general order except one, and that one was the order which, based on false information, clumsily worded, and too literally obeyed, gave the enemy an immediate advantage. A gap was made in the line; Longstreet hurled a division through the opening ; and in one short hour the whole right wing 22 THE REPUBLICAJf TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGJT OF 1880. of the army dissolved into a mob of fugi- tives, bearing the General and his staff with them in their flight toward Chattanooga. To check the retreat was impossible. Believing that defeat had also overtaken the other wing, General Rosecrans pushed on to Chat- tanooga to rally the army at that point. But his Chief of Staff, confident that the left was still holding its ground, sought and obtained permission to ride across the country in quest of General Thomas. The ride was perilous and full of exciting incidents. An orderly was killed by his side ; his horse was hit. He found the "Rook of Ohickamauga" un- moved. He communicated information of what had happened, and then acted under the orders of Thomas the rest of that bloody day. The heroic remnant of the army re- pulsed every attack. As the bafBed enemy fell back at night- fall, in company with General Granger Gar- field supervised the shotting of a battery of six " Napoleons,'' and saw them discharged after the rebels as they plunged into the woods and darkness. "What subsequently befell the army and its General are well- known matters of history. In a few days General Garfield was sent to Washington as bearer of dispatches, and to explain matters to the War Department. In Washington he met Secretary Stanton, who told him that he had been made a Major-General of Vol- unteers, " for gallant and meritorious ser- vices at the battle of Ohickamauga." For reasons soon to appear, December 3, 1863, in the city of Washington, he resigned his commission. The period of his military ser- vice had been two years, three months, and nineteen days. Leave is taken of Garfield the soldier without characterizing his ser- vices further than to repeat, no officer in the volunteer service more distinguished himself in the whole war. The facts as re- lated speak for themselves. We are now to follow him to that theatre of activity where he has performed his most valuable public work. First, however, we must note the causes that led him from the martial to the civic field. In the summer of 1862, a large number of active Republicans in the Nineteenth Ohio Congressional Dis- trict, by a spontaneous impulse, brought General Garfield forward as a candidate for Congress. This movement was in no sense inspired by himself, nor did he give the can- vass personal attention. He was nominated, and, as the district was overwhelmingly Re- publican, he was elected in October by a large majority. His election had no imme- diate effect on the soldier, as we have seen. In fact, more than half of his military life lies on this side of his election to Congress. Be- sides, it is proper to mention some facts con- cerning his leaving the army. The pay of a Major-General was double the salary of a Congressman ; he was poor and needed the money ; his soldier career thus far had been far more successful than he could have hoped; he was young, popular in the army, stood high at Washington, and could confidently look forward to more dis- tinguished service. From this point of view, the change was an act of self-denial. But there was great need of intelligent legislators at Washington, especially on military affairs ; his brother officers told him that he could be more useful to the army in Congress than in the camp ; President Lincoln added his ur- gent persuasion ; besides, he could hardly disappoint those who had elected him. He took leave of his companions in arms with much reluctance. Immediately on resigning his Major-General's commission, he took his seat in the House of Representatives, of which body he has continued a member to this day. , CHAPTER VI. CONGEESSMAN GAEFIELD. " Since the year 1864, you can not think of a question which has been debated in Congress, or discussed before the great tribunal of the American people, in regard to which you will not find, if you wish instruction, tlie argument on one side stated, in almost every instance better than by anybody else, in some speech made in the House of Eepre- sentatives or on the hustings by Mr. Garfield." — Son. G. F. Hoar. To ninety-nine men out of every hundred who served in the Union army, military service was a great surprise. The United States had been a great theatre of civU but not of military activity ; and the idea that they should become soldiers had never oo- GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. oai-red to these men until the call to arms rang in their ears. To them, service In the army, at the very least, meant either a postponement or an entire breaking up of such plans of life as they had formed. General Garfield was one of the ninety-nine. What his plans for the future were in 1860 I do not know, further than I infer them from his antecedents. Probably he would have entered upon a legal, as he had already entered upon a political career. One can not help speculating what his life would have been had he never been a soldier. For my- self, I must hold the opinion that it would not have been greatly different. Probably be would have seen more of the law-office and the court-room than he now has ; but that be would have had a great political career, I can not doubt. The character of his mind, the drift of his ambition, the na- ture of his studies, and the success of his entry into politics in 1856-60 are the pledges of this opinion. I do not mean that he would have consciously sought public pre- ferment. It would have come to him, as in fact it always has come, without his seek- ing. The most that I am willing to allow is, that his military services probably hastened his entry into national politics, and, without his striving to make them so, have been to him a strong element of political power. But, dismissing curious speculations, I am now to follow General Garfield through his national political life. Considering the length of this career, and the great range and value of his civil activities, it must be said that his public services as teacher, and even as soldier, are small in comparison. His great path the last seventeen years wiU now be distinctly marked out. I Thvrty-eigMi Co-ngrm, 1863-^65. When Mr. Garfield entered the House of Representatives, a class of men, most of whom have since disappeared, were in full ascendancy in both parties. The Kepubli- can leaders were men who had borne able and honorable parts in the great debate on the subject of slavery ; of this subject they were masters. But as they had chiefly spent their political activity in attack, in opposi- tion to the forces long in possession of the Government, as a class they were not strong in constructive statesmanship, especially on the great questions that are uppermost to- day. Death has removed many of these il- lustrious men, but others have fallen out of public life because of their non-adaptation to the new era. It was for the great changes that began with the advent of the Eepublican party to power — the war, recon- struction, and the adjustment of the govern- ment to the new order of things grow- ing out of the war — to introduce to the country a new order of public men, viz., men whose political characters were formed, not so much by the slavery debate in the days of opposition, as by the series of tre- mendous events beginning in April, 1861. In the Thirty-eighth Congress the new men began to appear in public affairs. Mr. Gar- field was one of the new men. His political opinions have been largely formed, and his political character matured, in wrestling with the great questions of the last seven- teen years. In all respects he is one of the foremost men, if not the foremost man, of the new generation of statesmen. On Mr. Garfield's entry into the House, the Speaker very naturally and properly put him on the Military Committee, of which Hon. R. C. Schenck was chaii-man. Mr. Garfield was the fourth in order on the Com- mittee, but in ability and usefulness ho ranked next to tlie chairman himself. In December, 1863, the Nation was in the agony of the war. Vicksburg and Gettysburg were indeed behind, but the great operations that were to crush the re- bellion were yet before. Ordinai-ily, the Committee of Ways and Means (especially before the former duties of that Committee were distributed among the Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Banking and Currency Committees) is the most important in the House ; but it was not so in 1863. Then the Military Committee, in importance and conspicuousness, ranked all others, and a place on it was considered desirable by the ablest and most ambitious members. It will be impossible to particularize all of General Garfield's services to the army in committee and on the floor. Any man who will take pains to go through " The Globe," 24 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. from December 5, 1863, to March 4, 1865, will at once assent to the statement that the Army and the "War Department had no more intelligent and zealous co-worker in the House. His name is identified with every important measure. Some . of his most im- portant services must receive the promi- nence here that they have in the history of the country. It was the onerous duty of the Military Committee to originate measures to keep the army fully recruited, as it was of the Ways and Means to provide money, the other sinew of war. Popular as was the war for the Union in the beginning, magnificent as was the patriotism of the American people from first to last, it early became apparent that volunteering alone, even when stimulated by liberal bounties, would not furnish the num- ber of men required to preserve the Union. More stringent measures must be taken. But in a democratic country like the United States, wholly unfamiliar with military con- scription, still more in a country where the States had always been so prominent in the wars that the Nation had been engaged in, the enactment and enforcement of an efli- cient draft law by the national authority was confessedly difficult. The opponents of the war would promptly seize hold of the very attempt at recruiting by the draft as a weapon with which to attack the Adminis- tration ; while all those Union men who were fearful of endangering their own seats in Congress, or of sacrificing popular approval, favored the feeblest policy that they thought would meet the emergency. However, a law for drafting was enacted by Congress, March 3, 1863. Perhaps it was as vigorous a measure as, at the time, the public would ^ support. But before Congress met the next winter, it was clear to the authorities, and to all discerning and impartial men, that it was wholly inadequate to the wants of the Na- tion. In the first place, some dozen classes of exemptions were made ; and, in the second, any drafted man could relieve himself from the service on paying three hundred dollars commutation. The Thirty-eighth Congress, at its first session, had to face the question, "What shall be done to fill up the army? " The first answer was a resolution intro- duced by the Military Committee, Januai-y 6, 1864, proposing to meet the case by the payment of bounties. This was a very pop- ular measure ; popular with the people, with the army, and with Congress ; popular with all these classes for very diSerent though very obvious reasons. The vote stood one hundred and twelve to two. The two " noes " were given by Mr. Garfield and Mr. GrinneU of Iowa. Mr. Garfield stated the reasons which governed him in voting, in this speech : Mr. Speaker : I regret that I was not able to meet with the Military Committee when this reso- lution was under consideration. I did not reach the city until a few hours before the House met this morning ; but if I understand the matter correctly from the public journals, the request of the President and the War Department was to continue the payment of bounties until the 1st of February next ; but the resolution before the House proposes to extend the payment until the 1st of March. And while the President asks us to continue the payment of bounties to veteran volunteers only, the resolution extends it to all volunteers, whether veterans or raw recruits. If the resolution prevails, it seems to me we shall swamp the finances of the Government before the 1st of March arrives. I can not consent to a measure which authorizes the expenditure of so vast a sum as will be expended under this resolu- tion, unless it be shown absolutely indispensable to the work of filling up the army. I am anx- ious that veterans should volunteer, and that lib- eral bounties should be paid to them. But if wo extend the payment to all classes of volunteers for two months to come, I fear we shall swamp the Government. Before I vote for this resolu- tion, I desire to know whether the Government is determined to abandon the draft. If it be its policy to raise an army solely by volunteering and paying bounties, we have one Mne of policy to pursue. If the conscription law is to be any- thing but a dead letter on the statute book, our line of policy is a very diiferent one. I ask the gentleman from Hlinoia to inform me what course is to be adopted. I am sorry to see in this reso- lution the indication of a timid and vacillating course. It is unworthy the dignity of our Gov- ernment and our army to use the conscription act as a scarecrow, aud the bounty system as a bait, to alternately scare and coax men into the army. Let us give liberal bounties to veteran soldiers who may reenlist, and for raw recruits use the draft. This speech and vote exhibited not only great foresight, but also great courage. Mr. GENERAL GAIIFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 25 Garfield stood in opposition to his party, and even to his own Committee. It is re- ported that Secretary Chase, in a private conversation a few days later, told the young legislator that the vote was right, that he was proud of it, but admonished Garfield that it was a risky thing to vote against one's whole party, and was not to be done very often. The logic of events was swift to vindicate both the speech and the vote of January 6th. Mr. Lincoln took the very unusual step of going to the Capitol to confer with a com- mittee. He told the Committee, what he said he did not dare tell the public, that the army then numbered 750,000 men ; that in one hundred days 380,000 would be dis- charged by the expiration of their terms of enlistment ; and he declared that, unless the places of the 880,000 could be filled immedi- ately, not only could the war not be pushed, but Sherman must be recalled from Atlanta and Grant from the Peninsula. He said: " I ask you to give me the power to draft men to fill the ranks." Some of the Repub- lican members remonstrated, and reminded Mr. Lincoln that such a measure would endanger their return to the House, and his own reelection. Eaising his tall figure to its full height, and his great mind to the level of the sublime, the President said : " Gentle- men, it is not necessary that I should be reelected ; but it is necessary that I should put down this rebellion. If you will give me this law, I will put it down before my successor takes his seat." A bill embodying the President's ideas was prepared, and re- ported to the Hoase. The first and most important section was struck out by a vote of one hundred to fifty. After further de- bate, Mr. Garfield moved to strike out the third and fourth sections, saying, as he did so: The bill, as my colleague on the Committee has said, was presented as a whole ; it is a measure that had no value in it, except the last two sec- tions, unless taken as a whole. The heart is cut out of it, and the head cut off, and, with the ex- ception of those two sections, I have not only no desire that it should pass, but I believe the mangled trunk would be a deformity, and would seriously injure the efficiency of the present law. We come before the House to say that the Presi- dent had informed us, what our own examination of the state of the country also led us to believe, that the Government is in want of men, and not of money, to fill the ranks of its army ; that the law we have given to the President and the War Department has in the main failed to secure the requisite reenforcements. It is uo longer a question that we can not retain the commutation clause of the Enrollment act and at the same time fill up the army so as to supply the waste of battle. Gentlemen, this Congress must sooner or later meet the issue face to face, and I believe the time will soon come, if it has not now come, when we must give up the war or give up the commuta- tion. I believe the men and the Congress that shall finally refuse to strike out the commutation clause, but retain it in its full force as it now is, will substantially vote to abandon the war. And I am not ready to believe, I will not believe, that the Thirty-eighth Congress has come to that con- clusion. This was the 21st of June. The measure came up again a few days later. Mr. Gar- field now made one of the strongest and most efiective speeches that he has ever made in Congress. It never appeared in pamphlet form, but it can be found in " The Globe " for June 21, 1864. After briefly reviewing the action of the House, he said : Mr. Speaker : It has never been my policy to conceal a truth merely because it is unpleasant. It may be well to smile in the face of danger, but it is neither well nor wise to let danger approach unchallenged and unannounced. A bravq nation, like a brave man, desires to see and measure the perils which threaten it. It is the right of the American people to know the necessities of the Republic when they are called upon to make sac- rifices for it. It is this lack of confidence in our- selves and the people, this timid waiting for events to control us when they should obey us,* that makes men oscillate between hope and fear ; now in the sunshine of the hill-tops, and now in the gloom and shadows of the valley. To such men the bulletin which heralds success in the army gives exultation and high hope ; the even- ing dispatch announcing some slight disaster to our advancing columns brings gloom and depres- sion. Hope rises and falls by the accidents of war, as the mercury of the thermometer changes by the accidents of heat and cold. Let us rather take for our symbol the sailor's barometer, which faithfully forewarns him of the tempest, and 26 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. gives him unerring promise of serene skies and peaceful seas. He then went on to state the grounds for anxiety and apprehension. He gave a condensed and vivid statement of the efforts and sacrifices made by England in the great wars with Napoleon ; next he spoke of the struggles of the Revolutionary fathers in the war of Independence; he drew a further lesson in courage, thoroughness, and devo- tion from the very rebels who were striving to destroy the Government. He then as- serted the right of the Nation to the money of the citizen: "Coercion accompanies the tax-gatherer at every step." He also assert- ed her right to the citizen's service : " Every nation under heaven claims the right to order its citizens into the ranks as soldiers." This is his stirring peroration : I ask gentlemen who oppose this repeal, why they desire to make it easy for citizens to escape from military duty? Is it a great hardship to serve one's country ? Is it a disgraceful service ? Will you, by your action here, say to the soldiers in the field, "This is a disreputable business; you have been deceived ; you have been caught in the trap, and we will make no law to put any- body else in it " ? Do you thus treat your sol- diers in the field ? They are proud of their vol- untary service, and, if there be one wish of the army paramount to all others, one message more earnest than all the others which they send back to you, it is that you will aid in filling up their battle-thinned ranks by a draft which will com- pel lukewarm citizens who prate against the war to go into the field. They ask that you will not expend large bounties in paying men of third- rate patriotism, while they went with no other bounty than that love of country to which they gave their young lives a free offering, but that you will compel these eleventh-hour men to take ■their chances in the field beside them. Let us grant their request, and, by a steady and persis- tent effort, we shall, in the end, be it near or remote, be it in one year or ten, crown the Na- tion with victory and enduring peace. Largely as the result of this speech, the hill was carried ; with the concurrence of the Senate and the signature of the President it became a law, and the army was soon re- cruited. The " victory and enduring peace " promised by the orator soon followed. As before remarked, the action of Gen- eral Garfield in this matter argues not only foresight but unusual courage. He was at once assailed by some of the popular or- gans. His own district was deeply aroused by his votes and speeches. Sincerely think- ing that the draft law of 1864 was both ar- bitrary, and oppressive, loyal citizens poured in upon him indignant denunciation. His courage stood out all the bolder from the fact that his own renomination and reelec- tion were then pending. Still the majority of his constituents held up his hands; and it was not long until criticism ceased. All men bore testimony to his foresight, and thanked him for the very courage with which he had opposed their wishes. The history of Mr. Garfield's most valu- able service in the Thirty-eighth Congress has now been given at some length. His other labors can be briefly dismissed. His first considerable speech was deliv- ered January 28, 1864, on the seizure and confiscation of the property of rebels. In, this speech, called by Henry "Winter Davis "the speech of the session," he discussed with ability the law-points involved, and poured upon the subject a flood of light de- rived from the political and juridical history of the country. The speech is found in " The Globe," January 28, 1864. It will be remembered that the progress of the war was much embarrassed by com- plications with certain railroads ; notably the road from New York to Philadelphia fur- nished inadequate facilities for transporta- tion between those cities. The executive departments, as well as the traveling public, made sore complaints. The difficulty was aggravated by the narrow policy long ad- hered to by the State of New Jersey. These facts hastened the arrival in national poli- tics of a great question— the relation of the General Government to the interstate rail- roads. March 24 and 31, 1864, the House having under consideration the bill to de- clare the Earitan and Atlantic Railroad a legal structure for commerce between New York and Philadelphia, Mr. Garfield deliv- ered an able speech entitled "Free Com- merce between the States." It was the first of his speeches to appear in pamphlet. January 13, 1865, in reply to Hon. G. H. Pendleton, of his own State, he made a GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 27 strong speech on the Conatitutional Amend- ment to abolish slavery. Considerable ex- tracts from this speech will appear under the proper head. February 17, 1864, there came np in the House a resolution to thank Major-General Thomas and the officers and men ■who fought under him in the great battle of Ohickamanga. On an amendment of his own to insert the name of Major- General Kosecrans before the name of Thomas, he made a brilliant eulogy on his old commander of the Army of the Cumber- land. It was in this Congress, too, that he delivered his famous invective on Mr. Long, a Representative from Ohio. In the session of 1868-'64, charges against the management of the Treasury were afloat in the country. They w^ere iterated and reiterated by the opposition newspapers. Naturally they found expression in the House of Representatives. One charge was, that Secretary Chase was using abandoned plantations in the South so as to obtain means for advancing his own political aims. Another was, that gross frauds were going on in the Printing Bureau of the Treasury. It will be remembered that the party in power had set up this Bureau. Several hun- dred women were employed in the work — the first instance of women in large numbers being admitted to the Government service. This will explain the third charge, which was that "much evil had been produced by the conversion of the Treasury building into a house of orgies and bacchanals." The ani- mus of these attacks on the Treasury was partly a desire to injure Secretary Chase; partly a disposition to embarrass the Gov- ernment ; but principally to advance the in- terests of the engraving and bank-note com- panies. These companies desired to break up the Printing Bureau, and to compel the Treasury to hire the companies to do the work at such prices as they might dictate. That they might be in a better position to negotiate with the Government, all the com- panies had formed a close monopoly, and had actually got control of many of the en- gravers and presses of the Old World. Ac- cordingly, April 80, 1864, Mr. Garfield of- fered a resolution to the effect that a com- mittee of nine be appointed by the Speaker to investigate all these charges, or any other allegations which had been made, or might be made, affecting the integrity of the ad- ministration of the Treasury Department. His motion was carried. In obedience to the custom, he was himself made the chairman of the Committee, some of the ablest mem- bers of the House being associated with him. A most painstaking and exhaustive investi- gation, extending over two months, and reaching to every nook and cranny of the Treasury, was made. June 30, 1864, Mr. Gar- field submitted the majority report. Its vari- ous findings and recommendations can not here be specified. It declared that the Bu- reau had resulted in a great saving of ex- pense to the Government, that it was a great security against fraud, and that its affairs had been administered with marked abihty and integrity. It was a most able and valuable document. It is well worth reading to-day for the information that it furnishes con- cerning the operations of the Treasury, and especially the Printing Bureau. Mr. Garfield's name is prominently con- nected with other public measures in the Thirty-eighth Congress. These must be passed over. At its close he had won a most enviable position in the House, and before a large section of the public. July 4, 1865, General Garfield delivered an oration at Ravenna, Ohio, in which ho took strong ground in favor of negro suffrage. One of his most forcible arguments was that, unless the ballot was given the negroes, since they would henceforth be counted man for man in making up the basis of represen- tation, and not five for three as under the old rule, a state of things very like the old English rotten borough system would exist in the South. This argument was fully il- lustrated by a history of the gross abuses swept away by the English Reform Bill of 1832. One striking sentence from this ora- tion was long used as a motto by a local newspaper : " Sufirage and Safety, like Lib- erty and Union, are one and inseparable." II. Thirty-ninth Congress, 1S6S-67. At the opening of the Thirty-ninth Con- gress, the Speaker asked Mr. Garfield his preference as to the committee to which he should be assigned. He said he did not wish 28 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. to go upon the Military Oommittee again, and that his preference was the Ways and Means. He was accordingly assigned to that committee, the chairman of which was Hon. J. S. Morrill. To some men this may seem a strange request. The Military Oommittee stUl had important duties to perform. The war was indeed over, but the army was to be reorganized. He was thoroughly familiar with the subjects which would come before that committee, and considerations of ease would suggest that he remain where he had been. But he consulted rather his usefulness to the country and the increase of his own knowledge and experience. He saw clearly that a new era was opening in national poli- tics, and he wished to enter it with the first. What this era was in its great features must be stated, since such statement furnishes the proper introduction to the further history of Mr. G-arfield's services. An enormous debt had been contracted by the war ; the credit of the Government in the money markets of the world was low; more than $150,000,000 interest, at high rates, had to be provided for every year ; a vast floating debt had either to be paid or funded; the army had to be paid off, and obligations on the score of bounties and pensions met ; the two systems of taxa- tion, external and internal, which had been created since the war began, although they yielded vast revenues, bore heavily upon the industries of the country, and needed to be thoroughly overhauled and better adjusted to the productive and tax-paying powers of the people. These were the fiscal questions of the new era. Then the close of the war found Southern society in ruins ; the State governments were now to be set up under the general oversight of the national author- ity ; and the white and black races, in their new conditions, as far as possible were to be adjusted to each other. These were recon- struction questions, and, unfortunately, lay almost whoUy in the field of party politics. The questions staring Congress and the coun- try in the face in 1865 were less startling and heroic than those of the war period ; but they were more difficult, and, since the Na- tion exists for peace and not for war, more important. To build up, to restore, to bind together, and to heal what was crushed and broken, especially in the presence of fierce passions, calls for a higher order of ability and nobler character than the simple work of destruction. We can now see why, in December, 1865, Mr. Garfield wished to be assigned to the Oommittee of Ways and Means. As will be fully brought out in the last chapter of this life, he at once entered upon those financial studies that have made him one of the greatest living authorities on American finance. These studies soon be- gan to bear fruit in the House, though the richer harvest came in succeeding Oongresses. His labors in the line of his committee work will first be described. March 16, 1866, he made in tbe House an elaborate speech on " The Public Debt and Specie Payments." This was the first of his great efforts to maintain the public faith, and to turn the prow of the ship toward the shore of solid values. He attempted little beyond making a plain statement of the great financial problem before the country for solution. The bill under consideration related to the two leading points in that problem : 1. " To our indebtedness that shall accrue from time to time in course of the next three years " ; 2. " To our currency and its relation to the standard of value." The bill in effect gave the Secretary of the Treasury power to exchange any description of bonds authorized by the act of March 3, 1865, entitled " An Act to Provide Ways and Means to support the Government," for Treasury notes or other obligations issued nnder any act of Congress, whether bearing interest or not; also power to sell such ■ bonds, either in the United States or else- where, subject, as to amount, rate, and time, to the Secretary's own discretion, the pro- ceeds of such sales to be used for retiring Treasury notes or other obligations issued under any act of Congress. It will be seen that the bill looked to meeting the obliga- tions of the Nation, but especially to a con- traction of the currency. It gave the Secre- tary full power to retire greenbacks at his discretion ; and it was well known that Sec- retary MoCuUooh would use it to that end. Mr. Garfield's speech was an able one, show- ing a mastery of the whole subject. He clearly saw that sooner or later the country must return to specie payments; and this GENEKAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 29 he knew could be reached only by contracting the currency. One of the most valuable and impressive parts of the speech was his statement of the steps by which England re- sumed specie payments after the wars with Napoleon. The bill was lost. Still, out of the discussion came a law that gave the Sec- retary power to meet the public obligations, as well as power to contract the currency at the rate of four million dollars a month. This law, to the enactment of which Mr. Garfield powerfully contributed, was the first of the long series of steps that led to resumption of specie payments, January 1, 1879. Said he, in closing : " Mr. Speaker, I remember that on the monument of Queen Elizabeth, where her glories were recited and her honors summed up, among the last and the highest, recorded as the climax of her honors, was this : that she had restored the money of her kingdom to its just value. And when this House shall have done its work, when it shall have brought back values to the proper stand- ard, it will deserve a monument." One of the most important questions that came before the Thirty-ninth Congress was the revision of the Tariif law of 1861. Space can not be taken to define that law, and the various amendments made to it from time to time ; nor can the history of the legislation of 1866 be followed. Mr. Garfield took a prominent part in the discussion. His prin- cipal speech, the first of his considerable speeches on the Tariff, was made Jaly 10th. It contains the great doctrines that have guided its author in all his utterances on this subject. This is its key-note : I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign products is the best gauge by which to regulate international trade. Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they please. This is my doctrine of Protection. If Congress pursues this line steadily, we shall year by year approach more nearly to the basis of Free Trade, because we shall be more nearly able to compete with other nations on equal terms. I am for Protec- tion that leads to ultimate Free Trade. I am for that Free Trade which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection. Mr. Garfield's comprehensive mind and liberal spirit recoiled from a state of perma- nent protection. Still he believed that pro- tection/or the time was essential to ultimate freedom of trade. Such is his position to- day. Here it may be said that American commerce in 1866 was a house of a thousand gables. The Tariff law of 1861 attempted to furnish each roof, no matter how small, with trough and spouting to carry even the drib- lets of revenue to the great national reservoir at Washington. The system was picturesque and striking, but inconvenient and costly. Mr. Garfield has always favored the removal of much of this complicated machinery. He has held that the system can be greatly sim- plified, and that the importer and traveler can be relieved of much vexation and ex- pense without endangering domestic indus- try or the national revenues. His full views on the Tariff will be presented in his own words in another place. In February, 1866, the National Associ- ation of School Superintendents held its annual meeting in Washington City. One of its labors was to draft a memorial, pray- ing Congress to establish a National Bureau or Department of Education. As Mr. Gar- field had once been an educator, and was still known as an ardent friend of educa- tion, the management of the memorial was intrusted to him. The House referred it to a select committee, of which he was chair- man. This committee reported a "Bill to establish a National Bureau of Education." June 8, 1866, he made an able speech in support of this bill. At first the measure was lost by a decided majority. Subse- quently it was reconsidered and passed. The concurrence of the Senate and the Pres- ident's approval made the bill a law. It was almost wholly owing to him that this important measure was carried. He gave it not only his earnest support in the com- mittee and on the floor, but made an ener- getic private canvass among the members. Since its creation, he has defended the Bureau against all assaults ; and if some of its original powers have since been sheared away, and its efliciency thereby much im- paired, it has not been without his earnest protest. It is proper here to depart from strict 30 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOB THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. chronological order to give an aooount of General Garfield's later labors in the cause of National Education. lie made a short, though forcible speech on "National Aid to Education," February 6, 18T2. Again, Feb- ruary 11, 1879, he discussed elaborately, in a most enlightened and liberal spirit, the " Relation of the National Government to Science." Before the subject is here dis- missed, it should be said, these speeches show their author to be one of the ablest and most zealous friends of education in the country, fully deserving the eulogy of Senator Hoar : " He "was one of the earliest and foremost advocates of building up the educational interests of the South, at the national charge." Before this Congress also came the troublesome reconstruction questions growing out of the war. From the first, Mr. Garfield bore an important part in the debates on this subject. Feb- ruary 1, 1866, the House having under con- sideration the " Bill to enlarge the Pcm'ers of the Freedmen's Bureau," he made a care- fully prepared speech on the "Restoration of the Rebel States." "Remarks" made February 8 and 12, 1867, on the "Bill to Place the Rebel States under Military Con- trol," will be found in "The Globe" for the session. The first angry notes of the conflict with President Johnson, that culminated in the impeachment of 1868, were heard early in the Thirty-ninth Congress. They became more and more angry as time wore on. On all questions at issue between the legisla- tive and the executive authority, Mr. Gar- field stood resolutely with his party. Nor must it be forgotten that the reor- ganization of the army was going on. His transferral from the Military Committee to the "Ways and Means subtracted nothing from his interest in the army. His great fa- miliarity with army matters, as well as his general qualities as a legislator, were of sub- stantial value, both to Congress and to the country, on tliis subject. Before closing the sketch of his services in this Congress, two of his outside labors may be referred to. March 6, 1866, he made the argument on the Milligan and Bowles case, in the Supreme Court, that will be referred to at length in Chapter VII. He had also been retained as coun- sel to defend the will of Alexander Camp- bell, of Bethany, West Virginia, then re- cently deceased. A quarter of a million dollars was involved. Expecting the case to come to trial at an early day, he made a thorough study of the law of wills. In the spring of 1868 he tried the case before ref- erees, in Wellsburg, West Virginia. He man- aged it with great ability, and the referees, finding that Mr. Campbell was of "sound disposing mind and memory " when the will was made, decided that it was vaUd. The close of the session, March 4, 1 867, found Mr. Garfield's health very much im- paired by his onerous duties in the House, by other public and professional duties, and by assiduous private study. He therefore determined to gratify a long-cherished de- sire, and if possible to restore his health, hy a trip to Europe. This trip, lasting four months, is one of the most pleasing and in- teresting episodes of his life. Its history must be left to the biograpliers. SuflSce it to say, he made the most of it. According to his customary habit whenever he has any- thing important to do, he laid out a regular plan of travel, and pursued his observations and other studies in methodical order. He came home just before the first session of the Fortieth Congress, his mind full of new facts, ideas, and impressions, and his health fully recovered. If some reader is wearied by this long recital of political facts, per- haps he can refresh his mind with this report of a sermon delivered in Chester Cathedral by Dr. Neale of Liverpool, Hono- rary Canon of the Cathedral, and reported by General Garfield in a private letter to the author of this Text-Book, dated London, Au- gust 2, 1867 : The text was from Luke : " This do in re- membrance of me." He commenced by saying that the meaning of the Lord's Supper, as dis- cussed by Luther and the Church of Rome, was settled by the Church of England when it became a Protestant Church; protesting, among other things, against the literal interpretation which Rome put upon the " Iwc est corpus mmm" of the Saviour, and claiming it to be a novelty, an inno- vation, a falling away from the ancient faith. For three hundred years this question had been at rest in the Church of England ; but for the last GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. few years there has been a current setting back toward Rome, till at last a bishop, the head of the ancient Diocese of Salisbury, has declared, in his solemn charge to his subordinates, that the Lord's Supper is the real presence, that the wine is a bloody sacrifice, and that all His cflBciating min- isters are sacriQcial priests. He would confront the Bishop of Salisbury with the declaration of his noble predecessor, Bishop Jewell, who discussed this very question three hundred years ago, and told the priests of Rome that, if they would prove that the body of Christ was in a thousand places at the same time, he would turn Papist. The present Bishop ought not to turn till he can give as strong proof. He then considered the Lord's Supper as mean- ing four things : 1. Memembrance of an absent friend. If He is here, why eat in remembrance of Him ? His ab- sence is implied in the text. In another place we are told where His body now is — at the right hand of God ; and He will remain there till all his foes are subdued. The real presence is found in the " Lo ! I am with you always." The be- liever meets the real presence in prayer, not in remembrance. 2. An open profession of faith. " As often as you do this, you do show forth His death." To the early Christian this was a test which in- volved torture, and perhaps death. 3. A pledge and vow of faithful service. For , this reason it came to be called a sacrament. This is not a Biblical term ; it is borrowed from pagan Rome. When the Roman became a sol- dier, ho took what was called a sacramentwn, or oath, to be true to the imperial banner. It is proper to use this pagan custom to illustrate the vow which u, Christian takes, in the ordi- nance of the Lord's Supper, to bo faithful to the Captain of his salvation ; but we have no right to import a heathen word into our theology, and then base theological doctrines on secondary meanings of that word. It is incumbent on the ritualists to show how the word sacramentum came to mean an outward sign of an inward spiritual operation. By this abuse of the word they have come to use such jargon as this : '' A thing may be sacramentally but not literally true." 4. A personaUy appropriating enjoyment of Christ himself io one who rises to the full height of this great theme— the grace, power, and merit of the incarnation in the communion. But the Lord's Supper transforms neither the bread nor the eater. Whatever he is to it, it is to him. To some, the Supper is only a remembrance; to others it is both remembrance' and communion. 3 It should be remembrance of, profession of, pledge to, and communion with Christ himself. In conclusion. Dr. Neale called upon all Chris- tians to rally to the defense of their ancient faith, and, finally, called upon all Englishmen, if they did not care for their religion, to rally against the new heresy if they would save their civil liberties. Protestantism had saved England from the fate of Spain hitherto ; if we would not now fall as Spain fell, we must demand of the House of Lords, who w«re now considering this great ques- tion, to maintain the ancient faith of Protestant England. III. Fortieth Congress, ISei-'BO. How greatly Mr. Garfield's prominence in the House of Bepresentatives had grown since he entered it four years before, is shown by the indexes of " The Globe " for the ses- sions of '68-'64 and '67 '68. In the first, the references to him fill half a column; in the second, three full columns. However, this greater number of references is partly ex- plained by the mass of minute details with which his committee was overwhelmed. Manifestly, it is impossible even to glance at the great majority of these references. All that can or need be done is, first, to say that he was active on all questions of prime im- portance ; and, second, to follow four or five of the principal lines of his activity. The zeal for specie resumption that was so general at the close of the war had now, in great degree, subsided. The original " Ohio idea," which was to pay the bonds in green- backs, had not only been promulgated by Mr. Pendleton, but it had been received with marked favor as well in other States as in Ohio. Even the Ohio Republican platform of 1867 showed a decided leaning toward the new heresy. After his return from Europe, but before the beginning of the session, Mr. Garfield was invited to make a political speech in Jefferson, Ohio. So strong were the tides running against resumption, that some of his friends, who were also resump- tionists, cautioned him not to touch the finances in the existing state of public feel- ing. Disregarding their counsel, he stated his convictions as strongly as ever, declaring that before the nomination for Representa- tive in the District should occur, he wished it to be fully understood what his position was. 32 THE EBPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. Inflation was now rampant. The country was getting crazier in speculation every day, and the soil was being prepared for that rank crop of economical and financial schemes that sprung up with such luxuriance a few years later. In the House, as on the plat- form, Mr. Garfield stood fast to the resump- tion colors. His strenuous opposition to the popular tendencies, together with the neces- sity of wholly reorganizing the pommittees, probably explain why, in opposition to his wishes, he was not again put on the Com- mittee of Ways and Means, but was made chairman of the Committee on Military Af- fairs. Disappointed as he was at the turn afl^airs had taken, he was not the man to neglect his public duties because they were not all to his liking. Three years had now passed since the close of the war. Reconstruction was in rapid process of accomplishment. The army was no longer needed in as large force as before in the South ; the semi-military peri- od was soon to give way to the civil period ; and the army could be considerably reduced. Besides, it stood in need of pretty thorough reorganization. A vast avalanche of details was precipitated on the Committee ; ques- tions of bounties, of rank, of the staff, of the line, of pay, of claims, of rules and disci- pline, and of what not, had to be handled. Such matters gave small scope for that sort of activity which attracts general attention or impresses men's imaginations; but they gave unlimited opportunity for hard work and for wisdom. As Chaii'man of the Com- mitte, Mr. Garfield conducted a searching investigation into all the affairs of the army. Many of the most able, most experienced, and most prominent ofiicers in the service were called to give expert testimony con- cerning the' various subjects investigated. This testimony was submitted to the House, accompanied by an analysis and summing up from the pen of the Chairman. The intelli- gence that Mr. Garfield brought to the con- sideration of army affairs, and his apprecia- tion of the character and services of educated soldiers, as well as his own record as an able ofiicer of volunteers, commended him to the confidence of what may be called army circles. From that day the officers of all grades, especially the abler and better edu- cated, have felt that the interests of the army would not be sacrificed to popular clamor or to demagogy without his strenuous oppo- sition. January 17, 1868, he contributed to the long reconstruction debate a speech en- titled, "Reconstruction and the Constitu- tional Power of Congress to Control the Army" ("Globe" for the session '67-68). Read at this distance, the most vigorous para- graph in this speech is the following, which is all the more interesting reading now, be- cause the Major-General denounced is the opposition candidate for the Presidency : Mr. Speaker, I will not repeat the long cata- logue of obstructions which he [the President] has thrown in the way by virtue of the power conferred upon him in the Eeconstruction law of 1867; but I will allude to one example where he has found in a major-general of the army a facile instrument with which more effectually to obstruct the work of reconstruction. This case is all the more pain- ful because an otherwise meritorious officer, who bears honorable scars earned in battle for the Union, has been made a party to the political mad- ness which has so long marked the conduct of the President. This General was sent into the district of Louisiana and Texas with a law of Congress in his hand, a law that commands him to see that justice is administered among the people of that country, and that no pretense of civil authority shall deter him from performing his duty ; and yet we find that ofScer giving lectures in the form of proclamations and orders on what ought to be the relation between the civil and military depart- ments of the Government. We see him issuing a general order in which he declares that the civil should not give way before the military. We hear him declaring that he finds nothing in the laws of Louisiana and Texas to warrent his inter- ference in the civil administration of those States. It is not for him to say which should be first, the civil or the mihtary, in that rebel community. It is not for him to search the defunct laws of Lou- isiana and Texas for a guide to his conduct. It is for him to obey the laws which he was sent there to execute. It is for him to aid in buildin" up civil governments, i'cUher than preparitig him- self to be the Presidential catididate of the party which gave him no sympathy when he was gal- lantly fighting the battles of the country. February 29, 1868, the House being in Committee of the Whole on the Articles of Impeachment, Mr. Garfield made a speech, GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 33 not upon the articles as such, but on the question of impeachment. He had been absent in West Virginia when the House re- solved to impeach President Johnson. He novr explained that his absence had pre- vented his voting for impeachment. (See " Globe," March 2, 1868.) Here it should be stated that, in its earlier stages, he had resisted the impeachment movement on grounds of expediency ; but now the usurpa- tion of power in removing Secretary Stanton from the War Office convinced him that Mr. Johnson was dangerous to the country's peace, and that impeachment was his proper punishment. He opposed the measure to suspend the power of the Secretary of the Treasury to contract the currency at the rate of four million dollars a month. More than this, lie offered the following resolution : Resolved, That the bill forbidding the further contraction of the currency be recommitted to the Committee of Ways and Means, and that they bo instructed to report to the House such legis- lative measures as shall most speedily and safely load to resumption of specie payments. On the 15th of May, 1868, he made an elaborate speech on "The Currency," that stands with the first of his great intellectual eflfbrts. After pointing out the new turn that public questions were tailing, he discussed in order the following topics: "The Hard Times," "From Peace to War," "From War to Peace," 'The Functions of Currency," " Eelation of Currency to Prices," " Increase of the Currency is Taxation," "Its Chief Burden falls on the Laborer," " Depreciated Currency stimulates Speculation and Over- trading," " How much Currency is Needed ? " " Relation of Currency to Financial Panics," " Does the High Rate of Interest indicate an Insufficient Amount of Currency ? " " Scar- city of Currency in the West," ' ' Inconvertible Paper Money has no Fixed Value," "Paper- Money Delusions," " Real Cause of the Re- action," " Our Past Experience," " Colonial Paper," "Continental Currency," "Paper Money of the Revolution," " Provisions of the Constitution in Reference to Paper Money," " Necessity of a Settled Policy," " What has the Fortieth Congi-ess Done in Reference to this Subject?" "The Contraction Policy," " Plan for Restoring the Standard of Values," "English Precedents." It is hardly too much to say that this great speech is at once a sound-money manual and a cyclopEedia — a manual of doctrine and a cyclopaedia of facts. Thinking that if it could be seen in Europe it would strengthen the public credit, the Secretary of the Treasury sent some copies abroad. One of these fell into the hands of John Bright. On Mr. Bright's motion, Garfield was elected an honorary member of the Cobden Club. It has been the fashion, in certain quarters, to assert that this elec- tion meant that General Garfield is a Free Trader ; than which nothing could be more silly, as it was intended only to recognize his great ability and services on financial subjects. Extended quotations wOl be made from this speech in another place. It can be found in full in "The Globe," May 15, 1868. The speech closed with this Ann declaration : For my own part, my course is taken. In view of all the facts of our situation, of all the terrible experiences of the past, both at home and abroad, and of the united testimony of the wisest and bravest statesmen who have lived and labored during the last century, it is my firm conviction that any considerable increase of the volume of our inconvertible paper money will shatter public credit, .will paralyze industry, and oppress the poor ; and that the gradual restora- tion of our ancient standard of value will lead us, by the safest and surest paths, to national pros- perity and the steady pursuits of peace. July 15,' 1868, Mr. Garfield made a speech in reply to Hons. F. A. Pike and B. F. But- ler, on " Taxation of United States Bonds." (See appendix to "Globe," July 15, 1868.) His fundamental propositions were: 1. "That the law creating the bonds specially declares them exempt from all State and municipal taxation." 2. " Even if the law were silent on this subject, the Constitution of the Unit- ed States interferes to prevent it." "In a long line of judicial decisions, extending over nearly half a century," he said, "it has been again and again declared by the Supreme Court that such taxation is forbidden by the Constitution." Again the English prece- dents came within the range of his discussion. Mr. Garfield now began to feel a measure of popular support, that earlier in the ses- sion he had not felt. General Grant had 3i THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. been nominated at Chicago, on a thorough- going anti-repudiation platform, and even the National Democratic Convention had refused to nominate the originator of the " Ohio idea," Mr. G. H. Pendleton. He had never distrusted the people if they could be made to understand the issue. His growing confidence in the public intelligence and honesty finds a voice in the close of this speech, thus: Mr. Speaker, I desire to say, in conclusion, that in my opinion all these efforts to pursue a doubt- ful and unusual, if not dishonorable policy in reference to our public debt, spring from a lack of faith in the intelligence and conscience of the American people. Hardly an hour passes when Tve do not hear it whispered that some such policy as this must be adopted, or the people will by and by repudiate the debt. For my own part, I do not share that distrust. The people of this country have shown, by the highest proofs human nature can give, that wherever the path of duty and honor may lead, however steep and rug- ged it may be, they are ready to walk in it. They feel the burden of the public debt, but they re- member that it is the price of blood — the precious blood of half a miUion brave men who died to save to us all that makes life desirable or prop- erty secure. I believe they will, after a full hear- ing, discard all methods of paying their debts by sleight-of-hand, or by any scheme which crooked wisdom may devise. If public morality did not protest against any such plan, enlightened public selfishness would refuse its sanction. Let us be true to our trust a few years longer, and the next , generation will be here with its seventy-five mil- lions of population and its sixty billions of wealth. To them the debt that then remains will be a light burden. They will pay the last bond according to the letter and spirit of the con- tract, with the same sense of grateful duty with which they will pay the pensions of the few sur- viving soldiers of the great war for the Union. A curious piece of financial history is found in " The Globe " for July 23, 1868 (pp. 4370-'72). Mr. Garfield asked permis- sion to make a personal explanation of fif- teen minutes. Permission being granted, he sent to the desk, for the clerk to read, some remarks made by Mr. Stevens of Pennsyl- vania a few days before. The pith of these remarks was, that it was the original inten- tion to pay the bonds, not " in coin " but " in money " ; that, rather than go with the Re- publicans if they held to coin payments, Mr. Stevens would vote for the other side, Frank Blair and • all ; and that the coin pay- ment was a "swindle upon the tax-payers of the country." Mr. Garfield went on to say that, at the time of Mr. Stevens making these remarks, he had expressed his surprise, and had referred to the fact that in 1862, in the debate on the hiU authorizing the Five- twenty bonds, Mr. Stevens himself had dis- tinctly declared that these bonds were pay- able in gold, and that such was the unani- mous opinion and intention of Congress at the time. Mr. Garfield next quoted some remarks made by Mr. Stevens, July 22d, In v^hich that gentleman denounced General Garfield and others as having whoUy per- verted his meaning in 1862, and reaffimed that he had always contended for the pay- ment of the bonds " in money," that is, in greenbacks. Mr. Stevens charged "villainy" upon these perverters of his meaning, and warned the people against putting faith in the publications of demagogues! Mr. Gar- field then went on to show by full citations from "The Globe," not only that the ori- ginal intention of Congress was to pay the bonds in coin, but that Mr. Stevens had stated five distinct times that the principal of the bonds was payable in gold. At the close of this explanation, Mr. Stevens said when the proper time came he would show there was not a word of truth in what Mr. Garfield said. The proper time never came. General Garfield's statement is unanswered to this day. No answer could be made. It is hard to account for Mr. Stevens's inconsis- tency on the question of paying the obliga- tions of the Government. His latter-day infatuation for paper money seems to have carried away his memory, and even his ability to read " The Globe " correctly. May 30, 1868, General Garfield delivered a most felicitous oration at Arlington, Vir- ginia, on the occasion of strewing fiowers on the graves of Union soldiers. The per- oration of this oration will enliven what, I fear, is becoming a dry, matter-of-fact nar- rative : What other spot so fitting for their last resting-place as this, under the shadow of the Capitol saved by their valor? Here, where the grim edge of battle Joined; here, where all the GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. hope and fear and agony of their country cen- tered ; here let thom rest, asleep on the nation's heart, entombed in the nation's love ! The view from this spot bears some resem- blance to that which greets the eye at Rome. In eight of the Capitoline Hill, up and across the Tiber, and overlooking the city, is a hill, not rugged nor lofty, but known as the Vatican Mount. At the beginning of the Christian era, an im- perial circus stood on its summit. There gladi- ator slaves died for the sport of Rome, and wild beasts fought with wilder men. In that arena a Galilean fisherman gave up his life, a sacrifice for his faith. No human life was ever so nobly avenged. On that spot was reared the proudest Christian temple ever built by human hands. For its adornment the rich offerings of every clime and kingdom have been contributed. And now, after eighteen centuries, the hearts of two hundred million people turn toward it with rev- erence when they worship God. As the traveler descends the Apennines, he sees the dome of St. Peter's rising above the desolate Campagna and the dead city, long before the seven hills and ruined palaces appear to his view. The fame of the dead fisherman has outlived the glory of the Eternal City. A noble life, crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the earth. Seen from the western slope of our Capitol, in direction, distance, and appearance, this spot is not unlike the Vatican Mount, though the river that flows at our feet is larger than a hundred Tibers. Seven years ago, this was the home of one who lifted his sword against the life of his country, and who became the great Impcrator of the rebellion. The soil beneath our feet was watered by the tears of slaves, in whose hearts the sight of yonder proud Capitol awakened no pride, and inspired no hope. The face of the goddess that crowns it was turned toward the sea, aiid' not toward them. But, thanks be to God, this arena of rebellion and slavery is a scene of violence and crime no longer ! This will be for ever the sacred mountain of our Capitol. Here is our temple; its pave- ment is the sepulchre of heroic hearts ; its dome, the bonding heaven ; its altar candles, the watch- ing stars. Hither our children's children shall come to pay their tribute of grateful homage. For this are we met to-day. • By the happy suggestion of a great society, assemblies like this are gathering at this hour in every State in the Union. Thou- sands of soldiers are to-day turning aside in the | march of life to visit the silent encampments of dead comrades who once fought by their side. From many thousand homes, whose light was put out when a soldier fell, there go forth to-day, to join these solemn processions, loving kindred and friends, from whose hearts the shadow of grief will never be lifted until the light of the eternal world dawns upon them. And here are children", little children, to whom the war left no father but the Father above. By the most sacred right, theirs is the chief place to-day. They come with garlands to crown their victor fathers. I will delay the coronation no longer. IV. Forty-first Oongress, 1869-^71. The streap of Mr. Garfield's activity in the House is widening out into a vast sea. Little more can be done in this life than to follow the main currents. This will be seen when it is stated that his set speeches in the Forty-first Congress would make a vol- ume, not to mention the innumerable short speeches and remarks made in running de- bate. Happily for the historian, his com- mittee work again lies in the stream of his principal activity. He is Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency. But before taking up the financial questions, at- tention must he paid to a most interesting subject lying outside the great current. I mean his attempt to give the United States an improved Census in 1870. January 19, 1869, Mr. Garfield intro- duced a resolution, " That a select com- mittee of seven be appointed to inquire and report to the House what legislation is nec- essary to provide for taking the ninth cen- sus, as provided by the Constitution," said committee to report at any time by bill or otherwise. The resolution was adopted, and its author was made chairman of the Committee. However, it was found impos- sible, at the close of the Fortieth Oongress, to give the subject the attention that it de- served. At the first session of the' Forty- first Oongress, held in the spring of 1869, another Select Census Committee was or- dered. Political and personal considera- tions gave the chairmanship to Mr. Stokes of Tennessee, but with the understanding that Mr. Garfield was to do the work. His economical and financial studies had long be- 36 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. fore led him to a careful studj of statistics. So far was he from heing content merely to use statistics, tliat he studied them as a sci- ence, and was so led to study the Census, which, in the United States, is the great in- strument by which statistics are gathered. He had been deeply impressed by the imper- fection of the Census Reports, and was not long in discovering that the main cause of the imperfection lay in the law itself. It was this conviction that caused him to introduce the resolution of January 19, 1869. He now entered upon a vigorous study of the sub- ject in all its branches. He exhausted the American literature of statistics and cen- suses; then he turned to the lessons that Europe could teach him — England, France, and Belgium. The larger share of the time that he could save from imperative duties, for a full year, were devoted to this study. April 6, 1869, he made an admirable speech (see " Globe " of that date), in which he discussed the value of statistics to the legislator, touched upon the history of the science, pointed out some of the defects of the old law of 1840, and suggested some of the remedies. Two of his paragraphs may be fitly quoted in this place : This 13 the age of statistics, Mr. Speaker. The word " statistics " itself did not exist nntil 1'749, whence we date the beginning of a new science on which modern legislation must be based, in order to be permanent. The treatise of Achenwall, the German philosopher who orig- inated the word, laid the foundation of many of the greatest reforms in modem legislation. Sta- tistics are State facts, facts for the consideration of statesmen, such as they may not neglect with safety. It has been truly said that " statistics are history in repose ; history is statistics in mo- tion." If we neglect the one, we shall deserve to be neglected by the other. The legislator with- out statistics is like the mariner at sea without the compass. Nothing can safely be committed to his guidance. A question of fearful importance, the well-being of this Republic, has agitated this House for many weeks. It is this : Are our rich men growing richer, and our poor growing poorer ? And how can this most vital question be settled, except by the most careful and honest examination of the facts ? Who can doubt that the next cen- sus will reveal to us more important truths con- cerning the situation of our people than any cen- sus ever taken by any nation ? By what stand- ard could we measure the value of a complete, perfect record of the condition of the people of this country, and such facts as should exhibit their burdens and their strength ? Who doubts that it would be a document of inestimable value to the legislator and the Nation ? How to achieve it, how to accomplish it, is the great question. We are near the end of a decade that has been full of earthquakes, and amid the tumult we have lost our reckoning. Wc do not yet comprehend the stupendous changes through which we have passed, nor can we until the whole field is resur- veyed. If a thousand volcanoes had been burst- ing beneath the ocean, the mariner would need new charts before he could safely sail the seas again. Wc are soon to set out on our next de- cade with a thousand new elements thrown in upon us by the war. The way is trackless. Who shall pilot us ? The war repealed a part of our venerable census law. One schedule was devoted to slaves. Thank God ! it is useless now. Old things have passed away, and a multitude of new things are to be here recorded ; and not only the things to be taken, but the manner of taking them, requires a thorough remodeling at our hands. If this Congress does not worthily meet the demands of this great occasion, every member must bear no small share of the odium that justly attaches to men who fail to discharge duties of momentous importance, which once neglected can never be performed. By the opening of Congress in December, 1869, the Select Committee had sat forty days, hearing the testimony of experts, dis- cussing the Census in all its bearings, and maturing a Census bill. When this bill was introduced the House gave it prompt and thorough attention. Mr. Garfield made an elaborate speech, December 16th, in which be went over all the main points. The bill passed the House, but, unfortunately, was lost in the Senate, owing more to the person- al antagonisms of Senators than to any other cause. The loss of the bill was very greatly regretted by the most enlightened politicians and citizens, and by none more keenly than by students of social science. So the Ninth Census had to be taken under the old law, with some slight modifications. While the Census of 1870 Is superior to all preceding ones, mainly owing to a better superintend- ence, it is far from being what the Garfield bill would have given us. Still, these labors were not wholly lost to the country. Mr. Garfield GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 37 introduced the old measure, with such modifi- cations as fuller experience suggested, into the Forty-sixth Congress. It was referred to the Select Committee on Census, of which Hon. S. 8. Cox was chairman. This gentle- man reported from the committee a new bill, the same in all its main features as the Gar- field bill, and this became the law under which the Census of 1880 is now being taken. In the mean time the currency conflict was going on with increased violence. The Presidential campaign of 18G8 gave finan- cial heresies no permanent check. But in the midst of the storm a step forward was taken, the history of which must be here given both on account of its importance and on account of Mr. Garfield's instrumentality in bringing it about. December 14, 1868, he introduced into the House a bill to legalize gold contracts. This bill became part of a more comprehen- sive measure, viz., Mr. Schenck's bill of January 20, 1869, "To Strengthen the pub- lic Credit, and Relating to Gold Contracts." This bill, variously amended, passed both Houses at the close of the session ; but the President gave it a pocket veto. March 12, 1869, at the first session of the Forty-first Congress, it was reintroduced into the House. It promptly passed both branches of Con- gress, and was the first Act approved by President Grant. It may be fitly transcribed here : Be it enacted by tlie Sehate and House of Rep- resentatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That, in order to remove any doubt as to the purpose of the Government to discharge all just obligations to the public credi- tors, and to settle conflicting questions and inter- pretations of the laws by virtue of which such obligations have been contracted, it is hereby provided and declared that the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the payment in coin or its equivalent of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known as United States notes, and of all the interest-bear- ing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue of any such obligation has expressly provided that the same may be paid in lawful money or other cur- rency than gold and silver. But none of said in- terest-bearing obligations not already due shall be redeemed or paid before maturity, unless at such time United States notes shall be convert- ible into coin at the option of the holder, or un- less at such time bonds of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be sold at par in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin. Approved March IS, 1869. This law may be called the great legal bulwark of the public credit from 1869 to 1879. Attempts were made to repeal it, but in vain. It was a plain declaration that the obligations of the Government were to be paid in coin; and henceforth there could be no question that the nation was pledged to coin payments. Paper-money men de- nounced the act and its authors savagely ; some declared that, if carried out, it would cost the country a thousand million dollars. It was said to be a gigantic swindle. But as it gave a new point of departure for finan- cial operations, as well as legislation, men came to acquiesce in it as a thing accom- plished; and, in the subsequent financial storms that swept the country, thousands of men, who had been in doubt whether the original acts authorizing the bonds and greenbacks required coin redemption, an- chored securely to the great statute " to strengthen the public credit." Mr. Garfield's short though vigorous speech on the bill will be found in the appropriate place, de- livered March 3, 1869. (See "Globe" of that date.) A second important step toward resump- tion and sound money was taken by the Forty-first Congress, and under Mr. Garfield's lead. The cry was coming up from all quar- ters that the currency was insufficient to meet the wants of business. It was particularly loud from the Southern and "Western States. Led partly by a sense of justice and partly by political prescience, he drew up, and in- troduced from his Committee, " A Bill to in- crease Banking Facilities, and for other Pui'- poses." The national banks were prepon- deratingly in the older States. Not seeing that this was mainly owing to the fact that these States owned the most of the banking capital of the country, "Western and South- ern men denounced tlie geographical distri- 38 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. bution of banks as unjust, and as working to tbeir disadvantage. As no more banks could be organized under the law of 1864, which limited the total capital to $300,000,- 000, they clamored for unrestricted bank- ing. Mr. Garfield saw that, if the Western States actually had more capital to embark in banking, the existing distribution was un- fair ; and he also saw that if, as he believed, they had no such capital, the opening to them of the opportunity would reduce the cry for more banks to a practical absurdity. His bill as finally passed is called "An Act to provide for the Redemption of the Three per cent. Temporary Loan Certificates, and for an Increase of National Bank Notes." It provided that $54,000,000 in national notes might be issued to banking associa- tions, in addition to the 1300,000,000 already authorized, the same to be given to banks organized, or to be organized, in those States and Territories having less than their pro- portion under the existing apportionment. The Secretary of the Treasury, at the close of each month, was to redeem and cancel an amount of the three per cent, certificates, not less than the total of notes so issued to the banks. It was also provided that the Sec- retary, under certain circumstances, should withdraw $25,000,000 of circulation from cer- tain of the existing banks, and apportion the same among the States and Territories hav- ing less than their fair proportion. These were the great features of the law ; the minor ones may be omitted. Mr. Garfield made an able exposition of his scheme, in a speech delivered in the House, June V, 1870, entitled " Currency and the Banks." He first presented his leading doctrines of money and currency, and then went on to present his redistributing scheme. The doc- trinal part of this speech he has never sur- passed ; and, if space permitted, the whole of it would be reproduced in its appropri- ate place in this book. "While the bill was pending, as he said, the critics on one side declared that it was a severe contraction measure ; on the other, they as stoutly as- serted that it would result in inflation. He denied both assertions, holding that it meant neither contraction nor inflation. In the end, it appeared that the complaining States had little or no capital to put into banks. They did not come forward and claim the new facilities offered them. Practically, the matter stood where it had stood all along. Still the enactment of this law was a substan- tial benefit to the country. For years after- ward, when the soft-money men called loud- ly for more money, the most telling reply to them w as : " Why did not the South and West accept what was held out to them in the Act of July 13, 1870 ? " There was no answer ; the law was a reductio ad absurdnm of the inflation doctrine. June 15, 1870, Mr. Garfield made a sec- ond speech in favor of his bill. In those days our currency was often eulogized be- cause it was non-exportable ; it would not go abroad, it was said, but staid at home! To some minds this was a very taking fal- lacy. Some one was so rash as to state it on the floor of the House. Mr. Garfield ex- posed the sophism in a bit of humor that should not be lost: It is reported of an Englishman who was wrecked on a strange shore that, wandering along the coast, he came to u gallows with a victim hanging upon it, and that he fell down on his knees and thanked God that he at last beheld a sign of civilization. But this is the first time I ever heard a financial philosopher express his gi-atitude that we have a currency of such bad repute that other nations will not receive it ; he is thankful that it is not exportable. We have a great many commodities that are in such a con- dition that they are not exportable. Moldy flour, rusty wheat, rancid butter, damaged cotton, addled eggs, and spoiled goods generally arc not export- able. But it never occurred to me to be thankful for this putrescence. It is related in a quaint German book of humor that the inhabitants of Schildeberg, finding that other towns, with more public spirit than their own, had erected gibbets within their precincts, resolved that the town of Schildeberg should also have a gallows ; and one patriotic member of the town council offered a resolution that the benefits of this gallows should be reserved exclusively for the inhabitants of Schildeberg ! But little more can be done than to cata- logue the other speeches that Mr. Gai-fleld made in this Congress. March 14, 1870, he made a speech on " Public Expenditures and Civil Service." That part of this speech re- lating to the second topic will be found in GENERAL GAKFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 39 another place. April Ist, the same year, he made an elaborate speech on the Tariff. Fehruary 20, 1871, he ably discussed the McGarrahan Claim. This was one of the many fraudulent claims to land in California, resting on pretended Mexican titles. His dis- cussion began with an examination of the Mexican law of titles, and closely followed the "claim" through the United States Courts, and tlirough its successive appearances in the Land OfiSce and in Congress. It closed with declaring the claim the " greatest fraud ever recorded in the wildest romance of rascality." Toward the close of this Con- gress there came up a constitutional question, both curious and important. The Senate had originated a bill to reduce the income tax. The House resented tliis as an infringe- ment of its rights to originate "all bills for raising revenue." Senators held that to re- duce a tax was, in no sense, a measure for " raising revenue." Eepresentatives insisted that this clause ot the Constitution was in- tended to cover absolutely and exclusively the imposition, regulation, increase, diminu- tion, or repeal of taxes. Not even a synopsis of Mr. Garfield's masterly argument, delivered March 3, 1871, can be given. He stoutly maintained the claims of the House. He followed the subject through the constitu- tional history of both England and the United States. So thorough and convincing is this speech, that it has come to be an authority on its subject in both houses of Congress. December 1.3, 1869, the House instruct- ed the Committee on Banking and Currency "to investigate the causes that led to the unusual and extraordinary iluctuations of gold in the city of New York from the 21st to the 27th of September, 1869." This reso- lution led to the "Gold Panic" Report of March 1st following. From the very nature of the case, this investigation was most dif- ficult and most embarrassing : difficult from the very nature of the operations to be investigated; embarrassing because people in high station were said to be implicated. Reckless gold speculators, and equally reck- less Democratic politicians, boldly charged that the President and his family were par- ties to the conspiracy. The good name of the Republic required that the President should be convicted or vindicated ; while the security of honest business demanded that the light of day should be let into the oper- ations in gold which culminated in "Black Friday." As Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Garfield found his abilities taxed to the utmost in getting at the truth. Witnesses were examined both in New York and in Washington. At the end a very able report was presented, the findings of which can not be stated here further than to say that the White House was fully exonerated. Leave is taken of the Forty-first Congress with saying, that in it General Garfield made as many great speeches as in any other in which he ever sat. His activity grew out of the number and character of important ques- tions that came before Congress. I know of nothing that gives a stronger conviction ot his great abilities than these speeches, espe- cially when their dates are considered. At the second session of this Congress, between December 19th and June 15th following, only six months, he made the following speeches: "Ninth Census," " Public Expen- ditures and the Civil Service," " The Tariff," " Currency and the Banks," " Debate on the Currency Bill " ; also the " Gold Panic " Re- port. Still the measure of his activity is not complete until we take into account the committee work and the short speeches, of which there are scores, that never found their way into pamphlet editions. The writer knows not where to find in the legislative history of our country anything that sur- passes this exhibition of mental power. Forty-aesond and Forty-third Congresses — General Garfield has never rendered the House of Representatives, or the public, more laborious and valuable services than as Chairman of the Committee on Appro- priations. Other services may have been more brilliant and striking; none sui-pass these in patient labor or in substantial taluo. In 1871 this Committee, though not standing first on the list of committees, was really the most important in the House. Its duties were the most constant and the most ex- hausting. This is shown by the fact that, when General Garfield held the chairman- ship, the Committee had the floor of the 40 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOB THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. House one third of the time. To prepare the twelve great bills, and to carry them in good form through the House, was a Her- culean task. Their simple preparation took so much time that the work of the House was often delayed thereby. Chairman Gar- field organized his Committee at the short session in the spring of 1871. He induced the members to hold a special meeting in the fall before the long session should begin. This was partly to save time, and partly to prepare the way for some valuable reforms that were already shaping themselves in his mind. His special work these four years can be considered under these heads: 1. His studies on the subject of appropriations; 2. His relation to the Committee and to the House; 3. The reforms that he brought about. First, his studies. Once more Mr. Garfield resorted to Europe for her lessons. He studied very carefully both the origin and the growth of the British and French budgets. He looked closely into the annual budgets of both coun- tries in all their stages, and noted their re- lation to the work of government. He also carefully read the Budget speeches of the English Chancellors of the Exchequer for many years. Besides these more general studies, he went through the liistory of our own appropriations from 1789, finding that the method of appropriation had followed the well-known evolutional law. At first all the appropriations made by Congress for a year were put into one bill, to be expended by the departments. Some principal points and items were fixed by law, but large dis- cretionary powers were given to the heads of the departments, not only in reference to the number of subordinates but also in refer- ence to items of expenditure. Next came the breaking up of the one bill into TjUU. The first proper Annual Appropriation bill, in the present sense, came in 1823. Others followed in 1826, '28, and '44. In 1847 the annual appropriations were made in nine separate bills. Others were added from time to time until 1862, when the differentiating process ceased: there were now twelve bills — Pensions, Legislative, Executive and .Judicial, Consular and Diplomatic, Army, Navy, Military Academy, Post-Office, For- tifications, Indian, Sundry Civil, Deficiency, and Elvers and Harbors. At this time the main features of our present method of ap- propriations had appeared. Much, however, then remained to be done in making the appropriations more special, and in taking from executive oflScers their great discre- tionary powers. The control of the public money by Congress needed to be more direct, minute, and rigid. Considerable progress in the right direction was made from 1863 to 1871, especially while Mr. Dawes of Massa- chusetts held the chairmanship of the Com- mittee. But the method was stOl imperfect. In the first place, the appropriations needed to be more minutely analyzed in the bills. Then there were two kinds of appropria- tions — annual and permanent. The first are explained by their designation; the others were often indefinite in amount, as well as permanent in character. Frequently the law appropriated so much money to a given pur- pose as might be necessary. For years the Printing Bureau of the Treasury, sometimes employing twelve hundred men and wo- men, and expending three million dollars, was supported from a permanent appro- priation of one per cent, of all securities issued in the fiscal year. Mr. Garfield found that nearly one half of the expenses of the Government were provided for by these per- manent appropriations. Congress exercising no direct control over them. Besides, un- expended balances of appropriations had been accumulating in the bureaus from the beginning of the Government. Thus, if one hundred thousand dollars was appro- priated for a specific purpose, and any part of it remained unexpended at the end of the fiscal year, this balance stood on the books of the Treasury to the credit of the bureau, and could be used at any time for the purpose named. In 1872, when these balances were covered into the Treasury, they amounted to $174,000,000. Mr. Dawes had led in a movement to cut off this dan- gerous abuse; but the work of reform was still far from complete wlien Mr. Garfield took the chairmanship of the Committee. There were also other abuses, the results of Congressional inaction or vicious action, that called loudly for reform. Still, an adequate idea of the work to be done has GEXERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 41 not been given. Many appropriations, as the result of prodigal legislation in and fol- lowing the war, were excessive. These needed to be reduced, not recklessly by cut- ting oflE this or that with a blow of the knife, but considerately, after comprehensive study of all the fiscal operations of the Govern- ment. What is more, that was the day of " claims," both great and small. Prodigal legislation, the spread of communistic ideas, the losses of the South in the war, had broiight forth an enormous host of men bent on finding their way into the public Treasury. These were to be resisted. Now the reader is in a position to form an ade- quate idea of the work before the Commit- tee, and especially before its Chairman, in 1871. Second, Mr. Garfield's relations to the Committee and to the House. At the meeting of the Committee in the fall of 1871, and subsequently as they ma- tured. Chairman Garfield spread before his associates his ideas on the whole subject. He strove at the outset to call out the best energies of every man. The twelve great bills, as respected their preparation, intro- duction, and management in the House, were apportioned among the nine members, he taking the larger number. The member having a bill in charge was to manage it on the floor, and his fellow members were to rally to his support when support was need- ed. The work of the Committee was both defensive and offensive. As defensive, the men with claims and schemes were to be repelled. Still, as many just claims were presented, much winnowing and sifting was called for. As ofiensive, the Committee had to carry, often in the face of great opposi- tion, their reform measures. Perhaps no committee ever worked together in the ser- vice of the country more effectively and har- moniously. When the appropriations were under consideration, the members of the Committee, and especially the Chairman, were on their feet a large share of the time. Still it was a service that did not give large opportunity for such speeches as " go to the country" and impress the popular imagi- nation; but it consumed endless ability, energy, and patience in the study, in com- mittee, and on the floor in running debate. Here it may be said, the work had been so well done in the vacation of 1871 that six bills were introduced the first day of the session ; and afterward they always came from the Committee with commendable promptitude. Third, the reforms that were effected. The classification of the purposes for which money was to be expended, and the specification of the amounts, were carried out much more minutely than ever before. Numerous and great discretionary powers of executive officers over the expenditures were withdrawn. With the exception of the in- terest on the public debt, which is neces- sarily provided for in the acts authorizing the loans, the expenses of the Smithsonian Institution, which come from the great trust confided by Mr. Smithson to Congress, and others of small importance, the permanent appropriations were wholly cut off. By successive steps, the unexpended balances were all covered into the Treasury ; and it is now the law that any surplus of appropria- tions for any object remaining at the end of the fiscal year, unless it is needed to execute contracts already made, shall at once lapse to the Treasury. Withal, large reductions were made in the expenses of the Govern- ment. Of course this was largely duo to the lengthening distance of the wai\ Many claims growing out of the war had been paid off. Interest had been considerably reduced by the reduction of the public debt, and by lowering rates of interest. Besides, a spirit of economy was returning both to Congress and to the country. But when proper allow- ance is made for all these things, great credit is still due to the Committee on Appropria- tions, and especially to Chairman Garfield, from 1871 to 1875, for the reduction of the national expenditures. It should be added that all these reforms were made in the face of strenuous opposition. Naturally they en- countered the hostility of all lovers of large appropriations and all holders of claims. Executive oflicers, too, fond of having abun- dant funds at their disposal, resisted both the covering of the unexpended balances into the Treasury and the rigid provisions of law by which, at the close of each fiscal year, such balances go at once into the general fund. 42 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. la his study of national expenditures, General Garfield strove to discover the law by which they increase and diminish. He saw that, in time of peace, the best gauge, in a given state of civilization, is population. But it does not cost as much^er capita to govern twenty million people as one luiDion. Hence, while population tends to increase by a geometrical ratio, expenditures should increase only by an arithmetical ratio. The amount^er capita should fall off. European countries, whose population does not expand territorially, but only increases in density, follow this law. So statistics teach. But in a country like ours the territorial element plays an important part. Thus far our boundaries have continued to widen and new States to be organized, both in the old ter- ritory and in the new. He found, there- fore, that two main forces act in the ordi- nary movement of our expenditures: the natural growth of population, and the exten- sion of our territory and increase in the num- ber of our States. He held further that, while the ordinary expenditures would tend to increase from year to year after the Nation had reached the bottom of the inclined plane reaching downward from the war, "they ought not to increase by the same per cent, from year to year ; the rate of increase ought gradually to grow less." He next inquired concerning the effect of wars on national expenditures, finding them a disturbing ele- ment of enormous power.- The whole in- quiry involved a most difficult inductive investigation. The following paragraphs from his speech Of January 23, 1872, " Public Expenditures, their Increase and Diminution," show the conclusions reached : Throughout our history there may bo seen a curious uniformity in the movement of the annual expenditures for the years immediately following a war. AVe have not the data to determine how long it was, after the war of Independence, before the expenditures ceased to decrease, that is, be- fore they reached tlie point where their natural growth more than balanced the tendency to reduc- tion of war expenditure ; but in the years imme- diately following all our subsequent wars, the de- crease has continued for a period almost exactly twice the length of the war itself. After the war of 1812-15, the expenditures continued to decline for eight years, reaching the lowest point in 1823. After the Seminole War, which ran through three years, 1836, 188V, 1838, the new level was not reached until 1844, six years after its close. After the Mexican War, which lasted two years, it took four years (until 1852) to reach the new level of peace. It is, perhaps, unsafe to base our calculations for the future on these analogies ; but the wars already referred to have been of such varied character, and their financial effects have been so uniform, as to make it not unreasonable to expect that a similar result will follow our late war. If so, the decrease of national expenditures, exclusive of the principal and interest of the public debt, will continue until 1875 or 1876. It will be seen by an analysis of our current expenditures that, exclusive of charges on the public debt, nearly $50,000,000 are expendi- tures directly for the late war. Many of these expenditures will not appear again, such as the bounty and back pay of volunteer soldiers, and payment of illegal captures of British vessels and cargoes. We may reasonably expect that the expenditures for pensions will hereafter steadily decrease, unless our legislation should be unwar- rantably extravagant. We may also expect a large decrease in expenditures for the Internal Revenue Department. Possibly we may ulti- mately be able to abolish that department alto- gether. In the accounting and disbursing bureaus of the Treasury Department, we may also expect a further reduction of the force now employed in settling war claims. We can not expect so rapid a reduction of the public debt, and its burden of interest, as we have witnessed for the last three years ; but the reduc- tion will doubtless continue, and the burden of interest will constantly decrease. I know it is not safe to attempt to forecast the future, but I venture to express the belief that, if peace con- tinues, the year 1876 will witness our ordinary expenditures reduced to $136,000,000, and the interest on our public debt to $95,000,000, mak- ing our total expenditures, exclusive of payment on the principal of the public debt, $230,000,- 000. Judging from our own experience, and from that of other nations, wc may not hope, thereafter, to reach a lower figure. In an article contributed to the "North American Eeview " for June, 1879, General Garfield quoted these paragraphs, and then discussed them. Seven years had passed GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 43 since lie had announced his law in 1872. This ia his discussion : Reviewing the subject in the light of subse- quent experience, it will be seen that the progress of reduction of expenditures from the war leyol has been very nearly in accordance with these expectations of seven years ago. The actual expenditures since the war, in- cluding interest on the public debt, as shown by the official record, were as follows : 1872, $277,517,962 67 1873, 290,345,245 33 287,133,873 17 274,623,392 84 258,459,797 33 238,660,008 93 236,964,326 80 1866, $1,297,665,224 41 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1879, 1871, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 620,809,416 99 357,542,675 16 377,340,284 86 322,865,277 80 309,653,560 75 292,177,188 25 Omitting the first of these years, in which the enormous payments to the army swelled the aggregate of expenses to $1,297,000,000, and beginning with the first full year after the termi- nation of the war, it will be soon that the ex- penditures have been reduced, at first very rap- idly, and then more slowly, from $520,000,000 in 1866 to about $237,000,000 in 1878. The estimate quoted above was that in 1876 expenditures would be reduced to $230,000,000, including $96,000,000 for interest on the public debt. In 1877, one year later than the estimated date, the actual reduction had reached $238,000,- 000, including $97,000,000 for interest on the public debt. [He means the expenditures 7iad been reduced to $238,000,000.] It is evident that in 1877 we had very nearly reached the limit of possible reduction, for the aggregate expenditures of 1878 show a reduction below that of the preceding year of less than $2,000,000; and the expenditures, ^ctual and estimated, for the current year ending June 30, 1879, are $240,000,000. It thus appears that 1878 was the turning-point from which, under the influence of the elements of normal growth, we may expect u constant, though it ought to be a small, annual increase of expenditures. Probably this comes as near to scientific statesmanship as anything our country has seen. The speech of 1872, and two others, called " Eevenues and Expenditures," March 5, 1874, and " Appropriations of the Forty- thisd Congress," June 23, 1874, come the nearest of anytliing in the American Con- gress to being what, in England, are called " Budget speeches." April 8, 1874, General Garfield made a speech in the House entitled " Currency and the Public Faith," against Mr. Maynard's bill to provide for free banking. This bill was the wild inflation scheme, the veto of which by President Grant, April 22, 1S74, met with such hearty approval. The President char- acterized the bill as " a departure from true principles of finance, national interest, na- tional obligations to creditors, Congressional promises, party pledges on the part of both political parties, and of personal views and promises made " by himself in all his annual messages and in each of his inaugural ad- dresses. General Garfield bore an important part in the legislation of 1871 to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. That was the day of the Ku-Klux Klan, and large districts of the South were full of violence and outrage. Friends of the Union and of liberty gener- ally felt that whatever the National Govern- ment could do, within the powers of the Con- stitution, to afford protection to Southern Unionists, white and black, should be done. Southern Republicans, especially, demanded that something should be done to prevent the wholesale disfranchisement of citizens in many Southern States. A very stringent measure to reach this end was brought for- ward in Congress. It went so far as to au- thorize the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, to declare martial law, and to enroll -the militia, if he deemed it necessary, to aid the regular army. General Garfield shared fully the opinion of his party, to the effect that all the power of the General Government should be invoked to check vio- lence and to protect citizens. But he re- coiled from what he deemed the extreme features of the pending bill. In a very able speech, entitled " Enforcement of the Four- teenth Amendment," April 4, 1871, he went over the whole ground of the discussion. This is his introduction : Mr. Speaker, I am not able to understand the mental organization of the man who can consider this bill, and the subject of which it treats, as free from very great difficulties. He must be a man of very moderate abilities, whose ignorance is bliss, or a man of transcendent genius, whom no difficulties can daunt and whose clear vision no cloud can obscure. The distinguished gentleman (Mr. Shellabar- 44 THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ger) who introduced the bill from the Committee very appropriately said that it requires us to en- ter upon unexplored territory. That territory, Mr. Speaker, is the neutral ground of all politieal philosophy; the neutral ground for which rival theories have been struggling in all ages. There are two ideas so utterly antagonistic that when, in any nation, either has gained absolute and com- plete possession of that neutral ground, the ruin of that nation has invariably followed. The one is that despotism which swallows and absorbs all power in a single central government ; the other is that extreme doctrine of local sovereignty which makes nationality impossible, and resolves a general government into anarchy and chaos. It makes but little difference as to the final result which of these ideas drives the other from the field ; in either case, ruin follows. The result exhibited by the one was seen in the Amphictyonic and Achaean leagues of ancient Greece, of which Madison, in the twentieth num- ber of " The Federalist," says : The inevitable result of nil was imbecility in the gov- ernment, discord among the provinces, foreign influences and indignities, a precarious existence in peace, and pecu- liar calamities in war. This is a fitting description of all nations who have carried the doctrine of local self-government so far as to exclude the doctrine of nationality. They were not nations, but mere leagues bound together by common consent, ready to fall to pieces at the demand of any refractory member. The opposing idea was never better illustrated than when Louis XIV entered the French Assem- bly, booted and spurred, and girded with the sword of ancestral kings, and said to the ■depu- ties of France, "The State ! I am the State ! " Between these opposite and extreme theories of government, the people have been tossed from century to century ; and it has been only when these ideas have been in reasonable equipoise, when this neutral ground has been held in joint occupancy, and usurped by neither, that popular liberty and national life have been possible. How many striking illustrations of this do we see in the history of France ! The despotism of Louis XIV, followed by a reign of terror, when liberty had run mad and France was a vast scene of blood and ruin ! We see it again in our day. Only a few years ago the theory of personal gov. emment had placed in the hands of Napoleon III absolute and irresponsible power. The com- munes of France were crushed, and local liberty existed no longer. Then followed Sedan and the rest. On the first day of last month, when France was trying to rebuild her ruined government, when the Prussian cannon had scarcely ceased thunder- ing against the walls of Paris, a deputy of France rose in the National Assembly and moved as the first step toward the safety of his country, that a committee of thirty should be chosen, to be called the Committee of Decentralization. But it was too late to save France from the fearful reaction from despotism. The news comes to us, under the sea, that on Saturday last the cry was ringing through France, " Death to the priests, and death to the rich ! " and the swords of the citizens of that new republic are now wet with each other's blood. His range of argument can best be stown by quoting Ms own subheads: "Equipoise of our Government," "Local Self-Grovern- ment," " Protection of Persons and Property before the Late Amendment," "Protection of Persons and Property tmder the Late, Amendment," " First Section of tbe Fonr- teentb Amendment," " The Rejected Amend- ment," "The Amendment as Adopted," " The Rejected and Adopted Amendments Compared," " Powers Granted in the First Section," " Citizenship," " Privileges and Immunities of Citizens of tbe United States," " Guarantees of Life, Liberty, and Proper- ty," "Equal Protection of tbe Laws," "En- forcement of the Amendments," " Bill to Enforce the Fourteenth Amendment," " Martial Law." This speech was very distasteful to the majority of his party in the House, perhaps also in tbe country. Southern Republicans particularly spoke of it with bitterness. For a time it looked as though the party might spl|t on this question. However, Mr. Garfield did not stand alone ; enough of the- leading members of his party stood with him to prevent the passage of the bill. The. inside party history of that day need not be here given. Finally, a compromise was ef- fected ; the features of the bill to which he objected were cut away ; the new bill passed, and became a law April 20, 1871. This speech put its author for a time against his party. It is at once a testimony to his sym- pathy for Southern Unionists, to the moder- ation of his views, to his dislike of military methods in time of peace, and to his wis- dom. Probably few men can be found to- day, who regret that his views prevailed in the contest of 1871. Two other Congres- GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 45 sional speeches of this iieriod are these: " National Aid to Education," February 6, 1872, characterized already, and "Cheap Transportation and Railways," Juno 22, 1874. It was in this period of four years that Mr. Garfield performed a delicate but impor- tant public service in the Far West. Many years before, the Flathead Indians, long residents of the Bitter-Root Valley, Mon- tana, had agreed to leave that vaUey and re- move to the Jocko Reservation on the call of the Government. The time had now- come, in the judgment of the Washington authorities, for tlie removal to be made. But the Flatheads were very unwilling to go. They were deeply attached to their an- cestral home. The matter was still further complicated by the action of many of the settlers who had reached that wild region. These were anxious to bring on a war, both that the Flatheads might be exterminated, and that they might themselves fatten on the spoils of an Indian war. These Indians were a superior tribe; their history is of peculiar interest, but can not be here recited. General Garfield was sent out as a Special Commissioner in the summer of 1873 ; and he conducted the difficult business intrusted to him with such ability, that their removal to the Jocko Reservation was effected with- out bloodshed. It was in the Forty-second Congress that the Credit Mobilier developments, which so alarmed and aroused the country, were made. It was also at the very close of this Congress that the increase of salaries was enacted. The third of the current "charges" against General Garfield — the De Golyer pavement — came later. These matters will receive full consideration further on ; but it will be well here to follow them through the politics of his own district and State. The Western Reserve is Northeast Ohio. It was originally settled by New Englanders, and its population has the thrift, the keen intelligence, the habits of local self-govern- ment, the political instincts, and the morals of New England. The mail-clerks on Mr. Vanderbilt's railroad say that there is no population of equal numbers on the long line reaching from New York to Chicago that writes and reads so many letters, and that receives so much reading matter through the mails. The Nineteenth Ohio Congressional Dis- trict is the eastern part of the Reserve. Probably it has retained the New England blood and traditions in a higher degree of purity than any other part. It early became deeply interested in the Anti-slavery move- ment ; and this greatly quickened the inter- est of the people in pubhc affairs. What is more, this district had formed a set of most valuable traditions of its own. In 1823 it elected Elisha Whittlesey to Congress, and kept him there until 1839, a period of six- teen years. Mr. Whittlesey may not have been a man of extraordinary mental force, but he was a man of clear intelligence, of trained ability, and of varied knowledge. Above all, no man of greater probity ever sat in the halls of legislation. It was his un- sullied honesty, more than his ability, that led President Taylor to appoint him Comp- troller of the Treasury, an office that he held through two Presidential terms. Here, by his unquestioned honesty, he, first of all men as far as I know, won the name of " Watch- dog of the Treasury." On the retirement of Mr. Whittlesey from Congress, Joshua K. Giddings steps upon the scene. He repre- sents the district twenty years and then re- tires. Mr. Giddings was one of the old Anti- slavery leaders ; to borrow a figure from one of Garfield's old speeches, Giddings was al- ways found, like the white plume of Navarre, in the front of the battle. lie was a man of great ability, probity, and honor. The marked political character of the Nineteenth District was formed during the eight terms of Mr. Whittlesey and the ten terms of Mr. Giddings. No district in the Union had a larger Republican majority, and it stood correspondingly high in all the elements of political character. No constituency, in all the particulars named, could appeal more strongly to the ambition of a Republican statesman. Nowhere did the Mobilier and Salary matters make a deeper impression than on this most sensitive and jealous constituency. General Garfield had now represented it in five successive Congresses; and, although not then so well known as he is to-day, his name had crossed the continent to the West 46 THE REPUBLICAN' TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. and the ocean to the East. The District felt very proud of him. He ivas nominated the first time by a small majority; the second time without opposition. Hia third and fourth nominations were -vigorously con- tested, but he triumphed so easily and so decisively that opposition fled the field, and left bim in secure possession. No Kepre- sentative held his constituency with a firmer hand. His tenure promised to be as long as that of Whittlesey or even Giddings. But now all was changed. A Eepublican con- vention, that met at Warren for some local purpose, demanded his resignation. Most men denounced, all regretted, none de- fended what had been done. All that the stanchest friends of General Garfield pre- sumed to do was to say : " Wait until you hear the case; hear what Garfield has to say before you determine that he is a dis- honest man." General Garfield issued his pamphlets, " Review of the Transactions of the Credit Mobilier Company " and " Increase of Sal- aries," from Washington, and then came on to Hiram. These pamphlets, with a person- al speech in Warren somewhat later, consti- tuted his direct defense. When the next campaign opened, he went as usual upon the stump. He discussed the charges against himself when there was occasion to do so. For the rest, he grappled with the questions of the day. He went from county to coun- ty, and almost from village to village. His knowledge was so great, his argumentation so logical, his spirit so earnest, and his hear- ing, both public and private, so manly, that men began to ask : " Can it be true that Mr. Garfield is such a man as they tell us?" Prejudice yielded rapidly in some places, slowly in others, but surely in all. The next campaign it was the same thing over. Garfield had now to be returned himself or leave public life. After a strug- gle that shook the District, he was nomi- nated by a three-fourths vote of the Con- vention. Two years later the resistance was less. By this time he had won back the masses. Only those who had been very violent in opposition now stood out. These had to bo won back, one by one. Two years later there was no opposition whatever ; the District had been recaptured. In 1878 he was reelected by his old-time majority. Opposition was now no more. Men who had been most denunciatory were now warmest in his praise; and it was actually left to the friends who had stood by him through all the storm to supply such criticism as every public man needs to keep bim in proper tone. When the Senatorship question came up in the fall of 1879, the Republicans of the Nineteenth District had but one objection to his election — unwill- ingness to lose him as their Representative. And now that he is on the way to the chau- of Washington, I may say no equal popu- lation between the two oceans will give him a greater majority than this old constituency. Nor should I fail to mark how the victory was won, how the District was re- captured. It was not accomplished by management. James A. Garfield is no "manager." It was not by flattering the people and appealing to popular passions. General Garfield is no demagogue. It was by the earnest, straightforward exposition of solid political doctrine ; it was by the high bearing of the man ; in a word, it was by the. impact of his mental and moral power upon intelligent and honest minds. I may go further, and say, as it was in the District, so it was in the State. In a sense, in 1873, he had come to be the Rep- resentative of Ohio. He passed through a State as well as a district ordeal, and camo out approved. As respects his thorough- going integrity, sincerity, and patriotism in all these transactions, there was now no shadow of doubt left on the minds of the great majority of his immediate constituents and of the good people of the State. The Forty-fourth Congress, 1875-^77. With General Grant's second administra- tion ii great political change set in. In fact, it began before the close of his first admin- istration ; and it would have shown itself with marked power in the canvass of 1872, had it not been for the grotesque appear- ance made by Mr. Greeley's running for Pres- ident on a Democratic ticket. This reaction, only temporarily checked in 1872, set in again with more power than ever ; so that in 1875 the Democrats, the first time since 1861, GENERAL GAEFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 47 gained control of the House of Representa- tives. For twelve years General Garfield had sat in a Republican House; now he saw the Democrats come to the front, while the Republicans marched to the rear. Since that day, in three successive Congresses, he has been in the minority. His new situation suggests some interesting reflections. "When the Republicans took control of the Government in 1861, their leaders, as a class, had had no experience in constructive politics. They were mighty in pulling down ; to build up, they had never tried. The four- teen years following, an enormous amount of constructive work was done, most of it by the new men referred to in a previous section of this chapter. Although the Re- publicans were reduced to a minority in the House, they did not become a proper opposi- tion. Immediately the Democrats addressed themselves to destroying, or attempting to destroy, much that had been done. To some extent they were sobered by the sense of re- sponsibility ; but they so used their new- found power as to alarm the conservative instincts of the country. Democrats love to call themselves Conservatives, and Repub- licans, Radicals; but, in the better sense, the names should be reversed. The elements of violence and recklessness are preponder- atingly in the Democratic party ; while the Republicans have a far larger share of the conservative, intelligence of society. So it happened that the Republicans in the House, and General Garfield with them, have had for their principal work the defense of what had been accomplished, against the men who strove to prevent their accomplishing it in the first place. Another change now took place. The onvs of legislation fell upon the Democrats. All the chairmen of committees were Demo- crats. Consequently, no Republican was so tied to committee-work as he had been be- fore. Especially was this true of those who, like General Garfield, had been heads of important committees. With no disposition to shrink duty, he now felt a sense of free- dom that he had never had before. He could no lohger do the same work for the country that he had done, even if he de- sired to do so. Then the great politico- ' economic questions, to which he had devoted 4 so much time, were beginning to approach settlement. Patting all these things togeth- er, we can understand why it is that more of his work has been political, in the par- ty sense, since 1875 than before. He was placed on the Ways and Means Committee in 1875, to which also he has been assigned in each succeeding Congress. At the close of the war, a large number of the people of the South wore laboring under political disabihties. These were rap- idly removed by Presidential proclamations and by legislation. It is quite the fash- ion to speali of the severity with which the Republicans treated the South. As a mat- ter of fact, no other people, under similar circumstances, were ever treated with so much clemency. Still there were several classes of men to whom the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution applied ; and their disabilities could be removed only by legislation. Legislative clemency was ex- tended to these, as individuals or as classes, from time to time, until, in 1876, only seven hundred and fifty remained. Immediately on getting control of the House, the Demo- crats undertook, by law, to grant amnesty to these persons. They were told by the Republican leadei's in the House that, if they would except the Confederate Presi- dent, the Republicans would not oppose the bill. This they declined, and the debate be- gan. Mr. Blaine made an aggressive speech in opposition to the bill, in which he charged upon Jefferson Davis complicity in the An- dersonville and other similar outrages. Hon. B. H. Hill of Georgia replied in a speech of extraordinary power and bitterness. He made a general attack upon the conduct of the Government, denied that Union soldiers had been starved and murdered in rebel prisons, and asserted that rebel soldiers had been cruelly treated in Northern piisons, ' especially in the one at Elmira, New York. January 12, 1876, Mr. Garfield replied to Mr. Hill in a powerful speech. He began with deprecating the course that the debate had taken. Then he went on to state the real point at issue. Referring to the speak- ers on the Democratic side, he said: "Any one who reads these speeches would not sus- pect that they were debating a simple prop- osition to relieve some citizens of political 48 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. and legal disabilities incurred during the war. For example, had I been a casual reader, and not a listener, I should sa/ that the chief proposition yesterday was an ar- raignment of the administration of this Gov- ernment during the last fifteen years." He also deprecated the manner and spirit in ■which the Amnesty bill was brought for- ward and urged. He spoke in a concilia- tory spirit of the great body of the Southern people, while insisting that they were wrong and the Nation right; they disloyal and the Nation loyal. Next, he declared that, as respected the measure under consideration, all were agreed concerning every human being of the seven hundred and fifty, save one. He then stated the question as to Davis thus : I do not object to Jefferson Davis because he was a conspicuous leader. Whatever we may believe theologically, I do not believe in the doc- trine of vicarious atonement in politics. Jeffer- son Davis was no more guilty for taking up arms than any other man who went into the rebellion with equal intelligence. But this is the ques- tion : In the high court of war did he practice according to its well-known laws — the laws of nations ? Did he, in appealing to war, obey the laws of war ; or did he so violate those laws, that justice to those who suffered at his hands de- mands that he be not permitted to come back to his old privileges in the Union ? That is the whole question; and it is as plain and fair a question for deliberation as was ever debated in this House. He now went on to determine the facts : "Were there atrocities practiced in the South- ern prisons ? And if so, was the Confederate President responsible? He sustained the affirmative of both propositions with an array of overwhelming proofs. The charge of Davis's complicity in the atrocities of Andersonville he supported by a mass of evidence, much of it from rebel sources, that can leave no doubt of the fact upon any candid man capable of weighing testimony. He also disproved in the most convincing •manner the charge of cruelty to Oonfeder- ei-ate soldiers in the Northern prisons. This speech settled the question. Immediately the bill was withdrawn, and has not since been renewed. He closed with the following 'Words; And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began. Toward those men who gallantly fought us on the field I cherish the kindest f eeUng. I feel a sincere reverence for the soldierly qualities they displayed on many a well-fought battle-field. I hope the day will come when their swords and ours will be crossed over many a doorway of our children, who will remember the glory of their ancestors with pride. The high qualities dis-' played in that conflict now belong to the whole Nation. Let them be consecrated to the Union, and its future peace and glory. I shall hail that conse- cration as a pledge and symbol of our perpetuity. But there was a class of men referred to in the speech of the gentleman yesterday for whom I have never yet gained the Christian grace neces- sary to say the same thing. The gentleman said that, amid the thunder of battle, through its dim smoke, and above its roar, they heard a voice from this side saying, " Brothers, come ! " I do not know whether he meant the same thing, but I heard that voice behind us. I heard that voice, and I recollect that I sent one of those who uttered it through our lines — a voice owned by Vallandigham. General Scott said, in the early days of the war, " When this war is over, it will require all the physical and moral power of the Government to restrain the rage and fury of the non-combatants." It was that non-combatant voice behind us that cried " Halloo ! " to the oth- er side ; that always gave cheer and encourage- ment to the enemy in our hour of darkness. I have never forgotten and have not yet forgiven those Democrats of the North whose hearts were not warmed by the grand inspirations of the Union, but who stood back, finding fault, always crying disaster, rejoicing at our defeat, never glorying in our victory. If these are the voices the gentleman heard, I am sorry he is now uni- ted with those who uttered them. But to those most noble men, Democrats and RepubUcans, who together fought for the Union, I commend all the lessons of charity that the wisest and most beneficent men have taught. I join you all in every aspiration that you may express to stay in this Union, to heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to forget the evils and bitterness of the past ; but do not, for the sake of the three hundred thousand heroic men who, maimed and bruised, drag out their, weary lives, many of them carrying in their hearts horrible memories of what they suffered in the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put back into power that man who was the cause of their suffering— that man still unaneled, un- shriven, unforglven, undefended. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 49 Near the close of the long session of the Forty-fourth Congress, Hon. L. Q. 0. Lamar, of Mississippi, made a carefully prepared and very able speech on what may be called gen- eral politics. He began with deploring the evils of party; asserted his belief that the majority of the American people were tired of party prejudices; that they greatly de- sired to put an end to public corruption, and to reform the legislative and adminis- trative evils of the Government. He de- clared that the national administration was very corrupt ; that the civil service was in a deplorable state ; and that the people could not make reforms because the one hundred thousand civil office-holders, and the one hundred thousand expectants of such offices, would not let them. He said the Republi- can party was incapable of making the re- forms ; hence, he inferred that the Demo- crats should once more be brought into power. He said that there was no reason to distrust the South; that the South was prostrate, broken in their industries and in their power, while the North was rich and powerful ; and they had united with the Democratic party because they could go no- where else for help and protection. He strove to allay all apprehensions in case the Democracy once more gained the control of the Government. He gave also a beautiful picture of the peace and security of the col- ored race in the South. Mr. Lamar's pur- pose was to make a speech that should in- fluence public sentiment, especially Northern sentiment, in the pending Presidential elec- tion. He strove to make it as conciliatory as was possible to a man of Jiis temper and history. There was reason to think that he postponed his speech till near the end of the session, so as to prevent an adequate reply. Throughout, the speech was an aggressive and powerful arfaignment of the Eepublican party. Mr. Garfield had received an intima- tion that the speech was coming; so, when Mr. Lamar closed, he rose to reply. Otlier matters occupied the attention of the House the next day. August 4th he made the speech — one of the ablest of its kind that he has ever delivered — " Can the Democratic Party be safely intrusted with the Administration of the Government?" He began by ex- pressing his appreciation of all that portion I of Lamar's speech which had for its object the removel of prejudices and unkindly feel- ings springing out of the war. He then summed up the whole speech in a masterly manner. Next he pointed out that Mr. Lamar's speech was one of attack ; that he had wholly failed, not only to answer, but to ask, the question: "Can the Democratic party be trusted with the Government? " He then addressed himself to this question, and, in a masterly review of our political history, showed that the war was one of ideas — freedom and slavery ; that out of slav- ery grew the narrow States'-rights theory and disunion ; that the KepubUcan party had been the party of liberty and progress, while the Democrats had, at every step, been the party of obstruction and resistance. He produced abundant proofs that the South was full of violence and lawlessness; that the people lately in arms against the Gov- ernment had accepted the results of the war no further than physical force coerced them ; and that even then, if it were in their pow- er, they would attempt a reversal of what had been done. He asserted that the South- ern people had made a great mistake in con- fiding their fortunes to the Democratic party. No summary can do justice to this masterly speech. Like the reply to Mr. Hill, it was widely reproduced in the newspapers, and scattered by the hundred thousand copies in pamphlet editions. December 19th following, at the last ses- sion of this Congress, Mr. Garfield made one of the finest of his commemorative speeches, " John Winthrop and Samuel Adams." This will be more fully referred to in another place. We come now to a series of transac- tions that will long remain the subject of vehement and passionate controversy: the Presidential canvass and election of 1876. Mr. Garfield's part in two of these transac- tions will now be presented in as brief a narrative as is consistent with clearness, and with as little color as possible. The election of 1876 was strenuously contested at every point. Believing that their continuance in power was required by the best interests of the country, the Republicans strove to elect their candi- 50 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. date. Insisting that the same interests de- manded the ejection of the Eepuhlicans from the seats of power and their own en- thronement, the Democrats did their utmost to carry the day. When the smoke of No- vember 7th had lifted from the field, this was the situation that presented itself: There were in all three hundred and sixty-nine electors. Concerning one hundred and eighty-four Tilden electors and one hundred and sixty-six Hayes electors, there was no controversy. Unfortunately the remaining nineteen were in doubt. The Democrats claimed them, and the Republicans claimed them. If these should be counted for Mr. Tilden, that gentleman would be elected by a majority of eighteen ; if for Mr. Hayes, he would be elected by a majority of one. The nineteen electors were those of Sonth Caro- lina, Florida, and Louisiana. The elements of uncertainty out of which the later contro- versy grew were different in the different States. In Florida there were technical ques- tions of form ; in Louisiana fraud and intimi- dation were charged. It is difficult to ima- gine a state of political affairs more likely to engender passion and provoke questionable practices on both sides. For the rest, this narrative will be confined to the State of Louisiana, because Mr. Garfield had nothing to do with either of the other States. Hon. A. S. Hewitt, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, requested a number of prominent Democrats from dif- ferent States to go to New Orleans to wit- ness the counting, by the State Returning Board, of the popular vote for Presidential electors. President Grant also requested a number of prominent Republicans to go for a similar purpose. Mr. Garfield was one of those invited. He had reached Washington from Ohio November 9th, and the Presi- dent's dispatch from Philadelphia reached him the evening of the next day. This is the dispatch : " I would be gratified if you would go to New Orleans, to remain until the vote of Louisiana is counted. Governor Kellogg requests that reliable witnesses be sent to see that the canvass is a fair one. Answer." He replied that he could not go immediately, and that he would see the President on his return to Washington. At the interview held the next evening, the President stated more fuUy the objects to be gained by the embassy. The presence of well-known Northern citizens in New Or- leans might serve to calm the agitation of the public mind. It was desirable to have some just-minded men present at the count- ing of the votes. Besides, Senators and Representatives could discuss the whole sub- ject more intelligently in Congress, where it was sure to come up at the opening of the session, from having familiarized themselves with it by such a visit. Hitherto General Garfield had hesitated. On personal grounds it was very inconvenient for him to go, and he saw that his going might subject him to unfavorable criticism. But when he had fully learned what the President's purposes were — especially when he learned that he was to be associated with such distinguished and honorable men as John Sherman, Oourtland Parker, Stanley Matthews, E. W. Stoughton, and others — his general objec- tions were removed, and he consented to go. He reached New Orleans November 14th. The Democratic visitors, and some of the Republicans, had already arrived. On the 15th the Republican Committee received a communication from the Demo- cratic Committee proposing that the two committees should unite, in order that such influence as they possessed might " be ex- erted in behalf of such a canvass of the votes actually cast as, by its fairness and impar- tiality, shall command the respect and acqui- escence of the American people of all par- ties.'' This overture was declined for a rea- son which can not be understood without some knowledge of the electoral law of Louisiana. In most of the States votes are canvassed in the places where they are cast. The judges of the election are the canvassers of the votes. Not only do thesfe judges decide, under the law, as ballots are offered, who are entitled to vote, but they canvass and count the votes. If more votes are found in the box than there are names on the list, itisthe duty of these canvassers, under the law, to purge the ballot-box. When their canvass and count are finished, they send the returns to the proper officers. When the returns reach the State Capital, in the case of State officers and Presidential electors, nothing re- GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 51 mains to be done but to put the returns from all the precincts together, to add up the col- umns of figures, and to publish the results. In no proper sense is there a State Board of Canvassers. Of course the law provides a remedy in case there has been fraud in any quarter. Such is the common procedure. But the State of Louisiana, years before the election of 1876, had ordained a different method of canvassing and counting votes. The ballots cast in all the precincts were to be sent in packages, properly authenti- cated by signatures and protected by seals, to a board of State canvassers, called a Ee- turning Board. It was made the business of this Board to canvass all the votes, to count those that were found to be legal, and to make known the result. Questions of illegal voting that in Ohio and New York are settled by the local judges of elections, in Louisiana were settled by the State Board at the Capital of the State. The law further provided the requisite machinery for taking testimony in disputed elections, both in the parishes and at the Capital. The circumstances that led to the enacting of this law need not be here recounted. Nor need the necessity of the law itself be canvassed. Everyman is enti- tled to his own opinion, both as to the neces- sity and wisdom of the law. All that need be insisted on here is this : Siich was the law of Louisiana in 1876, and such it had been for years. The courts had often given it ju- dicial interpretation. Accordingly it was the duty of the Board to determine, under the law and in view of all the testimony, what votes were legal. So the Republican Com- mittee replied to the Democratic that the functions of the Canvassing Board were in some cases judicial as well as ministerial; and that the Visiting Committee could not unite in an effort to influence the Board on behalf of " a canvass of the votes actually cast." They replied furthermore, that they had nothing whatever to do with influencing the Board ; that an attempt on their part so to influence them would be an unwarrantable interference ; and that they were in Louisi- ana simply as witnesses of the canvass and count. The situation in Louisiana, to be more specific, was this : If all the votes forwarded from the voting precincts to New Orleans were counted, the Tilden electors were elected. But the Eepublioans of the State claimed that there had been gross fraud and intimidation in some parts of the State ; and that, if the votes were canvassed according to the law, the Hayes electors had been chosen. The law expressly declared it to be the duty of the Board, if they found that riot, tumult, acts of violence, intimidation, armed disturbances, treachery, or corrupt influences had materially interfered with the purity and freedom of the election at any poll or voting place, or prevented a suffi- cient number of the qualified electors thereat from registering and voting materially to change the result of the said election, then they were not to count the votes from such precinct, but were to exclude them from the returns. In most of the parishes there were no contests; but there were contests grow- ing out of alleged fraud and intimidation in several of the parishes. The whole issue depended upon the decision in these con- tested parishes. If the votes actually cast in these precincts were counted, the Tilden electors were chosen beyond question ; but if the votes were thrown out, because ille- gal, the Hayes electors. The Board was to be guided by the law and the testimony. The testimony had already been taken when the visitors reached Now Orleans, and was in the form of aflSdavits. The Returning Board now furnished each of the Committees with copies of all the testimony. To secure a thorough examina- tion and analysis of the documents, the Re- publicans distributed the testimony relating to the different parishes among themselves. To General Garfield was assigned "West Feli- ciana. He took all the papers and went through them in that thorough manner which characterizes all his work. He caused some of the witnesses to be recalled and more thoroughly examined. Before he had fln- ished his work on the documents the Board had begun its work. Five members of each Committee were allowed to be pres- ent 'at the canvass of the votes — flve Repub- licans and five Democrats, each with a steno- grapher. The bundles of votes were opened in the order prescribed by law, the certifi- cates scrutinized, and the testimony showing fraud and intimitation, if any, considered. 52 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Each Committee was permitted to make copies of all the papers. Questions were also allowed. Besides, the two Louisiana political Committees were represented by counsel, and contested points were argued. Such was the method of the canvass. When the last parish had been dispatched, nothing remained for the Eepublican visit- ors to do bat to return and submit to the President a report of what had been done. That evening General Garfield and most of the others left for the North. The Lou- isiana Board had still to decide the various points involved, to count up the votes, and to make known its decision. This was to be done, under the law, in secret session. The telegram announcing the result, and General Garfield, reached "Washington about the same time. This is the story of General Garfield's visit to New Orleans in the fall of 1876. This is the whole story. He kept aloof from all contests and quarrels of local poli- ticians. He entered into no negotiations. He became a party to no bargains or under- standings. All his conduct was as honor- able as anything in his life. He performed no act in relation to the whole matter to which the full light of day can not be ad- mitted. Improper acts have been charged against other gentlemen, whether rightly or wrongly does not here matter; but against General Garfield no whisper of such charge has ever been made. A year later, all these matters were gone over by the Potter Inves- tigating Committee ; all sources of informa- tion were exhausted; but no breath of accu- sation against General Gai-field was ever breathed. Concerning his going to New Orleans at all, men may differ in opinion, as they may concerning the going of all the gentlemen, both Eepublicans and Demo- crats. It must be admitted that the busi- ness was delicate, in which a man could easily compromise himself if so disposed; and it is creditable to General Garfield that he so bore himself in relation to the Board and aU other persons that not one act or word of his has been made the subject of unfriendly comment. The next step in this history is the Elec- toral Commission, created by the law of January 29, 18V7, entitled " An Act to pro- vide for and regulate the Counting of Votes for President and Vice-President, and the Decision of Questions arising thereon, for the Term commencing March 4, ISTT." The minor steps that led to this Act need not be here recounted. Nor need the law itself be stated further than to say, that it provided for a Commission of Fifteen — five Justices of the Supreme Court, five Senators, and five Eepresentatives — whose duties were thus de- fined: All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes of each State shall be opened [that is, by the President of the Senate, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives] in the alphabetical order of the States, as provided in section one of this Act ; and when there shall be more than one such certificate or paper, as the certificates and papers from such State shall bo be opened (excepting duplicates of the same return), they shall be read by the tellers, and thereupon the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Sen- ator and one member of the House of Represen- tatives before the same shall be received. When all such objections so made to any certificate, vote, or paper from a State shall have been re- ceived and read, all such certificates, votes, and papers so objected to, and all papers accompany- ing the same, together with such objections, shall be forthwith submitted to said Commission, which shall proceed to consider the same, with the same powers, if any, now possessed for that purpose by the two Houses acting separately or together, and, by a majority of votes, decide whether any and what votes from such State are the votes provided for by the Constitution of the United States, and how many and what persons were duly appointed electors in such State, and may therein take into view such petitions, depositions, smd other papers, if any, as shall, by the Constitution and now exist- ing law, be competent and pertinent in such con- sideration ; which decision shall be made in writ- ing, stating briefly the ground thereof, and signed by the members of said Commission agreeing therein ; whereupon the two Houses shall again meet, and such decision shall be read and entered in the journal of each House, and the counting of the votes shall proceed in conformity therewith, unless, upon objection made thereto in writing by at least five Senators and five members of the House of Representatives, the two Houses shall GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 53 separately concur in ordering otherwise ; in which case such concurrent order shall govern. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally disposed of. While the Electoral bill was pending in the House, Mr. Garfield delivered a speech, January 25, 1877, entitled "Counting the Electoral Vote." "Whatever a man's opin- ions of the positions of this speech may be, as respects both their constitutionality and wisdom, he must admit that speeches as able are rarely heard in either House of Congress. He began with stating the gravity of the questions involved, as became the subject and the political emergency. Next he stated the difficulty that the fathers had in creating an executive head for the Kation. He mentioned the various plans that were proposed in the Convention of 1787 and abandoned. Then he considered the plan adopted and incorporated into the Consti- tution. This plan he then followed through the discussions subsequent, down to the ratification of the Constitution by the people of the States. This he followed up by a most vigorous criticism of the bill itself. He referred to the early practice of opening the certificates and counting the votes ; and reiSnforced his argument by citing the prac- tice in the States in publishing the returns of elections for Governors. Mr. Garfield's affirmative argument will be given at full length in another place. Here it will be well to summarize his main points : 1. Each State is to choose its electors in its own way. If this is by a popular election, the State determines the voting precincts, names the judges of election, and canvasses the vote. No power in the world is com- petent to go behind the returns to inquire what has been done. The Nation is bound irrevocably by the action and findings of the State. 2. Congress is in no sense a returning board. He denied that either Congress or the Houses had anything to do with the sub- stance of opening the certificates and count- ing the votes. This was to him a great ob- jection to the Electoral bill. "It makes Congress a vast irresponsible returning board, with all the vices of, and none of the excuses for, the returning boards of the States." The Houses are present simply as witnesses of what is done. They might make rules as to the manner of proceeding — such as the employment of tellers, the order in which the certificates should be drawn — but nothing more. 3. The opening of the certificates and the counting of the votes is made the duty of the President of the Senate. As respects the substance of the proceeding, everything is in his breast. If there be two sets of pa- pers, he is to decide between them. Of the regularity of the papers he is the sole judge. 4. If the President of the Senate abuse his trust, he may be impeached or otherwise proceeded against according to law. As re- spects him, there is no other than punitive redress. 5. But suppose he declares the wrong man elected? This question may be an- swered by another one: Suppose, on the theory that Congress counts the votes, that the wrong man is declared elected? The courts are open. "Whatever can be legally done to correct what is wrong in the one case can be legally done in the other. 6. If any one recoil from this theory of the Constitution because it reposes too much power in one man — the President of the Senate — it can be replied, that it is far safer to repose the power and the responsibility in one man, who can be reached by legal process, than to repose them in the two Houses of Congress, consisting of several hundred members, swayed by all the storms of politics, that can not be reached by any legal process, and that are responsible only to public opinion. Such was General Garfield's argument. However, the bill passed the Houses and became a law. The Electoral Commission was created, and did its work. It is in no sense the subject of comment here. The Republicans of the House unanimously de- signated Mr. Garfield as one of the Commis- sioners, and he was chosen. That he had opposed the creation of this tribunal no more precluded his sitting as one of its members than a judge, who denies the juris- diction of the court of which he is a mem- ber in a given case, is precluded from sit- ting upon the case, if he is overruled. The 54 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. creation of the Oonmission was one thing; the questions to come before it, if created, quite another. Mr. Garfield sat in all the sessions of the Commission, and took an able part in all its deliberations. Two of its ablest arguments are his. The great ques- tion that came up for answer was the very question that he had raised in the House : "What are the relations of the national au- thority to the State in choosing its elect- ors? What are the powers of Congress, or of the Houses, if any ? As he said in one of his speeches: "This Act confers no new powers upon the two Houses; but it makes tlie Commission the interpreter of the pow- ers which they possessed before its passage." This question the Commission had now to decide, though its decision could be over- ruled by the two Houses acting jointly. After a thorough investigation of the whole subject, the Commission came to this opin- ion: There is no power that can go behind the returns of the State ; when the national authority has identified the voice of the State, that voice is final,' no matter what may have led to the State's determination. Hence the Commission refused to go behind the returns in any case, but held them con- clusive as respects the national authority. In the proper sense this is States-rights doc- trine. The Democrats antagonized it fierce- ly, and held to a theory that made Congress the canvasser and the judge of all that the State has done. Thus Mr. Garfield had the prescience to base his argument on solid ground. That ground is not likely to be abandoned in the future. At all events, it can not be without largely eliminating the element of local self-government from our political system. It is now asserted by some of the Dem- ocratic organs that General Garfield violated liis oath as a member of the Commission in this: The law creating the Commission, they assert, made it the duty of the Commission to go behind the returns ; he took an oath to obey the law ; and then he argued and voted against so doing. Those who make this charge must be either very ignorant, both of the law and its history, or very reckless. It was expressly left with the Commission to inquire whether Congress, and the Commis- sion itself that was clothed with the power of Congress, had such power. This waa' purposely left an open question, as Senator Thurman, himself one of the Commission- ers, asserted on various occasions in the Sen- ate. January 24th, in advocating the mea- sure, this Senator said : Mr. President, this bill gives to this Commis- sion the same powers that the Houses of Con- gress separately or together have, whatever those powers are. If constitutionally they may go be- hind the decision of a returning board, this Com- mission can go behind it ; if constitutionally they can not go behind that decision, this Com- mission can not go behind it ; and therefore it is a mere license of speech to call this a shuffling bill. Tou might as well call any bill, such as we often pass authorizing the Court of Claims to de- cide on a claim against the United States, or au- thorizing any other court to decide a claim, a shuf- fling bill, because in the act we pass we do not decide the case itself, but submit it to the judicial determination of the court. I have as strong convictions on this subject perhaps, and as lawyer-like convictions, as any other member on this floor. I say to the Senator from Indiana that not sixty days ago, but six cen- turies ago, it was the law that the acts of every- body who acted without jurisdiction were utterly void. I hope that this tribunal that will be es- tablished will decide in the same way, and follow the precedents of six centuries ; but I do not know, and I will not restrain them by any act of Congress. Mr. Morton offered this amendment to the Electoral bill : Provided, That nothing herein contained shall authorize the said Commission to go behind the finding and determination of the canvassing or returning officers of a State, authorized by the laws of the State to find and determine the result of an election for electors. Mr. Edmunds, to test the question on all sides, ofiered this amendment to Mr. Mor- ton's, declaring that he should himself vote against it : That the said Commission shall have authority to go behind the finding and determination of the canvassing or returning officers, etc. Mr. Thurman then said : I shall vote against them both. I have a very strong and decided opinion, I may say, that to a certain extent the decision of a canvass- ing or returning board may be inquired into, gone GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 55 behind, in the language here used ; but whatever may be my opinion upon these subjects, I shall not vote for either of these propositions, because to attempt to decide either of them is to kill the bill. Botli amendments were lost, and the bill passed, leaving the Commission to inquire what power it had in the premises. Mr. Garfield held that neither Congress nor the Commission could go behind the action of a State. In so doing he no more violated Ms oath than Mr. Thurman, who took the op- posite ground. The death of Mr. Kerr, the Speaker of the House in the Forty-fourth Congress, made the election of a successor necessary. Mr. Blaine had already gone to the Senate, and Mr. Garfield was left the undisputed Republican leader. The election came on before his return from Louisiana. December 4, 1876, the Republicans in the House cast their votes for him as Speaker. It was noth- ^ing but a compliment, as the Democrats were in the ascendancy. Twice since has he been complimented in the same manner. It should also be added, that in four difl^er- ent Congresses he has been a member of the Committee on Rules. He took a prominent part in the revision of the rules by the pres- ent House. Forty-fifth Congress, 1877-'79. Again the candidate of his party for Speaker, again a member of the Ways and Means Committee, and still the Republican leader in the House. It is curious to observe the groups in which General Garfield's speeches lie. Ko man can run over the list, in connection with the current political history, and not see that the bent of his mind would keep him in the field of politico-economic discussion and legislation. It is only when great crises arise, such as that produced by the Presi- dential election of 1876, its antecedents and consequents, and the attempt of the Demo- crats in 1879 to coerce the Executive, that he is strongly drawn to partisan politics. Thus, in the Forty-third Congress his great themes are " Revenues and Expenditures," " Cur- rency and the Public Faith," " Appropria- tions of the First Session of the Forty-third Congress," " Cheap Transportation and Rail- ways." In the Forty-fourth Congress they are "Amnesty," " Can the Democratic Party safely be Intrusted with the Administration of the Government?" "Counting the Elec- toral Vote." In the Forty-fifth they are the "Repeal of the Resumption Law," "The New Scheme of American Finance," " The Tariff," and others that have no relations to parties. Here it may be said that, recently, questions affecting finance, industry, and trade have hardly been party questions at all. Men of all ways of thinking on these subjects have been found in both the polit- ical parties. It has been impossible to draw party lines by their bearings. Party lines have been drawn with sole reference to questions growing out of slavery and the war, though the method of interpreting the Constitution, whether strictly or loosely, has been an important factor. This some- what anomalous state of affairs explains why it is that some of Mr. Garfield's most effec- tive speeches have been addressed, in whole or in part, to Republicans. By the time that President Hayes was seated in the chair of State, political passion had cooled ; the public mind had been long overstrained ; the Southern policy of the President satisfied, for the time, 'the majority of men, while the minority, partly from ex- haustion and partly from awe, acquiesced in silence. A blessed repose that the people much needed fell upon the country. The subsidence of party politics, the calm of the country, the bent of his mind, and the move- ment of events take General Garfield once more to politico-economic questions. January 1, 1879, the day fixed for the Resumption of Specie Payments by the Act of January 14, 1875, was hut little more than a year off when the Forty-fifth Congress con- vened. At the special session held in the fall of 1877, the enemies of Resumption and the friends of soft money made one more determined effort to carry out their policy. General Swing of Ohio introduced a repeal- ing bill into the House, and once more the roar of financial battle was heard on the floors of Congress. No more determined attack upon the buttresses of national honor and prosperity had at any time been made. In the House debate, Mr. Garfield delivered 56 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. one of his ablest speeches, entitled "Repeal of the Resumption Law.'' This was his introduction : We are engaged in a debate which has lasted in the Anglo-Saxon world for more than two cen- turies ; and hardly any phase of it to which we have listened in the course of the last week is new. Hardly a proposition has been heard on either side which was not made one hundred and eighty years ago in England, and almost a hundred years ago in the United States. So singularly does history repeat itself. Once more he swept with a master's power this familiar field of discussion. He set forth the well-known doctrines of finance in which he is so firmly grounded. He drew upon the resources of all financial history for illustration; exploded the current fal- lacy that Resumption would bear heavily upon the poor; exploded, too, the fallacy that we have in any proper sense creditor and debtor classes with diverse interests; and closed with the declaration that he would favor any substitute for the bill which would make Resumption more safe, more certain, and would more carefully protect the business interests of the country; but that any measure which took back the prom- ise, which gave up what had been gained, which set the country afloat upon the wild waves from which it had so nearly escaped, he would oppose to the utmost, confidently trusting to the future for the vindication of his judgment. But argument and remon- strance were not heeded. The Ewing bill passed the House, but, fortunately, could not command a majority in the Senate. Still we shall hear of it again after Resumption has become a fact. This speech led to a second, the history of which should also be given. March 5, 1878, the Hon. W. D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, one hundred and nine days after Garfield's Resumption speech, made a lengthy speech, in which he sought not only to overturn the doctrines of that speech, but also iudulged in the most ofiensive per- sonal remarks. To make this speech, Mr. Kelley had arrested the work on the appro- priation bills then pending. Mr. Garfield was unwilling to divert the House from the business in hand; but his manhood demanded that he should repel Mr. Kelley's wanton at- tack. This he did in a speech delivered the next day, called "The New Scheme of American Finance." After turning that gentleman's personal remarks upon himself, with spirit but without bitterness, he launched out into a full review of the whole question. So perfect was his mastery of all the topics within the range of debate that, with only one night's preparation, he was able not only to answer, but to overwhelm Mr. Kelley on every point. The arguments pro and con will not be reproduced in this place. Mr. Kelley brought forward his well- known soft-money theories, and Mr. Garfield replied with the sound-money facts. Kelley's historical references were turned upon him in the most handsome manner. Perhaps the most telling point was when Mr. Garfield showed from the record that, in 1865, Mr. Kelley had himself voted for a resolution de- claring a contraction of the currency a neces- sity, with a view to as early a resumption of specie payments as the business interests of the country would admit. The House en- joyed this speech intensely. The country broke out into gufifaws of laughter. If Mr. Garfield enjoyed personal victories over men, which he does not, his satisfaction could not well be greater than in the dis- comfiture of his antagonist. Mr. Kelley only entangled himself more completely in his efforts to escape the toils into which he had fallen. As Resumption was on the eve of accom- plishment, the Honest-money League" of the Northwest, having its headquarters in Chi- cago, thought fit to celebrate the great act and fact by a public meeting. Who was so fit to voice the history of the past, the feel- ings of the present, and the hopes of the future as James A. Garfield ? He knew all the history, had passed through every stage of the long debate from 1863 to 1879, and, more than all, had been loyal to the honest- money flag in every contest. He was in- vited to deliver the address in the presence of the citizens of Chicago and the North- west. He accepted the invitation, and re- deemed his promise in "Suspension and Resumption of Specie Payments," delivered January 2, 1879. He began : The Resumption of Specie Payments closes the most memorable epoch in our history since the GENERAL GAEFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 57 birth of the Union. Eighteen hundred and sixty- one and eighteen hundred and seventy-nine are the opposite shores of that turbulent sea, whose storms so seriously threatened with shipwreck the prosperity, the honor, and the life of the Nation. But the horrors and dangers of the middle passage have at last been mastered ; and out of the night and tempest the Republic has landed on the shore of this new year, bringing with it union and liberty, honor and peace. He then pointed out how our financial history for eighteen years had been a part of our war history, and raised the question, " Will our great sovereign, the people of all these States, make the decree irreversible ? Will resumption be maintained?" Largely Ms address was an affirmative answer to this question. It calls for no summary here. The speech was worthy of the occasion, of the orator, and of Resumption itself. This is his eloquent close : Reviewing the whole period, we have the right to say that the wisdom of our institutions has boon vindicated, and our confidence in their stability has been strengthened. Legislation has been directed more and more to the enlargement of private rights and the promotion of the in- terests of labor. It has been devoted not to the glory of a dynasty, but to the welfare of a people. Slavery, with the aristocracy of caste which it engendered, and the degradation of labor which it produced, has disappeared. Without undue exultation we may declare that the bells of the new year " Rmg out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife ; Ring in the nobler modes of life, "With sweeter manners, purer laws," We have learned the great lesson, applicable alike to nations and to men : " Self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control — These three alone lead on to sovereign power." But there was a farce following this grand financial drama that may be presented here, as presented on the Washington theatre. Mr. Ewing's bill to repeal the Resumption Act passed the House, November 22, 1877. It came back to the House, with important amendments, June, 1878. The attempt to suspend the rules, to concur in the Senate Amendments, and pass the biU — a motion that requires a two-thirds vote — failed, one hundred and forty to one hundred and twelve. February 22, 1879, nearly two months after Resumption had been accom- plished, Mr. Ewing made another attempt to carry his favorite measure. After a running discussion of some hours, it was buried under a motion to lay it on the table, carried by a vote of one hundred and forty-one to one hundred and ten. This vote showed how little sense Mr. Ewing had of the temper of the House, and also how great a change had come over Con- gress since June preceding. Some long and solemn orations were made on the sepulture of this fondly loved child. Mr. Garfield contributed to the obsequies a short jocular speech, in which he spoke of the bill as a " belated ghost," wandering back into these halls, revisiting the " glimpses of the moon," and awaking the old familiar echoes. With one other form of financial folly, this long record of financial discussion and legislation will close. Mr. Bland of Missouri brought forward his celebrated bill to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar, and to restore its legal-tender character, at the special ses- sion of the Forty -fifth Congress. As it passed the House, it authorized an unlimited coinage of the 412J-grain silver dollars. The Senate limited the coinage to four mil- lion dollars a month. The House con- curred, the bill passed both Houses, and was vetoed by the President, February 28, 1878. The Houses promptly passed it over the veto, and it became a law. Small oppor- tunity was given in the House to debate this bill at any stage. Mr. Garfield had care- fully matured opinions upon the subject. He believed in bi-metallisra. He believed that both silver and gold legal-tender coin were essential to the stability of the cur- rency. But he had no faith in the coinage of the 412J-grain dollars, either in limited or unlimited quantities, for the simple rea- son that that amount of silver was not worth a dollar. Silver, owing to a variety of causes, had greatly declined in value since 1873 ; and there was no reason to suppose that it would soon, or greatly, appreciate — at least, not unless its general remonetiza- tion by the gold nations could be brought about. He saw that an inferior dollar of any kind could not fail to be a disturbing element in the currency. He thought the 58 THE BEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN 0? 1880. Senate amendments were wise if the old dol- lar was to be recoined at all, and according- ly voted for them. But the Bland bill he voted against in all its stages. He prepared an elaborate speech on the bill, but had no opportunity to deliver it. His protest was condensed into three minutes, granted him by Mr. Stephens. It stands in " The Rec- ord " for February 28, 1878, as follows : Mr. Speaker, every man wlio is opposed to the use of silver coin as a part of the lawful currency of the country, I disagree with. Every man who is opposed to the actual legal use of both metals, I disagree with. Eveiy man who is in favor of any bill that will drive one of these metals out of circulation and give us only the other as money, with him I disagree. It is a matter of deep regret to me that on this greatest financial measure which has come before Con- gress for many years, we have come down at last to the turbulent scenes of this single hour, not of deliberation, but of experience meeting, with- out debate or opportunity for amendment. The amendments which have come from the Senate are wise, so far as they go, and I shall vote for them all. If any man could convince me that the bill as it now stands would bring the silver and gold dollars to a, substantial equality, I would not only vote for it with all my heart, but I would vote against the Senate amendments which forbid free coinage. I would endow the two dollars with equality, and make the coinage free. But no adequate discussion is allowed, and we arc permitted no opportunity so to amend the bill as to secure that equality. Believing, as I do — and I shall rejoice if the future proves me mistaken — believing, as I do, that this bill will not bring the two metals to equality, nor keep them there; that it will bring no relief to the suffering and distress which now afflict the country ; that it will seriously in- jure the public credit, and thereby injure every citizen, I shall vote to lay the bill on the table. In the month of June, 1878, culminated the attempt to shift the Tariff laws from Protective to Free Trade grounds. This culmination came in what is known as the "Wood bill." Hon. J. R. Tucker of Vir- ginia made a very able speech in support of this measure. A few days later, June 4, 1878, Mr. Garfield replied in a speech on '• The Tariff" that is the ablest of all his speeches on this subject. Mr. Tucker held that the two powers conferred by Congress, to levy duties and to control commerce, are wholly distinct ; tbat the great mistake had been made of attempting, through the taxing power, to regulate commerce and protect manufactures; that the power of taxation conferred by the Constitution had no refer- ence to protecting industry. In short, all protection of domestic industry through the distribution of taxation was uncon- stitutional. This was Mr. Tucker's first point. Mr. Garfield began with express- ing his admiration of the courage that brought Mr. Tucker into point-blank range of the terrible artillery of James Mad- ison, one of the fathers of the Constitution, more than a hundred pages of whose col- lected works are devoted to an elaborate and exhaustive discussion of the very objec- tions that Mr. Tucker had urged. Then fol- lowed those inevitable quotations from high authority with which Mr. Garfield has so often overwhelmed his antagonists. Passing from the Constitutional question, he went on to survey the whole field, reaching the well-known conclusions that he has main- tained since his entry into public life. Here I may violate chronological order, to foUow Mr. Garfield's Tariff record to its close. February 26, 1879, he discussed in the House the " Sugar Tariff," in a speech on the House bill to regulate the duties on sugar. This is a special and not a general Tariff speecli. The doctrine of Protection was not directly involved. The main ques- tion was. How shall the duties on imported sugar be regulated? It was a subject that called rather for expert knowledge than for general Tariff doctrines. His latest utterances on the Tariff are found in the speech " Pulp and Paper," May 1, 1880, and a report on " Hoop, Band, and Scroll Iron," presented by the minority of the Committee of Ways and Means, May 11, 1880. In this Congress came the speeches, " Lin- coln and Emancipation," "Joseph Henry," and " Relations of the Kational Government to Science." They are all of a class, and of a degree of excellence, that few pohticians are capable of making. They come only from a cultivated mind and a great heart. One further group of facts will complete this section. President Hayes had not been long in his GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 59 seat before partisan politics began again to appear. The policy of the President did not satisfy the extreme men of the South. The Louisiana authorities began prosecutions against the members of the Returning Board of 1876. This was in direct contravention of the understanding arrived at in the spring of 1877. The Democratic party all over the country raised the cry of " fraud " against the Presidential election itself. The antecedents of the party, and its present temper, went to show that it was ready for almost any reckless venture. Withal, Republicans were deeply dissatisfied. Those at the South complained that they had been abandoned. Many at the North joined in this feeling. Besides, the President's administration of the civil service produced much dissatisfaction ; a large number of Republicans felt that the President held himself aloof from his party ; and there was no small danger of a split in the party ranks. Some of the more radical Republicans were ready, as respected the President's relations to the party, to go to extremes. Now it was that General Gar- field's great qualities as a party leader shone forth with more luster than ever before. He defended the settlement of affairs that had been made in the Southern States. He was more than willing to support a real reform in the civil service. He did not doubt the purity and sincerity of the President's pur- poses. He greatly deprecated any division, in fact or in spirit, within the party. He counseled moderation. Fearing that an ex- plosion might occur, he dissuaded against the holding of a party caucus. Seeing, finally, that the time for him to speak had come, February 19, 1878, he made his speech, "The Policy of Pacification, and the Prose- cutions in Louisiana." In this speech he went over the subject in a manner well calcu- lated to conciliate reasonable men, yet with- out disguising any of his own convictions. He said there were three stages between war and peace: first, the war stage, the period of military force, that closed, in our case, in the spring of 1865; second, the semi-military stage, presenting a mingling of civil and military elements, reaching to the close of President Grant's second term; third, the era of peace methods pure and simple, beginning with Mr. Hayes's adminis- tration. He pointed out once more the dis- tinction between loyalty and treason ; dep- recated the manner in which the South had received the olive branches of peace held out to them ; asserted that the mass of Republicans had supported the President so far as they "had reason to beUeve that re- ciprocity of feeling and conduct would fol- low his efforts"; spoke with deserved se- verity of the Louisiana prosecutions; and warned the Democratic extremists against walking farther in the path in which they had started. Fortunately for the Republi- can party, and for the success of his effort at harmony, the Democrats came to the rescue. If they had had the requisite wis- dom and moderation, it is more than proba- ble that a split in the Republican ranks would have taken place. Fortunately for the Republicans, disastrously for themselves, they chose to follow the suggestions of vio- lence and recklessness. The Potter investi- gation was launched, its purpose being to unsettle Mr. Hayes's title to the Presidential ofSce. Later came the assaults upon the army and the election laws. The Republi- can ranks closed up to resist this common foe. Thus the way was made ready for the victories on the civic fields of 1878 and 1879. So the Republican army was put on an ex- cellent footing for the great campaign pf 1880. To no one is that army more in- debted for this favorable turn in its affairs, than to its present standard-bearer. Forty-sixth Congress, 1819-81. No Congress for many years has been more excited and troubled than the Forty- sixth. In no other has General Garfield risen to such a commanding influence, both in the House and before the country. To set forth the nature and extent of his activ- ity and influence, it wOl be necessary to deal with all the exciting questions that have arisen since the winter of 1878-'79. At the last session of the Forty-fifth Con- gress, two of the twelve great appropriation bills failed to become laws, viz., the Army bill and the Legislative, Executive, and Ju- dicial bill, together disposing of about forty- five million dollars. The cause of this fail- ure must be explained. 60 THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. The House of Representatives, in which the Democrats had a decided msgority, in- sisted that three measures of distinct and independent legislation should be incorpo- rated in the bills : the material modification of the laws relating to the use of the army ; the repeal of the Juror's Test Oath ; and the repeal of the laws regulating the elections of members of Congress. The Senate, in which the Republicans had a small majority, refused to incorporate these measures in the tw'o biUs. The closing hours of the session saw the two Houses at a deadlock. The Republicans made advances in the direction of a compromise, but only to be repelled. It was well known that the President, as well as the Senate, was opposed to the three measures, but then the Democratic House would have its way. The conference com- mittees reported that all matters of detail could be adjusted, but that on these thrfee points no agreement could be reached. The Democratic conferrees on the part of the House were determined, to quote the lan- guage of Senator Beck of Kentucky, " that, unless these rights were secured to the peo- ple in the bill sent to the Senate, they would refuse, under their constitutional right, to make appropriations to carry on the Govern- ment, if the dominant majority in the Senate insisted upon the maintenance of those laws, and refused to consent to their repeal." This Senator went further, and declared : If, however, the President of the United States, in the exercise of the power vested in him, should see fit to veto the bills thus presented to him, . . . then I have no doubt those same amend- ments will be again made part of the appropria- tion bills, and it will be for the President to de- termine whether he will block the wheels of gov- ernment, and refuse to accept necessary appropri- ations, rather than allow the representatives of the people to repeal the odious laws which they regard as subversive of their rights and privi- leges. . . . Whether that course is right or wrong, it will be adopted, and I have no doubt adhered to, no matter what happens with the ap- propriation bills. The Democrats sought to base their re- fusal to vote the appropriations until their demands were complied with on high con- stitutional and historical ground. Said Sen- ator Thurman: We claim the right, which the House of Commons in England established after two cen- turies of contest, to say that we will not grant the money of the people unless there is a redress of grievances. Neither the Senate nor the House would yield, and so the Forty-fifth Congress ad- journed, leaving forty-five million dollars needed to carry on the Government unap- propriated. The inside history of this Democratic movement has never been divulged. It has been conjectured, however, and many indi- cations seem to point to the conclusion, that it was in the interest of a certain Demo- cratic aspirant for the Presidency. Since the spring of 1877, the charge of "fraud" had been the Democratic battle-cry. This cry did not rally the hosts so much to the Democratic standard as to the standard of Mr. S. J. Tilden. It was thought, according to the theory under consideration, that a change in the battle-cry might infuse fresh courage into the Democratic hosts, and also rally them to the standard of a different party leader. Hence Senator Thurman's attempt to convince the Democracy and the country that to starve the army and other branches of the public service, unless certain measures of substantive and inde- pendent legislation should be incorporated into the appropriation bills, came under the famous English principle established after two centuries of contest: The House of Commons will not vote the money of the people unless the grievances of the people are redressed. But, whatever may have been the party or personal reasons that gov- erned the Democrats in Congress, the position that the party took was extreme, unprece- dented in our history, and one that it was ultimately compelled to abandon. So an ex- tra session of Congress became necessary! This began March 18, 1879, and was the first session of the Forty-sixth Congress. The President sent to the Houses a short message, stating the reason why he had called them together — the failure at the regu- lar session to provide for the Army and the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Depart- ments of the Government for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1879. The Democrats now controlled the Senate as well as the House ; GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 61 and they were confident of their ability to pasa the bills in such shape as should suit them, and to compel the President, by with- holding the appropriations if he would not otherwise yield, to sign them. March 27th an Army bill was reported in the House. This bill did not contain the clauses pertain- ing to the reorganization of the army found in the House bill of the previous session, but it did contain these objectionable features: Seotion 6. That section 2002 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as follows : " No military or naval officer, or other person en- gaged in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, bring, keep, or have under his authority or control, any troops or armed men at the place where any general or special election is held in any State, unless it be necessary to repel the armed enemies of the Unit- ed States " ; and that section 5528 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as follows : " Every officer of the army or navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the Unit- ed States, who orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control, any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special elec- tion is held in any State, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined not more than $5,000, and suffer imprisonment at hard labor not less than three months nor more than five years." The history of the struggle on this bill need not be followed point by point. It was the manifest purpose of the Democrats to wage an offensive war. Their purpose was to raise the cry of " Troops at the Polls," as for two years they had cried " Fraud in the Election," and to throw the Eepublicans on the defensive. There was a two days' debate on a point of order ; this was decided against the Republicans, and then the battle began. Mr. Garfield had made thorough prepara- tion to speak, but, not expecting the point of order to be disposed of that day, he went up to the Capitol, March 29th, leaving his notes at his house. When the point of order was decided, he suddenly changed his purpose and the whole line of battle as well. He got the floor and delivered his speech, " Revolution in Congress," which, as re- spects its effects, was the most powerful speech that he has ever made. He began with referring to the gravity' and solemnity of the crisis, stated fully the questions at is- sue, and then plunged into his argument. He said : The question, Mr. Chairman, may be asked, Why make any special resistance to the clauses of legislation in this bill, which a good many gentle- men on this side declared at the last session they cared but little about, and regarded as of very little practical importance, because for years there had been no actual use for any part of these laws, and they had no expectation there would be any ? It may be asked. Why make any controversy on either side ? So far as we are concerned, Mr. Chairman, I desire to say this : We recognize the other side as accomplished parlia- mentarians and strategists, who have adopted with skill and adroitness their plan of assault. You have placed in the front one of the least ob- jectionable of your measures ; but your whole programme has been announced, and we reply to your whole order of battle. The logic of your position compels us to meet you as promptly on the skirmish line as afterward when our intreuch- ments are assailed ; and therefore, at the outset, we plant our case upon the general ground upon which we have chosen to defend it. He spoke of the distribution of the pow- ers of government under our system : "first, to the Nation ; second, to the States ; and third, the reservation of power to the people themselves." He pointed out how, if any one of these should fail to exercise its vol- untary powers, the whole system would fall into ruins. He said : Mr. Chairman, viewed from the standpoint of a foreigner, our Government may be said to be the feeblest on the earth. From our standpoint, and with our experience, it is the mightiest. But why would a foreigner call it the feeblest ? He can point out a half dozen ways in which it can be destroyed without violence. Of course, all governments may be overturned by the sword ; but there are several ways in which our Govern- ment may be annihilated without the firing of a gun. For example, suppose the people of the United States should say, We will elect no Representa- tives to Congress. Of course, this is a violent supposition ; but suppose that they do not : is there any remedy ? Does our Constitution pro- vide any remedy whatever ? In two years there would be no House of Representatives ; of course, no support of the Government, and no Govern- ment. Suppose, again, the States should say, 62 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE, THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. through their Legislatures, We will elect no Sen- ators. Such abstention alone would absolutely destroy this Government; and our system pro- vides no process of compulsion to prevent it. Again, suppose the two Houses were assembled in their usual order, and a majority of one in this body or in the Senate should firmly band them- selves together and say, We will vote to adjourn the moment the hour of meeting arrives, and con- tinue BO to vote at every session during our two years of existence. The Government would per- ish, and there is no provision of the Constitution to prevent it. Or, again, if a majority of one of either body should declare that they would vote down, and did vote down, every bill to support the Government by appropriations, can you find in the whole range of our judicial or our execu- tive authority any remedy whatever ? A Senator or a member of this House is free, and may vote " no " on every proposition. Nothing but his oath and his honor restrains him. Not so with executive and judicial officers. They have no power to destroy this Government. Let them travel an inch beyond the line of the law, and they fall within the power of impeachment. But against the people who create Representatives, against the Legislatures who create Senators, against Senators and Representatives in these halls, there is no power of impeachment. There is no remedy if, by abstention or by adverse votes, they refuse to support the Government. He tlien argned the proposition that free consent is tlie basis of our laws : Our theory of law is free consent. That is the granite foundation of our whole superstruc- ture. Nothing in the Republic can be law with- out consent — the free consent of the House ; the free consent of the Senate ; the free consent of the Executive, or, if he refuse it, the free consent of two thirds of these bodies. Will any man deny that ? Will any man challenge a hne of the statement that free consent is the foundation rock of all our institutions ? And yet the programme announced two weeks ago was that, if the Senate refused to consent to the demand of the House, the Government should stop. And the proposi- tion was then, and the programme is now, that, although there is not a Senate to be coerced, there is still u, third independent branch in the legislative power of the Government whose con- sent is to be coerced at the peril of the destruc- tion of this Government; that is, if the Presi- dent, in the discharge of his duty, shall exercise his plain constitutional right to refuse his consent to this proposed legislation, the Congress will ^o use its voluntary powers as to destroy the Govern- ment. This is the proposition which we confront ; and we denounce it as revolution. It makes no difference, Mr. Chairman, what the issue is. If it were the simplest and most inoffensive proposition in the world, yet if you demand, as a matter of coercion, that it shall be adopted against the free consent prescribed in the Constitution, every fair-minded man in Amer- ica is bound to resist you as much as though his own life depended upon his resistance. Let it be understood that I am not arguing the merits of any one of the three amendments. I am discussing the proposei method of legisla- tion ; and I declare that it is against the Consti- tution of our country. It is revolutionary to the core, and is destructive of the fundamental ele- ment of American liberty — the free consent of all the powers that unite to make laws. In opening this debate, I challenge all comers to show a single instance in our history where this consent has been coerced. This is the great, the paramount issue, which dwarfs all others into insignificance. Thus it TvLll be seen that his great point was the method of legislation. He object- ed to a political party's carrying their party measures by forcing " riders " on appropria- tion hills, and refusing to consent to their removal, no matter how obnoxious to the Executive, even if the wants of the Govern- ment were not provided for. He went on to show that the laws to be repealed had a Democratic and not a Eepublican origin. He denounced the Democratic movement as a "New EebeUion," and said that it differed from the old one only in this: The first pro- posed to shoot^ the second to starve, the Gov- erment to death ! This speech carried away the Republican side of the House, electrified the country, and compelled the Democrats to accept battle on ground that they had not chosen. Instead of attacking the Republicans with the legend "No Troops at the Polls" in- scribed on their banners, they were now called on to repel the Republicans who were attacking them with the charge of " Revolution." Nearly every Democrat who spoke in the debate felt called upon to an- swer Garfield ; and, without one exception, they misstated his position. So, when he again obtained the floor, April ith, he pro- GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 63 ceeded to set them right, and to state his point with more power than before : Mr. Chairman : During the last four days, some fifteen or twenty gentlemen have paid their special attention to the argument I made last Saturday, and have announced its complete de- molition. Now that the general debate has closed, I will notice the principal points of at- tack by which this work of destruction has been accomplished. In the first place, every man, save one, who has replied to me, has alleged that I held it was revolutionary to place this general legislation upon an appropriation bill. One gentleman went so far as to fill a page of the " Record " with citations from the " Congressional Globe " and the " Congressional Record," to show that for many years riders had been placed upon ap- propriation bills. If gentlemen find any plea- sure in Betting up a man of straw and knocking it down again, they have enjoyed themselves. I never claimed that it was either revolution- ary or unconstitutional for this House to put a rider on an appropriation bill. No man on this side of the House has claimed that. The most that has been said is that it is considered a bad parliamentary practice; and all parties in this country have said that repeatedly. The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Black- bum] evidently thought he was making a telling point against me when he cited the fact that, in 18'72, I insisted upon the adoption of a confer- ence report on an appropriation bill that had a rider on it ; and he alleged that I said it was revolutionary for his party to resist it. Let me refresh his memory. I said then, and I say now, that it was revolutionary for the minority party to refuse to let the appropriation bill be voted on. For four days they said we should not vote at all on the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill be- cause there was a rider on it, put there, not by the House, but by the Senate. I was sorry the rider was put on, and moved to non-concur in the amendments when they came to the House. But when the minority on this floor said that we should not act upon the bill at all, because the rider was put upon it, I said, and now say, it was unjustifiable parliamentary ob- struction. We do not filibuster. We do not struggle to prevent a vote on this bill. I will be loyal to the House of which I am a member, and maintain now, as I did then, the right of the majority to bring an appropriation bill to a vote. You have a right — however unwise and inde- cent it may be as a matter of parliamentary 5 practice — you have a perfect right to put this rider on this bill and pass it. When you send it to the Senate, that body has a perfect right to pass it. It is your constitutional right and theirs to pass it ; for the free consent of each body is the basis of the law-making power. When it goes to the President of the United States, it is his constitutional right to approve it ; and if he does, it will then be a law, which you and I must obey. But it is equally his con- stitutional right to disapprove it ; and should he do so, then, gentlemen, unless two thirds of this body and two thirds of the Senate pass it, not- withstanding the objections of the President, it is not only not your right to make it a law, but it will be the flattest violation of the Constitu- tion, the sheerest usurpation of power, to attempt to make it a law in any other way. Without these conditions we can not make it a law. What, then, is the proposition you have offered ? You say that there are certain odious laws that you want to take off the statute-book. I say, repeal them, if you can do so constitution- ally. But you declare that you will compel con- sent to your will by refusing the necessary sup- port — not to the President, not to any man, but to the Government itself. This proposition I denounce as revolution, and no man has re- sponded to the charge either by argument or denial. . Now, Mr. Chairman, let me add a word in con- clusion, lest I may be misunderstood. I said last session, and I have said since, that if you want this whole statute concerning the use of the army at the polls torn from your books, I will help you to do it. If you will offer a naked proposition to repeal those two sections of the Revised Statutes named in the sixth section of this bill, I will vote with you. But you do not ask a repeal of those sections. Why ? They impose restrictions upon the use of the army, limiting its functions, and punishing its officers for any infraction of these limitations; but you seek to strike out u, nega- tive clause, thereby making new and affirmative legislation of the most sweeping and dangerous character. Your proposed modification of the law affects not the army alone, but the whole civil power of the United States. " Civil oflicers " are included in these sections; and if the proposed amend- ment be adopted, you deny to every civil officer of the United States any power whatever to summon the armed posse to help him enforce the processes of the law. If you pass the sec- tion in that form, you impose restrictions upon the civil authorities of the United States neser 64 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. before proposed in any Congress by any legislator since this Government began. I say, therefore, in the shape you propose this, it is much the worst of all your " riders." In the beginning of this contest we understood that you desired only to get the army away from the polls. As that would still leave the civil officers full power to keep the peace at the polls, I thought it was the least important and the least dangerous of your demands ; but, as you have put it here, it is the most dangerous. If you reenact it in the shape presented, it becomes a later law than the .Supervisors and Marshals Law, and pro tanio re- peals the latter. As it stands now in the statute- book, it is the earlier statute, and is pro tanto itself repealed by the Marshals Law of 1871, and is, therefore, harmless so far as it relates to civil officers. But, if you put it in here, you deny the power of the Marshals of the United States to perform their duties whenever a riot may require the use of an armed posse. Though easily carrying the bill through the Houses, rider and all, the Democrats en- countered the President's veto. What is more, they encountered the opposition of the majority of the people. With great unanimity the intelligence, sobriety, and conservatism of the country were aroused against them. In no long time they discov- ered that they had made a mistake ; that the people could not he rallied to the cry, " No Troops at the Polls " ; and that they must make their retreat in the best way they could. Their line of retreat need not he followed step by step. June 6th another bill, making appropriations for the army, was reported. This bill promptly passed and became a law. The objectionable fea- tures were omitted, but this clause was in- serted : That no money appropriated in this Act is appropriated or shall be paid for the subsistence, equipment, transportation, or compensation of any portion of the army of the United States to be used as a police force to keep the peace at the polls, at any election held within any State. Good lawyers said, however, that this stump speech inserted in the bill was of no force whatever ; while Republican politi- cians said it was put in only to keep up ap- pearances. The bill for the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Departments of the Government has a similar history. After much delay and loud threatening, all the money required for these purposes was voted except $600,000 needed to pay the Marshals. So of the $45,- 000,000 that the Democrats never would vote unless there was a " redress of grievances," only this small sum remained unappropria- ted at the close of the long campaign ! Prom any point of view, the Democrats could not regard the struggle with other than painful feelings; while the Republicans congratu- lated themselves on having rendered the country a substantial service, and on having beaten their opponents in a political battle. No man in either House, on the Eepuhlican side, was so prominent in all stages of the conflict as Mr. Garfield. To no other man were the Kepublicans so much indebted for their victory. It must be admitted that his plan of campaign was a hold one, and might have been most disastrous. This he pointed out in his speech on the Legislative Bill, April 26th : Gentlemen : I took upon myself a very grave responsibiUty in the opening of this debate when I quoted the declarations of leading members on the other side, and said that the programme was revolution, and, if not abandoned, would result in the destruction of this Government. I declared that you had entered upon a scheme which, if per. sisted in, would starve the Government to death. I say that I took a great risk when I made this charge against you as a party. I put myself in your power, gentlemen. If I had misconceived your purposes and misrepresented your motives, it was in your power to prove me a false accuser. It was in your power to ruin me in the estimation of fair-minded, patriotic men by the utterance of one sentence. The humblest or the greatest of you could have overwhelmed me with shame and confusion in one short sentence. You could have said : " Wo wish to pass our measures of legislation in reference to elections, juries, and the use of the army ; and we will, if we can do so constitution- ally ; but if we can not get these measures in ac- cordance with the Constitution, we will pass the appropriation bills like loyal representatives, and then go home and appeal to the people." If any man, speaking for the majoi-ity, had made that declaration, uttered that sentence, he would have ruined mc in the estimation of fair- minded men, and set me down as a false accuser and slanderer. Forty-five of you have spoken ; forty-five of you have deluged the ear of this GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 65 country with debate ; but that sentence has not been spoken by any one of you. On the contrary, by your silence, as well as by your affirmation, you hare made my accusation overwhelmingly true. And there I leave that controversy. The as- saults upon my speech have been, from the be- ginning to the end, evasions of the issue. What have you said ? Not less than thirty of you, in spite of my plain and emphatic declarations to the contrary, have insisted that I said it was revolu- tionary to put a rider on an appropriation bill, a, thing that no man on this side of the House has saidf You were guilty, gentlemen, of what Syd- ney Smith once called '■ an indecent exposure of your intellects." Mr. Gar.fleld's speeches at this extra ses- sion, long and short, fill a pamphlet of fifty- four pages. In no other equal period of time has he put forth an equal degree of mental power ; and in no other session of Congress has he exerted so great an influence. Besides those on the two bills, he made the follow- ing speeches : " Defense of Union Soldiers of the Seceded States," "Resumption and the Currency," " The New Silver Bill," "The Mississippi River an Object of Na- tional Care," " The Revived Doctrine of State Rights." As we have seen, the special session came to an end July 1st, without any provision being made for the payment of the United States marshals. From that day, which was the beginning of the new fiscal year, these officers were compelled not only to get on without their own pay, but also to pay out of tlieir own pockets all the expenses of their offices. This they did, in the hope that when Congress again sat the appropriation would be voted. The public business was much deranged, and the marshals subjected to no small inconvenience and expense. When the business came up again, at the regular session, in the winter of 1879-'80, a leading Democrat and member of the Ap- propriations Committee declared that this $600,000 never would be voted until his party had their way. The threat was idle. Democratic members of Congress, as a whole, saw that they had fought a losing battle from the beginning; so the whole amount was voted, less $7,400 that properly belonged to certain marshals for services rendered at elections. This small remnant of the $45,- 000,000 still stands to the account of griev- ances unredressed ! But Congress at this session had to deal with another question : What shall be done for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1880? The answer can be quickly given. The Army appropriation was promptly voted f so were the appropriations for the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Departments of the Government, with this exception : no provi- ■ sion whatever was made for the services of marshals at elections ; in all other respects the marshals were fuUy provided for. No- thing more need be said about these fiercely contested questions, except to define General Garfield's relations to the appointment of the marshals. Without following the crooks and turns of parliamentary practice, it may be said that, March 19th, he avowed himself in favor of this proposition : That all appointments of said special deputy marshals having any duty to perform in respect to any election shall be made by the Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district in which such marshals are to perform their duties, or by the District Judge in the absence of the Circuit Judge. The main point here involved was, whether these deputies should be appointed by the marshals, as the existing law said, or by the judges, as he proposed. He was will- ing at any time to vote for his proposition as an original measure, standing by itself; but he declined to vote for it as a rider, and voted against it when it was insisted on as such. His proposition to vest the appointment of these marshals in the judges was opposed by the majority of his party in the House, and by all the Republican Senators save one. April 24th he defined his position in a brief speech, which is here given at length : Nothing is more unfortunate than the persis- tent determination of a majority of this House to tack " riders " upon appropriation bills, and thus take again the indefensible position of last ses- sion, that they will coerce another branch of the Government to approve of an independent mea- sure in order to save the Government supplies. There is no valid reason for not offering this amendment and passing it through both Houses as an independent bill. The majority have the 66 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. power to pass it, and, if it is made free from am- biguity, I have no doubt it would receive many votes on this side. But the majority have adopted a method to reach the result which is universally acknowledged to be bad, and which they know is especially offensive to the minority. On this ground we are unanimous on this side of the House in the opinion that this amendment ought not to be made to this bill. In short, to put this measure upon this bill is a challenge to an independent department of the Government — the Executive — to declare whether he will consent to be coerced in order to secure the necessary appropriations. It is a revival of the controversy of the last session that ended so disastrously to the majority. Experience ought to have taught them wisdom and led them to of- fer this measure by itself. I now ask attention to the merits of the propo- sition itself. If the point made by the gentle- man from Maine [Mr. Reed] be good, that the language of this amendment is such that its pro- visions can not be fairly and fully executed, his objection is fatal to the measure. In my judg- ment, however, the pending clause, by necessary implication, is a repeal of a part of one of the sections of the election laws, and hence must be incorporated with that section, and be construed and executed as a part of the whole body of the election laws ; and I think any court would be compelled to construe it as a part of these laws. Still, if there is a reasonable doubt on that ques- tion, it is a good reason why that doubt ought to be removed before the amendment becomes a law. Now, I call attention to the debate on another point. In all that has been said about it, I have noticed what appears to me an utter ignoring of one central fact in relation to the special deputy marshals created by the election law. They axe a class of officers wholly unknown to the statutes of the United States, except as they appear in the election law. Marshals and deputy marshals have been known in our statutes since 1789, and their powers and duties have been carefully de- fined ; but the office of special deputy marshal never existed in this country until it was created, and its duties defined, in the sections of the elec- tion law of 1871. To show how completely this ofEce has been confounded in the recent debate with that of deputy marshal, or general deputy marshal as it is called by way of distinction in the statutes, I call attention to section 2021, and the sections immediately following. The duty of the special deputy marshal is to attend all places of registra- tion and voting for members of Congress, and " to aid and assist the supervisors of election in the verification of any list of persons who may have registered or voted." This is the primary and chief duty of special deputy marshals. They are really assistants of the supervisors, rather than [of] the marshals; and the fact that they are called special deputy marshals does not change the nature of their office or the character of their duties. It is true that in the next section (2022) these officers are made conservators of the peace ; but so are the supervisors of the elections and many other officers. But with this exception the special deputy marshals have none of the genersll executive powers which the law has confided to marshals and their general deputies. They have no authority by virtue of their appointment as special deputies to make arrests and summon the posse comitatus to put down violence at the elec- tion. This they can do only when the marshal, under his hand and seal in writing, specially cm- powers them so to act, as provided in section 2024. But the general deputy marshals are required to exercise these powers by virtue of the office they hold as defined by the law. From this review of the statutes it will be seen that the chief duty of the special deputy marshals is to accompany and assist the supervisors of the election in the dis- charge of their gwasi judicial duties ; that is, in scrutinizing and verifying the registration and election, and detecting any fraud, or attempted fraud. Let me follow this subject a step further. The supervisor can not leave his post at the ballot-box to follow John Doe and leam whether he has reg- istered or voted under a false name ; and, there- fore, this section of the statute (2021) gives the supervisor an assistant, known as a special deputy marshal, who goes out and verifies John Doe, and reports the result of his investigation to the su- pervisor. As this is their chief function, it is clear that the special deputy marshals, in their essential character, are assistant supervisors, and their duties partake of the judicial character of those of their chief. Under the law as it now stands, the .supervi- sors themselves are appointed by the courts, and from the different political parties. Now, can any valid reascm be given on the merits of the case why their assistants, whoso first and chief duty is to aid them in the discharge of their quasi judicial duties, should not also bo appointed by the court, as they themselves are appointed, with- out regard to political affiliation ? The argument that these officers should not be appointed by the GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 67 court because they are under the orders of the marshal, falls to the ground when the plain fact is known that they serve the supervisor rather than the marshal. But we are told that if the special deputies should be appointed from different political parties there would be no unity of action among them in the execution of the law. I am not willing to confess, for I do not believe it to be true, that this country is so far gone into debase- ment and anarchy that the fair-minded people in any Democratic township or ward can truthfully say, " There is no Republican in this precinct who can be trusted to aid in executing the elec- tion law," or that they will in any Republican community say, " There is no Democrat in all the borders of this district whom we can trust to help carry out a fair election law." When I am com- pelled to believe this, I shall say that my country is no longer capable of self-governmetit, is no longer worthy of freedom. Our laws provide for summoning the posse comitatus as the extreme civil remedy for sup- pressing disorder and keeping the peace. What is the posse comitatus but the whole body of by- standers — men of all political parties? The theory of our Government is that in the last civil resort we summon all men, without distinction of party, to act as conservators of the peace. If the bystanders, without distinction of party, can be trusted to perform this important duty, surely we can trust such as the court, on its high responsi- bility, shall appoint to aid in securing a fair elec- tion. It ought constantly to be remembered that no one of these special deputy marshals has any power to put down a riot at the polls, unless the marshal, under his hand and seal, in writing, shall specially empower such special deputy to do that thing ; and let it also be remembered that this amendment in no way interferes with the power of the marshal to appoint as many general deputy marshals as may be needed to suppress disorder. I hope I am not altogether a dreamer, forget- ful of practical necessities, but I have never been able to see why this measure can not be ex- ecuted fully, thoroughly, and justly, provided its language makes it a part of the election law. My friend from Maine [Mr. Reed] has raised some doubt on that point, and in so far as that doubt is justified, it is a fair argument against the clause. But we should look beyond the mere word of the amendment to the objects of national good it may be made to accomplish. I care but little for it as a mere settlement of a present party controversy. Xo thoughtful man can fail to see great dan- ger in a close and bitterly contested national elec- tion. In common with my party associates, I be- lieve that these election laws are great and benefi- cent safeguards to the fair and free expression of the national will. Now, if the adoption of a measure like this will harness the two great politi- cal parties to these election laws, by the bonds of common consent and mutual cooperation for their enforcement, it will be u. benefit that will far outweigh any slight advantage that can be gained by retaining wholly within our party the appointment of a few officers to aid the supervisors. I believe this measure will not weaken but will strengthen the authority of the election laws, and will remove from them the only reasonable ground of complaint that the other side have made against them. I resist the amendment only because it is a rider which should not be a part of the Appro- priation bill ; but as a measure by itself, clearly and plainly drawn, I will cordially support it. I agree that ours is a party Government, and I be- lieve in parties, especially my own ; but when we come to the ballot-box, where citizens of all par- ties meet to enjoy the highest rights of freemen, all parties should unite in enforcing these just and necessary laws, designed to secure free, fair, and peaceable national elections throughout the Union. I now withdraw my formal amendment. While the bill to pay the marshals for the year ending .June 30, 1880, was pending in the House, Mr. Garfield made a vigorous speech, March 17th, that he published with the title, " Obedience to the Law the Foremost Duty of Congress." It has since been re- published, with the title, " The New Nullifi- cation." May 1, 1880, he made a personal explanation in the House, defending himself against the charge that he, by his action in the Committee of Ways and Means, was responsible for the continued high price of paper, caused by the wood-pulp monoply. The history of this Congress need not be given at more length. But it was in the reg- ular session, beginning the first Monday of December, 1879, that General Garfield took two long strides in the path of public prefer- ment. The Ohio Legislature, elected the pre- vious October, had to choose a Senator to succeed Mr. Thurman. So far as the Repub- licans of the State were concerned, the ques- tion of the succession did not formally enter into the canvass. At the same time, there was a general expectation that, in case they THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. were successful, Mr. Garfield -would be a lead- ing, if not the leading, Senatorial candidate. "When the election had passed and the Ee- puhlicans found that they had carried both Houses by decided majorities, this popular expectation began to sohdify into a set- tled party purpose. Other candidates were spoken of from time to time, but it was clear to the discerning that, if the people had their way, Garfield would be Senator. The popular mind declared itself so strongly that members of the Legislature began to feel that they had no moral choice left them, even if they had other preferences, which most of them had not. 'So sooner had the Senators and the Representatives come to- gether than all saw that it was a Garfield Legislature. All the various candidates that had been talked about in the newspapers soon discovered that they had no real follow- ing, and accordingly withdrew from the con- test. Garfield was nominated by acclama- tion in the party caucus. And the very first day that it could be done under the law, he was elected Senator for the term beginning March 4, 1881, by the nnanimous vote of his party. His relations to the canvass and to the election were consistent with the me- thod and spirit of his whole public life. In commenting last winter on his election and what led to it, the author of this Text-Book used the following language : He has commanded success. His ability, knowledge, mastery of questions, generosity of nature, devotion to the public goad, and honesty of purpose, have done the work. He has never had a political " machine." He has never forgot- ten the day of small things. He has never made personal enemies. It is difficult to see how a political triumph could be more complete or more gratifying than his election to the Senate. No bargains, no " slate," no " grocery " at Columbus. He did not even go to the Capital City. Such things are inspiring to those who think politics in a bad way. He is a man of positive convictions, freely uttered. Politically, be may be called a "man of war"; and yet few men, or none, be- grudge him his triumph. Democrats vied with Republicans the other day in Washington in snowing him under with congratulations ; some of them were as anxious for his election as any Republican could be. It is said that he will go to the Senate without an enemy on either side of the chamber. These things are honorable to all parties. They show that manhood is more than party. The second stride was Ms nomination for the Presidency at Chicago. Only a rapid sketch of this nomination is called for here. He went to the Kepublican National Convention as a delegate at large from his State. In a published letter, he had already declared himself in favor of Ohio's present- ing to the Convention Secretary Sherman as her choice for the Presidency. He went as a Sherman delegate. His history as a member of the Convention need not he here given point by point. His service as a member of the Committee on Rules; his prompt and efiiGient participation at each decisive point in the deliberations ; his growing power with the Convention and with the whole audience, evinced by the manner in which he was received day by day ; his steady loyalty to Mr. Sherman ; his great speech putting that gentleman in nomination ; his considerate and honorable treatment of all the members of the Conven- tion, and of all the men with whom the Convention dealt ; and, finally, his own nomination, June 8th, amid thunders of ap- plause, the roar of artillery, the waving of banners, and the inspiring strains of mu- sic—all these were fully spread before the public in the newspapers but yesterday, and I need not recount them. The state of things existing in the Convention on the eve of his nomination is still fresh in men's minds. More than three hundred delegates were avowing a determined purpose to cling to their favorite candidate at all hazards. The four hundred and odd others, constituting a considerable majority of the whole, were divided, apparently hopelessly, among a half dozen candidates, of whom General Garfield was not one. Political and personal differ- ences had gone so far that wise men outside the Convention did not believe that any one of the leading candidates could be nomi- nated. Apparently things had come to a hopeless deadlock. Democrats were looking on with exultation. Republicans with appre- hension. It was at this dangerous and ex- citing moment that James A. Garfield was nominated. Some men said it was a bit of political inspiration ; others, that it was an inspiration from a higher power. Which- GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 69 ever view we adopt, we can not fail to 8ee that it was a most fortunate nomination, as well for the country as for the Repuhlican party. Its great power was seen, first, in its effect on the Convention itself; second, in the echoes it awoke all over the country ; and, third, in the Cincinnati Convention of the Democrats, where, unquestionably, it had much to do with the nomination of General Haucock. Enough has been said to mark out, in bold lines. Congressman Garfield's great ca- reer. The reader ia now in a position to weigh and to measure his long and arduous services as a political student, as a member of House committees, as a debater on the floor of Congress, and as a political leader. Some of his minor services to the House, and to the country, will be grouped together and characterized in a few closing para- graphs. There are times and services in a great legislative body upon which men are brought forward, as much by the occasion itself as by anything else, because of their fitness. These may be called times and services of ceremony and commemoi-ation. To these occasions Mr. Garfield, by his wide culture, apprecia- tive spirit, quick and just discernment of the fitness of things, is well adapted; and on them he has been a frequent and favorite speaker in the House. Three or four of these occasions will be mentioned. , April 14, 1866, he made a brief though felicitous speecli on rising to move an ad- journment in memory of Abraham Lincoln. He crystallized a great fact or thought in these fit words : " It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln ; it was the embodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that struck him down, in the moment of the Nation's su- premest joy." He was the orator, too, chosen by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of New York City, to present to Congress Carpenter's great paint- ing, "Lincoln and Emancipation," which he did in a well-considered speech, February 12, 1878. The House having under consid- eration a resolution to accept from Massachu- setts, in the name of the United States, the statues of John Winthrop and Samuel Adams, he admirably summed up the services and characters of these two great citizens, De- cember 1 9, 1876. I can not resist the tempta- tion to quote this passage touching the use to which the old Hall of Representatives is now put, in devoting it to the reception of statues of distinguished citizens and patriots : As, from time to time, our venerable and beautiful Hall has been peopled with statues of the elect of the States, it has seemed to me that a Third House was being organized within the walls of the Capitol — a house whose members have received their high credentials at the hands of history, and whose term of office will outlast the ages. Year by year we see the circle of its immortal membership enlarging; year by year we see the elect of their country, in eloquent silence, taking their places in this American Pantheon, bringing within its sacred circle the wealth of those immortal memories which made their lives illustrious ; and year by year that august assem- bly is teaching a deeper and grander lesson to all who serve their brief hour in these more ephemeral Houses of Congress. And now two places of great honor have just been most nobly filled. He participated in the meeting held in commemoration of Dr. S. F. B. Morse, inven- tor of the telegraph, in the Hall of the House, April 16, 1872. At a similar meet- ing, held in the same place, in memory of the honored Dr. Joseph Henry, known for his great scientific discoveries and for hav- ing been the organizer and head of the Smithsonian Institution, he also bore a dis- tinguished part. Mr. Garfield had been as- sociated for some years with this great man in the regency of the Institution, and he paid a feeling and eloquent tribute to his lamented friend. He has also been a fre- quent and favorite speaker in the commem- orations of deceased Senators and Represen- tatives. His eulogies on Senators Morton and Chandler may be particularly men- tioned, and his speech in memory of Hon. Gustave Schleicher, of Texas, will be found in another place. 70 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. OHAPTEE Vir. THE STUMP, THE BAR, AKD THE PLATFOEM. " The most serious and instructive man on the stump." — (?. A. Townsend. ' ' He ranks to-day as one of the very best lawyers at the bar of the whole country."-r-)S'i!an% Mat- thews. It may seem tliat such labors as those described in the last chapter would suffice to tax any man's abilities. But over and above performing them. General Garfield has found time and talents to serve the pub- lic in other ways. These must now be grouped together and characterized.' His first political efforts were on the stump ; the stump has continued to be a theatre of his activity. Since 1864, with the single exception of 1868, when he was in Europe, he has borne a conspicuous and able part in the yearly Ohio canvasses. Tears ago, the State Central Committee stated that there were twice as many calls through the State for " a speech from Mr. Garfield " as from any other speaker. Nor have his speeches on the hustings been confined to Ohio. He has taken a part in canvassing Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Con- necticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Michi- gan, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. In most of these States he has been heard in repeated canvasses. A week or two's help from him was, at one time, thought almost essential to carrying some of the New Eng- gland elections. Mr. G. A. Townsend says, " He is the most serious and instructive man on the stump." This is the exact truth. His conception of what stump oratory should be is the highest, and he comes as near realizing it as any of his competitors. He does not look upon the stump as an engine for amusing the people, or for arousing them to unintelligent action. He rather regards it as a great political educator of the people. His speeches are full of facts, well reasoned, happily illustrated, pure in diction as in sen- timent, alive with patriotism, and are sent home to men's minds with the vital power of his own heart. He recognizes the differ- ence between popular and forensic oratory ; but, while making his public speeches pop- ular in the best sense, he never forgets the dignity of the statesman. His speeches are marked by a fairness, candor, and integrity that give his utterances weight with men of all parties. They may dissent from his con- clusions, but they can not fail to respect the mental and moral qualities of the man. It may be said of him, adapting the words that Mr. Whipple used of Daniel Webster, that he long ago succeeded in domesticating him- self at thousands of American firesides. Some of his great popular efforts — as those made in Cleveland, October 11, 1879, FaneuQ HaU, September 10, 1878, and Madison, Wis- consin, July 23, 1879 — may be recommended to stump orators as models. The key to his stump oratory is found in the dignity of his own mind, and in his lofty estimate of the American people. Realizing fully that the masses are often unjust and passionate, he stiU has great faith in their sober second thought. Accordingly he never trifles with the popular mind. He believes that it is en- titled to the best that is to be known. He is willing to trust it with the truth, believing that, in the end, wisdom will be justified of her children. The eloquent words in which, at Chicago, he spoke of the popular intelli- gence as the sea-level from which the politi- cian must make his measurements, will not soon be forgotten. On repeated occasions he has spoken to his own constituency of the confidence and strength that he drew from their support. It may be said that the rela- tions between him and that constituency, for eighteen years, have come as near to the ideal as ($an fairly be expected in the existing state of our civilization. Some of these relations were thus touched two years ago in the cor- respondence of the " Cleveland Herald" : ■Wabbek, August 20, 1878. A Republican Convention in the Nineteenth Ohio District came long since to be a stereotyped affair. The delegates come together, shake hands all round, find they are all of one mind, renomi- nate General Garfield by acclamation, pass a few sound Republican resolutions, listen to a short speech from their Representative, shake hands again, and go homo. AVhile waiting for the Con- vention to assemble in the morning, or for the trains to leave after it has adjourned in the after- noon, there is a free comparison of views among the leading politicians as to the condition of the party, and the majorities it will probably get out GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. Yl iu the several counties ; but no one as much as suggests a rival candidate. Gariield goes about among the delegates with the easy air of an old friend, and they treat him as if he were a big brother come home again. He knows them all by name, and calls some of them by their first names, and not a few of them hail him affection- ately as " James." When he, talks about politics they listen as to an oracle ; but they evidently regard the oricle as a household divinity, of whom there is no occasion to stand in awe. They look upon him as thoroughly in sympathy with their views and interests — one of themselves — a man of the people, who has climbed high up on the po- litical ladder without once forgetting his obliga- tions to the men who put him on the first rounds, or losing an interest in the every-day affairs of the people who have so often given him their votes. Presumably, ia the beginning of 1861, Mr. Garfield was looking to the bar as the sphere of his life-work. I have already mentioned that he was admitted to practice in that winter. If this conjecture be right, then it must be said that war first, and poli- tics afterward, frustrated his expectations. Still, he is a lawyer. However, his political life is so overshadowing that few men know how able a lawyer he is. His first appear- ance as counsel was in the Supreme Court of the United States. Can the same be said of another lawyer in the country? This was in 1866. Since then he has been en- gaged in some thirty cases before the same great tribunal, besides numerous appearances in the State courts, and in the inferior tribu- nals of the United States. Some of these cases have been very difficult as well as im- portant. In managing them, he has been more than ordinarily successful. With a sin- gle exception, the history and merits of these cases can not be pointed out. Nor would a list of their titles convey any clear ideas to the lay mind. It will probably seem strange to many that a man who had never been brought up in a law-offlce, or trained in the courts, should be capable of handling great legal interests. A half dozen of his law argu- ments and briefs lie before me as I write, and an examination of these will solve, even to an intelligent layman, the problem. Law is partly an ethical and partly aii historical science. The great principles of right and justice that lie at the basis of jurisprudence are comparatively few and simple. The busi- ness of an advocate of a high order is to ap- ply these principles, resting on the facts of human nature and developed in history, to those varying and often conflicting affairs in hnman life that become subjects of litiga- tion. Successfully to do this requires abili- ties of a high order, and a severe logical training. When he entered the Supreme Court room, in 1866, Mr. Garfield had both the abilities and the training needed. He had mastered the great doctrines of the law. History had taught him the direction in which juridical and political thought had been moving, as respected the case in hand. In fact, it was a politico-legal case. For the rest, he had simply to hunt up the decisions of the courts in like or in analogous cases, which, to a practiced student like him, was a work of no great difficulty. Teaching, poli- tics, war, and jurisprudence are very differ- ent kinds of activity ; but the qualities that have made him great in one are, for the most part, those that have made him great in all. His life teaches the young American how a man of native abilities, thorough gen- eral training, and resolute purpose can suc- cessfully engage in different fields of human employment. Those who have carefully read Mr. Garfield's speeches in the House for the last seventeen years have noticed that he has not been at a disadvantage in dis- cussing purely legal questions, even when matched against trained lawyers. Such men were probably not surprised to hear so com- petent an authority as the Hon. Stanley Matthews testify, as he did after the Chi- cago nomination: "He has qualified him- self to be a lawyer, and a good lawyer, as I know ; a lawyer who has been called upon to argue many cases in the Supreme Court of the United States ; and he ranks to-day as one of the very best lawyers at the bar of the whole country." Before taking up the one case that is to be noticed below, it is proper to add that after Garfield's first argument in the Supreme Court, Hon. J. S. Black strenuously -sought to induce him to quit politics and to form a law partnership with himself in Washington, holding out as an inducement an immediate probable profes- sional income of four times a Congressman's 72 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. salary pei- year. Some friends urged com- pliance with the eminent Judge's overture. For a time Garfield was on the point of yielding; but, fortunately for the country, he finally resolved to serve the public in a political capacity, so long as the public called for his services. The one case that should receive atten- tion here is known in legal history as : '•'■In the matter of ex-parte L. P. Milligan, "W. A. Bowles, and Stephen Horsey." In 1864 Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey, citizens of Indiana, were arrested by order of the Major-General commanding the military dis- trict of Indiana, and were tried by a military commission sitting in Indianapolis, od the following charges : 1. Conspiracy against the Government of the United States ; 2. Afford- ing aid and comfort to rebels against the Government of the United States ; 3. Incit- ing insurrection ; 4. Disloyal practices ; 5. Violations against the laws of war. The ac- cused pleaded that the military commission had no jurisdiction over them. Overruling this plea, the Court proceeded to try them, found them guilty, and they were condemned to death by hanging. This sentence was commuted by the President to imprisonment for life. The prisoners now filed a petition in the Circuit Court of the United States for Indiana, praying for release at the hands of the Court. The opinions of the judges were divided, and the case was certified to the Supreme Court at Washington. The ques- tions BO certified were the following : 1. On the facts stated in said petition and exhibits, ought a writ of habeas corpus to be is- sued according to the prayer of said petition?. 2, On the facts stated in said petition and exhibits, ought the petitioners to be discharged from cus. tody, as in said petition prayed ? S. Whether, upon the facts stated in said petition and exhib- its, the military commission mentioned therein had jurisdiction legally to try and sentence said petitioners in manner and form as in said peti- tion and exhibits is stated ? In March, 1866, the case was argued by very able counsel : lion. J. E. McDonald, Hon. J. A. Garfield, Hoii. J. S. Black, and Hon. D. D. Field for the petitioners; Hon. B. F. Butler, Hon. James Speed, and Hon. Henry Stanbury for the United States. Mr. Garfield's argument was a very able one ; the conclusions reached will be given in another place. Here it suflSces to say, that the question at issue was whether, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, citizens living in parts not affected by war or rebellion could be tried by mili- tary courts ? He argued that only the civil courts have jurisdiction in such cases. The peroration of his speech may well be quoted in this place : When Pericles had made Greece immortal in arts and arms, in liberty and law, he invoked the genius of Phidias to devise a monument Trhich should symbolize the beauty and glory of Athens. That artist selected for his theme the tutelar divinity of Athens, the Jove-bom Goddess, pro- tectress of arts and arms, of industry and law, who typified the Greek conception of composed, majestic, unrelenting force. He erected on the heights of the Acropolis a colossal statue of Minerva, armed with spear and helmet, which towered in awful majesty above the surrounding temples of the gods. Sailors on far-off ships be- held the crest and spear of the Goddess, and bowed with reverent awe. To every Greek she was the symbol of power and glory. But the Acropolis, with its temples and statues, is now a heap of ruins. The visible gods have vanished in the clearer light of modern civilization. We can not restore the decayed emblems of ancient Greece, but it is in your power, Judges, to erect in this citadel of our liberties a monument more lasting than brass ; invisible, indeed, to the eye of flesh, but visible to the eye of the spirit as the awful form and figure of Justice crowning and adorning the Republic ; rising above the storms of political strife, above the din of battle, above the earth- quake shock of rebellion; seen from afar and hailed as protector by the oppressed of all nations ; dispensing equal blessings, and covering with the protecting shield of law the weakest, the hum- blest, the meanest, and, until declared by solemn law unworthy of protection, the guiltiest of its citizens. The Court decided in favor of the peti- tioners, and they were released. General Garfield was subjected to considerable criti- cism for, his speech on this case. Union sentiment was running strong, and some Unionists seemed to think that rebels, and those who gave aid and comfort to rebel- lion, should be punished, it mattered not how. In a speech delivered in Warren, Ohio, some time after, he defended hia course. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. Y3 He reminded his hearers that the question which he had argued was not whether Mil- ligan, Bowles, and Horsey were innocent or guilty, but whether they had been legally tried and condemned. He had no sympathy with them as conspirators, but as men asking for legal rights he could properly give them professional assistance. " If guilty," he said, "hang them, but hang them according to law, if you do it otherwise, you commit murder." The matter has long since passed out of the public mind, but this short history is in place here, as showing Mr. Garfield's opposition to all violent and non-legal meth- ods of administei'ing justice. For him, a radical Republican, representing one of the most radical of constituencies, to consent to act in such a case, in the excited state of public feeling, was no small proof both of justice and of courage. Mr. Garfield has been a generous respon- dent to the calls so freely made by the pub- lic upon public men for those miscellaneous services that are so hard to characterize in brief terms. His speeches and addresses on ceremonial, commemorative, and other public occasions, great and small, can not be numbered. A few of these efforts will receive brief mention here. At the Hiram Commencement in 1867 he delivered an elaborate address on " Col- lege Education." The old Eclectic Institute was now donning college dignities, and the subject and the speaker could not otherwise have been so well chosen. He ran over the history of higher education ; drew copiously from his stores of literary information ; criti- cised the old classical college course as not meeting the wants of the time ; and inti-o- duced the new College to the "New Educa- tion." Two years later he delivered an ad- dress to the Consolidated Business College of Washington, D. 0., on " The Elements of Success.'' This address abounded in rich practical facts and thoughts, and had for its motto this saying of George Canning's : "My road must be through character to power. I will try no other course, and I am sanguine enough to believe that this course, though, perhaps, not the quickest, is the surest." His remarks on the Ninth Census, made in the House in the spring of 1869, attracted the attention of the Social Science Associa- tion managers. These saw at once that a politician had now approached the Census in the spirit of science. He was immediately invited to prepare a paper on the subject for ■ the next meeting of the Association, an invi- tation to which he responded in " The Ameri- can Census," a most valuable paper, read in New York in October following. At the Fourth Annual Reunion of the Army of the Cumberland, held in Cleveland in the autumn of 1870, he delivered a masterly oration on the life and character of General George H. Thomas. Again we find him in Hiram on Commencement Day. In the college year 1874-'75, his old fellow pupil, fellow teacher, and faithful monitor and friend of many years, Miss Almeda A. Booth, died in Cleve- land. She had not been connected with the Hiram Institute, save in memory, for sev- eral years; but, as she was so long iden- tified with its interests in by-gone years, and so many of her old pupils would be sure to attend the annual commencement, the authorities deemed it fitting that her great life and services should be commemo- rated. No one could disohai'ge this duty but Mr. Garfield. His address on the life and character of this noble woman was most truthful, appreciative, and eloquent. Surely an old Hiram student may be par- doned if he call it the best of its author's similar efforts. In an address entitled " The Future of the Republic; its Dangers and its Hopes," delivered before the literary so- cieties of Western Reserve College, Hud- son, Ohio, in 1873, he ably discussed a num- ber of questions of great public interest — principally the dangers of universal sufirage and industrial corporations. Under the first head he replied to the strictures of Lord Macaulay upon our political system ; and under the second discussed the perplexing problems presented to modern society by the enormous growth of the railway system. He is also the author of an address delivered before the Historical Society of Burton, Ge- auga County, Ohio, on " The Discovery and Settlement of the Northwest." This address called out a hearty encomium from the his- torian Parkman. He has also found time to contribute to our higher periodical literature. " The At- lantic Monthly " contains two articles from 74 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. his pen : " The Currency Conflict," Febru- ary, 1876 ; and " A Century of Congress," July, 1877. Four papers from him are found in the "North American Eeview": "The Army of the United States, Part I," March- April, 1878; "The Army of the United States, Part II," May-June, the same year ; " Ought the Negro to be Disfranchised ? " — one of a group of articles called a Sym- posium — March, 1879 ; and " National Ap- propriations and Misappropriations," June, 1879. He also contributed a chapter to the Japanese Minister's, Arinori Mori's, book on education. He wrote also the introduction to the English translation of the Marquis de Chambrun's book on " Executive Power in the United States." All of these contribu- tions to current literature are of substantial value. With a glance at General Garfield's inner intellectual life this chapter will close. Since he entered Congress seventeen years have passed, and they have been to him years of remarkable mental growth in all directions. We notice here what the inductive philosophers call the " mutuality of cause and effect." His public duties have compelled him to keep up and extend his private studios ; his private studies have greatly enlarged the sphere of his public duties. His zest for the delights and amen- ities of literature and scholarship have grown with his growth and strengthened with Ms strength. The number of topics yet to be touched in this sketch admonishes me not to linger long on this spot, green and delightful as such a spot ever is in a man of great public affairs. Not unfrequently he finds time, in the lulls between political storms, or in the very roar of the tempest, to gather materials for a "study" of some literary topic. Were he a less busy man, these materials would find their way to the public through review and quarterly pages. As it is, he often finds expression for what he is unwilling to keep all to himself in a long letter to some friend, who is sure to lay the letter away among his valuables. As an example, I shall here append one of these letters, kindly furnished me by the gentleman to whom it was addressed. If some classical scholar, chancing to read this sketch, should grow weary of p'olitics, he will surely find his interest revive as he runs over these paragraphs : WAsnmfiTON, D. C, Decemier 16, 1671. Dear Professor : Before I am wholly over- whelmed with the very arduous and long-con- tinued work which this winter's session will im- pose upon me, I will take the time to write you a long, and I hope not an uninteresting, letter on a subject to which I have given some attention, from time to time, during the last few years. Since I entered public life, I have constantly aimed to find a little time to keep alive the spirit of my classical studies, and to resist that constant tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty in literary studies, and particularly in the classical studies. I have thought it better to select some one line of classical reading, and, if possible, do a little work on it each day. For this winter, I am determined to review such parts of the Odes of Horace aa I may be able to reach. And, as pre- liminary to that work, I have begun by reading up the bibliography of Horace. The Congressional Library is very rich in ma- terials for this study, and I am amazed to find how deep and universal has been the impress left on the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writings. In a French volume before me, entitled " Edi- tion Folyglotte," II. Monfalcon, Paris, 1834, in which the Latin text and translations into Span- ish, Italian, French, English, and German are given, I find a catalogue of the editions of Horace published in each year from the date of the in- vention of printing down to 1S3S. This remark- able catalogue of editions fills seventy quarto columns of Jlonfalcon's book. Besides this Poly- glot edition, there are lying on my table, for reference, two thick volumes made up wholly of comments on Horace (the body of the text being wholly omitted), by Lambin, a great French scholar, who lived two hundred years ago ; also two thick volumes by Orelli, the Swiss scholar, who died in 1850; also three volumes of the Delphin Horace, edited by Talpy, the English scholar. These fonn but a small part of the stores of Horatian literature which our library contains ; but these facts refer rather to the bib- liography of Horace, and are aside from the par- ticular point I have in view in this letter. I have observed, in looking over the works on Horace, that a line of thought has been pm-sued by scholars and antiquarians quite analogous to that pursued by scientific men in forecasting — I- might almost say discovering — facts by induction from general principles. Let me illustrate this. GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 75 You remember the familiar illustration of it in the case of Leverrier, who found a perturbation in the movements of some of the planets of the solar system, and, after haying established the character and extent of that perturbation, declared that there must be an unknown planet of a certain size in a certain quarter of the heavens, whose presence would account for the perturbation; and finally, by pointing the telescope to that quarter of the heavens, the predicted planet was found. A recent fact may afford a still further in- structive illustration of the same principle. Two weeks ago to-day, Professor Agassiz, on the eve of departure for South America on a voyage of scientific discovery, addressed a letter to Professor Peirce of the United States Coast Survey, in which he predicts with great particularity what classes of marine animals he expects to find in the deep- sea soundings of the southern hemisphere ; what disposition of bowlders, the character and direc- tion of glacial groovings, he expects to find in the southern continent. The Professor has so fully committed himself that the result of the expedi- tion must be a great triumph or a great failure for him. Now, quite analogous to these researches in the field of science has been the process by which scholars have discovered the long-lost location of the country residence of Horace. Its site, and almost its existence, were forgotten during the centuries of darkness which the Middle Ages brought upon Europe ; and it was only after the revival of learning that men began to inquire for the old shrines and homes of the ancient Greeks and Romans. For a long time the site of the country home of Horace was merely a matter of conjecture, and scores of theories were advanced in regard to it. I have now before mo the work which was, I believe, the first thorough and elabo- rate attempt to apply the scientific process to the discovery of the site of the villa of Horace. It is in three volumes, of about five hundred pages each, and was written at Rome in 1166-'&1 by the Abb6 Bertrand Capmartin de Chaupy, a French ecclesiastic, who about that time spent several years in Rome, and subsequently, at the time of the French Revolution, fled to Italy, partly for safety and partly to gratify his love of classical study. I have run hastily over these volumes, and will give yoii a brief statement of the scope and char- acter of the argument. The first volume lays down the method by which we should proceed in finding the location of the Horatian villa. In fol- lowing out this method, he brings together all the references made to it, directly or indirectly, in the works of Horace, and many other similar references from many other contemporary author- ities and authors of the next succeeding period. From these elements he sets forth in general terms the features that any proposed site must possess in order to be trusted as the real place. In his second volume he applies the results of the first volume to all the localities that have been proposed as the site, and reaches the con- clusion that none of them will stand the test. In the third volume he traces the history of the changes that swept over the country in the neighborhood of Rome, the devastations and re- buildings, the decays and reconstructions of cities and villas, and finally directs all his tests to one point, which he affinns, a priori, must be the very location. This investigation leads him to the conclusion that the country home of Horace was situated among the Sabine Mountains, a few miles above Tivoli, upon the little river Digence, between the mountains Lucretile and Ustica on one side and the village of Mantella on the other, and not far from Varia, which was a little village on the Anio, and is now the hamlet of Vario. Such were the conclusions drawn by the Abbo from his elaborate investigation. Subsequent explorations have, I believe, in the main con- firmed the correctness of his conclusions. In a London edition of Horace, of 1&49, by the Rev, Henry Hart Milman, there is printed a letter by G. Dennis, written, as its author be- lieves, near the very spot where Horace wrote most of his odes. The letter is a most charming one, full of enthusiasm for the poet and his works, and gives a delightful description of the country and its surroundings. Did I not know that I lack the time and you' the patience, X should be tempted to send the whole letter ; but, when you visit us in Washing- ton, as I hope you will do some time, you must not fail to read it. I hope I may not have dis- tressed you with the length of this letter. My children are nearly recovered from scarlet fever. All the family are now well, and join mc in kindest regards to Mrs. Demmon and your- self. Very truly yours, J. A. Garfield. Professor I. N. Demmon, Hiram, Portage Countt/, Ohio, Mr. Demmon, formerly of Hiram Col- lege, Ohio, now of the University of Michi- gan, Ann Arbor, contributes the following delightful letter to my pages : 76 THE REPUBLICAN TEST-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Uniteksitt of MicniSAN, I Ann Abboe, July 9, 1S8D. f My Dear Hinsdale: In regard to General Garfield's scholarship, it seems to me that a para- graph in your speech of June 19th sums up the matter admirably. I do not see how your state- ment of the case can be improved upon. During my two years as Professor of the An- cient Languages at Hiram, I had the honor of frequent conversations with the General, and naturally the conversation sometimes turned on the classics. I was often surprised at his famil- iarity with these subjects, and particularly at his readiness in quoting from Latin authors. There was no affectation, no straining, no dragging in of classical allusions, so characteristic of the ped- ant, but a simplicity and spontaneity entirely in consonance with the subject and the occasion. Horace and Virgil, especially the former, seem to have been his favorites among the Latin poetg. . As I happened to be teaching the Odes of Horace, at his invitation I often exchanged letters with him on difficult or disputed points. These letters are interesting, not only in them- selves, but doubly so in showing how, in the midst of great public cares, the statesman could turn aside to the exegesis of a Latin poem. The following will serve as specimens from his letters of this kind. Under date of January 5, 1872, he writes: "I do not think ' momtra naiantia ' of Book I, Ode iii, has reference to ships, but rather to marine monsters. Both the language and the context of the Ode lead me to these conclusions. " In the third and fourth stanzas the poet is eulogizing the courage of that man who first trusted himself to a ship and to the stormy ele- ments. In the fifth stanza he discusses another feature of that man's courage, namely, that fea- ture which leads him to risk the various phases of death that he might meet by shipwreck at sea. And these were: first, the sea monsters, of which the ancients (in addition to the natural dread that all men feel) had a, superstitious dread, as being the inhabitants of the unknown deep ; second, the sea dashing around the treach- erous rocks and reefs. Both these relate to ship- wreck. There would be no immediate fear in be- holding huge ships ; for, on the sea, they would be rather the hope of life than a ' gradum mor- tis.'' This view, I find, is confirmed by nearly all the authorities I have consulted. " Lambin, in his notes, quotes a parallel pas- sage from the Greek of Oppianus, where whales and sharks are monsters of the sea. " In the Dolphin edition of the classics, this is the ordo : ' Quod mortis genus formidavit qui sine Icuyrymis aspexit pieces monstrosos nantcs ? ' In his notes, the Delphin editor says : ' Monstra na- iantia, eete grandia et immania. Conf. Juvenal, Sat. xiv, 283, Oceani monstra.'' " In the Polyglot Edition to which I alluded in my last letter, all the translations, so far as I am able to understand them, give this idea, except one ; and one translates ' natantia ' by the word which is equivalent to ' floating,' and which might be applied to a ship. " The German translation employs the word for swimming, which seems to me the more nat- ural meaning of ' natantia.'' " On January 27, 1872, he wrote as follows: " Thanks for your kind letter of the 23d instant. I am glad to have you keep me in mind of Hor- ace. I do not forget him, but my very heavy work in the House keeps me from giving him as much time as I desire. " The Ode to which you refer (B. IV, 0. vii) is one of the sweetest that Horace ever wrote. It is the sad reflections of a man who has no clear hope of life beyond the grave, who sees in the swift changes of the seasons and years only the certain approach of death, and who braces him- self up against the sadness which these reflec- tions bring by the doctrines of the Stoic philos- ophy. In some of the older editions this motto is placed at the head of the Ode : ' Omnia mu- tnnXur tempore ; jucundi igilur vivmdum est.' "I should translate the seventh and eighth verses thus : ' The year admonishes, and the hour which consumes the cherishing day admonishes you not to hope for immortality.' "Some commentators have supposed that ' Hora ' was used figuratively for ' Dea vicissitu- dinis.'' Others have supposed that it was a synonym for time in general. Orelli and the better commentators say it means an hour considered as a part of a day, and which Horace says is the destroyer of a day. Lambin paraphrases the passage thus: 'Annus {inquit Horat.) in quo magnae exist unt varieiaies et qui certo dierum numerq aliquando clauditur ac ier- minatur, menses, dies, hora, monent nos ne immor- talia spercmns.' " The day is called almum,' says Orelli, ' be- cause the sun, which presides over the day, cherishes all things. In this connection see Virg. Mn., V. 64.' " My acquaintance with the General dates, as you may remember, from November, 1868. At your own kind invitation, I spent two days with you at his house on Hiram Hill, and well do I remember those days, and the impression they made on me, GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 77 then a young man just out of college. The kind- liness of the man, and his mastery over literary as well as political and social topics, filled me with an admiration and esteem that subsequent acquaintance has only served to intensify. He is evidently a man of great powers of acquisition and retention, coupled with rapid assimilation of knowledge. He seems to have gleaned in almost every field, and to be always ready to enrich almost any subject with strikingly original Sugges- tions. I have heard him say that the man who succeeds best is the man who, other things being equal, knows best how to utilize the scraps of time which all men find in their daily life, and which most men waste. Perhaps the application of this principle in his own life may help to ac- count for his marvelous versatility. Since I left Hiram, I have had an occasional letter from him. After the exciting contest of 1874, I wrote him a note of congratulation on his triumphant reelection in the face of the bit- ter calumnies with which he was at that time assailed. His graceful response closed with these words : " I am resting, and reading Goethe's bi- ography, and letting the calm of his great life fall into my own." I count the dato of my acquaint- ance with General Garfield an event in my life. Very truly yours, Isaac N. Demmon. President B. A. Hinsdale, Cleveland, Ohio. The three following communications to newspapers will illustrate Mr. Garfield's men- tal aptitudes and. habits still more fully. They have appeared at different times the last ten years : Tlie Golden Age. .... Few public men in Washington keep up literary studies. General Garfield is one of the few. No one more constant in attendance at the Capitol than he ; no one more laborious on Committees; yet he keeps abreast of current literature, allowing no good book to escape him. When a long-winded and unimportant discussion blows up in the House, watch Garfield. He is an economist of time. Chatting and buttonholing as he goes, he quietly glides out, passes through the rotunda, and escapes into the serene realm of Mr! Spofford, where, amid all that amplitude of books, he regales himself in reading and in liter- ary conversation. He and Mr. Spofford are close friends, and whenever a box of new books arrives from New York or Europe, a message gets to Mr. Garfield to that effect, and he has the first peep. He is a late student. He burns the mid- night gas. In his position, no man can study continuously till the benign night, which hushes the world and sends office-seekers and log-rollers to bed, gives repose to his door-bell, and leaves him a few hours for himself. Here once more comes to his aid that royal health of his. Thus Mr. Congressman Garfield is able to keep his mind freshened by delightful letters, and to prose- cute those more rugged investigations in law, so- cial science, philosophy, and politics, in which the coming statesmen of America must be experts. The Chicago Tribune. .... Garfield is a man of infinite resources. He is one of the half dozen men in Congress who read books. He is one of the few persons in political life here who, in the tremendous crush and pressure of the winter's business, find time to follow a course of light reading. No man has had a more arduous place in the last two Con- gresses than the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. And no one ever charged him with neglect of duty. Yet Garfield finds time to read nearly all the now books, and to keep up a regular course of readings in the old ones. He has a hungry brain and a wonderful constitution. This has been the method of his busy life. The last few weeks have warned him that he can not stand the racket. Garfield reads everywhere — in the cars going to the Capitol, in the cars return- ing from his daily work, and in his committee room. He will fight Jim Beck about the neces- sity of building fortifications at distant points, and contest with a Granger from the Modoc coun- try about the Modoc claims ; yet, in the interim, will find time to give ten minutes to " silly old Bozzy," or some of his charming comrades. I should say that the secret of Garfield's resources in debate, the freshness of his illustrations, his ready references to literature in all its branches, is due to his voracious literary appetite. " I have read," he said, " since I have been lying here, struggling with this pain, eighteen volumes ; and I have indexed and commonplaced them all. Pretty fair work, I take it, for six weeks of mid- summer in Washington." Tlie Rockland Journal, July 3, 1880. We take pleasure in giving our readers the following sketch of our next President when in college. It is from the pen of Prof. Lavalette Wilson, of the Mountain Institute, Haverstraw, and of course full of interest at this time : 2o the Editor of the Journal: Some reminiscences of our candidate for President, from one who has known him person- 78 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK TOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ally longer perhaps than any other resident of this county, may not be without interest. Mr. Gariield was a native and resident of Ohio, and entered Williams College, Mass., at the beginning of the junior year (September, 1854), in the same class with your correspondent. In a class of forty or more he immediately took a stand above all others for accurate scholarship in every branch, but particularly distinguishing himself as a writer, reasoner, and debater. He was remarkable for going to the bottom of every sub- ject which came before him, and seeing and pre- senting it in an entirely new light. His essays written at that time, not of the commonplace character too common in college compositions, can even now be read with pleasure and admira- tion. While an indefatigable worker, he was by no means a bookworm or recluse, but one of the most companionable of men, highly gifted and entertaining in conversation, ready to enjoy and to give a joke, and having a special faculty for draw- ing out the knowledge of those with whom he conversed, thus enriching his own stock of infor- mation from the acquirements of others. Mr. Gariield even then showed that magnetic power, which he now exhibits in a remarkable degree in public life, of surrounding himself with men of various talents, and of employing each to the best advantage in his sphere. When questions for dis- cussion arose in the college societies, Garfield would give each of his allies a point to investigate ; books and documents from all the libraries would be overhauled ; and the mass of facts thus obtained being brought together, Garfield wovild analyze the whole, assign each of the associates his part, and they would go into the battle to conquer. He was always in earnest, and persistent in carrying his point, often against apparently insurmountable obstacles ; and in college election contests (which are often more intense than national elections) he was always successful. He showed perfect uprightness of character, was religious without cant or austerity, and his influence for good was wide-felt. The intimate associations which occur in col- lege life give the best opportunity of knowing the inner character of man. From Garfield I never heard an angry word, or a hasty expres- sion, or a sentence which needed to bo recalled. He possessed equanimity of temper, self-posses- sion, and self-control in the highest degree. What is more, I never heard a profane or im- proper word, or an indelicate allusion, from his lips. Ho was in habits, speech, and example u pure man. Arising, some may say, from his own early struggles, but as I believe from his native nobil- ity of character, was his sympathy for the suffer- ing or depressed or humble. He would find out their wishes or desires, their best points, and where their ability lay, and encourage them to advancement and success. Not even now has he any of that unapproachability and hauteur which too often accompany great talents and high posi- tion. He is a democrat in the highest sense of the word ; no matter how humble a position a person may hold, how unfashionably dressed, how coimtryfied in appearance, or lacking in knowl- edge of the usage of polite society, he will feel at ease in Mr. Garfield's presence, and receive the same courtesy, and probably greater attention than would the Prince of Wales. On entering Williams College Mr. Garfield was uncommitted in national politics. Perhaps his first lesson came from John L. Goodrich, who at that time represented in Congress the western district of Massachusetts. In the fall of 1855 Mr. Goodrich delivered a political address in Wil- liamstown on the history of the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, and the efforts of the handful of Re- publicans then in Congress to defeat the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. As Mr. Goodrich spoke, I sat at Garfield's side and saw him drink in every word. He said, as we passed out : " This subject is entirely new to me ; I am going to know all about it." He sent for documents, studied them until he became perfectly familiar with the history of the Anti-slavery struggle, and from that hour has been the thorough Republican — the champion of right against injustice — that he is at the present hour. When Mr. Garfield -n-ent to OoDgress, Charles Sumner -was the widest reader in either House. It was but a short time until Garfield's book-list at the Library of Con- gress, according to Mr. Spofibrd, the libra- rian, was next to Sumner's in length. Wheth- er Mr. Garfield ever passed Mr. Sumner, I do not know ; but certainly since Sumner's death no man in public life in Washington has made so large a use of the library. CHAPTER Tin. LEADING TEAITS OF CnAEACTEE StIMMED UP. Tms life is a narrative and not a critical history. To give a final estimate — if there be such a thing— of the life and character of a man so prominent in public aflfairs GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 79 as General Garfield while he is at the height of his prominence, is difficult or impossible. Especially is this so at the opening of an ex- citing political campaign in which he is the standard-bearer of a great political party. Eecognizing this fully, it is, nevertheless, fitting to close this sketch with a genera' view of the man. A strong frame, broad shoulders, deep chest, powerful vital apparatus, and a mas- sive head furnish the physical basis of James A. Garfield's mental life. He is six feet high. Mr. Townsend's fuller description is thus : " He is a large, well-fed, ruddy, brown- bearded man, weighing about two hundred and twenty pounds, with Ohio-German colors, blue eyes, military face, erect figure and shoulders, large back and thighs and broad chest, and evidently bred in the country on a farm. His large mouth is full of strong truth. His nose, chin, and brows are strongly pronounced. A large brain, with room for play of thought and long ap- plication, rises high above his clear, discern- ing, enjoying eyes. He sometimes suggests a country Samson." He is physically capa- ble of an indefinite amount of hard work. The foregoing record of his achieve- ments, and the extracts from his speeches that are to follow, give the gauge of his mental power and quality; He excels in the patient accumulation of facts, and in bold generalization. He has great power of logical analysis, and stands with the first in power of rhetorical exposition. He has the in- stincts and habits of a scholar. As a student, he loves to roam in every field of knowledge. He delights in creations of the imagination, poetry, fiction, and art ; loves the abstract things of philosophy ; takes a keen interest in scientific research ; gathers into his capa- cious storehouse the facts of history and politics ; and throws over the whole the life and power of his own originality. He is not a Scaliger, a Descartes, or a Newton ; no man in public life — not even Mr. Glad- stone — can be these ; but his general culture is broad, deep, and generous. No public man these last ten years has more won upon our scholars, scientists, men of letters, and the cultivated classes generally. Says Mr. Townsend : " Since John Quincy Adams, no President has had Garfield's scholarship, 6 which is equally up to this age of wider facts." As an orator he lacks the massive grandeur of Webster, the brilliant declama- tion of Clay, and the fervid passion of Henry ; but his speeches are strong in fact, ribbed with principle, lucid in arrange- ment, rich in illustration, polished in diction, and vital with the power of a great nature. Not trained to the bar, he readily adapts himself both to the court and to the jury; he catches at once the ear of the House of Representatives ; he meets the expectations of those more fastidious people who cluster about the colleges, and in the literary cen- ters ; and, on due occasion, he sways great popular assemblies at his will. His moral character is the fit crown of his physical and intellectual nature. His mind is pure, his heart kind, his nature and habits simple, his generosity unbounded. An old friend told me the other day : " I have never found anything in the world to compare with Garfield's heart." His range and power of appreciation are great. He becomes absorbed in whatever interests him ; sees reflected in the man or subject his own mind ; and is, therefore, liable unconsciously to exaggerate the ability of a man or the value of a subject. He is not suspicious, and has great faith in human nature. For the most part, he has neglected material ac- quisition ; but his means, as well as his time and talents, are at the service of those who need them. His hospitality is bounded only by the capacity of his home. He is a man who makes the most of his home, and is emi- nently happy in his domestic relations. Mrs. Garfield is a lady of strong mind, of rich cultivation, her husband's fit companion. He is an excellent converser on a great variety of subjects, and is a favorite in cultivated circles. Wliile respecting the mental qualities that give success in the honorable accumulation of wealth, he is no lover of money or hang- er-on of rich men. He remembers the day of small things. His sympathies with the toilers are quick and generous. He re- members the pit from which he was himself digged — the rook from which he was hewn. At a time when certain journals were de- nouncing him as having grown rich by cor- ruption, he lived in a humble house in the retired village of Hiram ; and nothing about 80 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. his home, save his library, stood in contrast to the homes of his neighbors. He is a man of the strictest private and public integrity, and is responsive to the delicate points of honor. No man charges him with being a party to a questionable private transaction ; and when the charges made against hi^ pub- lic life cease to be useful to the partisan, they will fall into the pit provided for slan- ders. I am not aware that a single man of character, who has come into close relations with General Garfield, lays any charge of dishonesty or wrong at his door. These things are left to those inferior men whose instincts draw them to the gutter and who fatten upon garbage. Not long ago the representative of a great public journal asked me: "What do the people who know General Garfield think of his integ- rity?" Had my wits been about me, I should have answered: "Did the men who saw Chevalier Bayard hold the bridge of Garigliano against the Spaniards doubt his courage? Did those who saw Sir Philip Sidney fall on Zutphen field question his chivaby ? " As it was, I first answered in a general way, and then added : " I have known General Garfield twenty-seven years ; I do not say that I know him as well as one man can know another ; I know him as well as I can know another ; and there is no in- terest that one man can confide to his fel- low man, that I would not freely intrust to him." A little later, another reporter called upon me in my study to obtain some facts that might be of interest to the public. I had just thrown the private letters that General Garfield had written to me upon the floor. There were some hundreds in all ; the first written in January, 1857, the last on the eve of the Chicago Convention. I said to him: "Here are my Garfield let- ters. Some are scrappy notes, others dis- sertations. They are one side of a long and intimate correspondence. They relate to a great many subjects: business, domestic matters, religion, politics, life at home, and life abroad. With few exceptions, I have not read them since they were first re- ceived. No man is more zealous of his honor than am I; but I would be willing, so far as affecting his character is con- cerned, to have them go into every news- paper in the land without my even reading them over." The closer men have come into contact with him, the greater has been their faith in him. He has inspired confidence and respect in all large-minded and generous men, Tvith- out regard to politics. Withal, he is a re- ligious man. As a boy, he was never the bully or swaggerer that fiction sometimes makes him, but strictly moral and serious. Although abundantly able and willing to de- fend to the utmost his own rights, or the rights of the weak and helpless, by physical force, if necessary, he was peaceable and self-contained. Before reaching his majori- ty, he made public profession of religion, and has continued a member of the Church to this day. Like all men of his thought and reading, he understands the diflBcnlt religions questions that modern criticism and science have started; he no doubt thinks that the old theologies must be partially reconstruct- ed ; but his native piety, his early training, and his own sober convictions, hold him fast to the great truths of revealed religion. Eev. Dr. Butler, a Lutheran minister of Washington, says: "I have not unf requent- ly seen him supporting his venerable mother upon his strong arm as they slowly walked together from the house of God. He wor- ships regularly in the humble Disciples' church." The public life and character of a public man should be in harmony with his private life and character. This is not always true of such men, but it is eminently true of Gen- eral Garfield. He is of a piece throughout. I shall first notice the bent of his political thought. An able journalist speaks of the " strong tendency of politicians to neglect real poli- tics — that is, the business of the country — ^for the work of electioneering and management; and of a growing disposition on the part of the public to let politicians of this class take possession of the Government, and use it in their own game for their own hands." These complaints are well grounded. Unfortunate- ly, there has sprung up these last years in our country a class of public men who take no real interest in public questions. They care nothing for the exposition of sound political doctrine. They do not aspire to be GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 81 teachers of the people, or to lead the thought and the conscience of the nation. Their po- litical activity may be summed np thus; Violent antagonism to the opposing party ; a careful looking after public patronage ; the organization of the " machine " ; the cun- ning and selfish manipulation of the voters. To political reform, to the betterment of the Government, to raising the standard of pub- lic life, they are indifferent. General Gar- field is the farthest removed from these. No sooner had he entered Congress than he en- tered heart and soul upon the real questions of the day. The war over and reconstruc- tion passed, he saw that American politics were entering upon a new era. No man could now serve the nation by rehearsing the old slavery debates ; by fighting over the battles of the war on the floors of Congress ; by unduly prolonging controversies that were for ever settled. He saw that what the country needed was wise discussion and leg- islation on the civil service, the revenue, currency, banking, resumption, and the hun- dred other questions that are by no means sentimental, that do not appeal to the imag- ination, but that are dry, statistical, unpoetic, and as distasteful as possible to your politi- cal " war horse." In a noble speech on the currency, delivered in 1868, he said : I am aware that financial subjects are dull and uninviting in comparison with those heroic themes which have absorbed the attention of Congress for the last five years. To turn from the consideration of armies and navies, victories and defeats, to the array of figures which exhibits the debt, expenditure, taxation, and industry of the nation, requires no little courage and self-de- nial ; but to these questions we must come, and to their solution Congress, political parties, and all thoughtful citizens must give their best efforts for many years to come. Again, only last year he said : The man who wants to serve his country must put himself in the line of the leading thought, and that is the restoration of business, trade, commerce, industry, science, political econ- omy, hard money, and honest payment of all ob- ligations ; and the man who can add anything in the direction of the accomplishment of any of these purposes is a public benefactor. He grappled with these politico-economic questions with a giant's strength and a mis- sionary's zeal. This was in harmony with his saying, that "the man who wants to serve his country must put himself in the line of the leading thought." And that this is the leading thought, since 1866, no man of sense can deny. The enormous debt contracted during the war, the multiplica- tion and growth of industries, the rapid dif- ferentiation of American society, compel real politicians to think and work in this di- rection. It was Mr. Garfield's clear percep- tion of these facts that led him, in Decem- ber, 1865, to desire a place on the House Com- mittee of Ways and Means. Since that day he has stood with his party on party ques- tions, though sometimes recoiling from what he thought extreme measures ; but nothing is risked in saying that his most valuable services, both in the House and on the stump, have been in dealing with these politico- economical questions. Vigorously to de- nounce the " Solid South," or actively " to stir up the Brigadiers," any time these last ten years, is no proof of either ability or courage ; but to mold national legislation and educate the people on these difficult subjects is a proof, and a high proof, of both. Mr. Garfield's native and acquired mental habits well fitted him for such a work. His patience in gathering facts, power of gener- alization, scientific habit of mind, and facul- ty of lucid exposition could hardly have found worthier employment. He explored all accessible sources of knowledge that could serve him, and through him the pub- lic. He extended his studies in systematic political economy ; gleaned the field of American thought and legislation on indus- trial and fiscal matters ; and went to the Old World for her larger and riper experi- ence. He knew that this is America, and that many of the conditions of life are not the same here that they are on the Eastern continent; but he knew also that Ameri- cans are a division of the human race, that human life did not begin anew on these Western shores, and that to be useful and permanent our laws must recognize what is universal in human nature. He has never had a particle of sympathy with the senti- ment put in the famous question, ''What is abroad to us?" He has striven to make 82 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. knowledge the basis of legislation. He said in 1868: Our public debt, the greatest financial fact of this century, stands in the pathway of all polit- ical parties, and, like the Egyptian Sphinx, pro- pounds its riddles. All the questions which sprang out of the public debt, such as loans, bonds, tariffs, internal taxation, banking and currency, present greater difficulties than usually come within the scope of American politics. They can not be settled by force of numbers, nor carried by assault as an army storms the works of an enemy. Patient examination of facts, careful study of piinciples which do not appear upon the surface, and which involve the most difficult problems of political economy, are the weapons of this warfare. No sentiment of national pride should make us unmindful of the fact that we have less experience in this direc- tion than any other civilized nation. If this fact is not creditable to our intellectual reputation, it at least affords a proof that our people have not hitherto been crushed under the burdens of tax- ation. We must consent to be instructed by the experience of other nations, and be willing to approach these questions, not with the dogma- tism of teachers, but as seekers after truth. In working along this line, his materials soon began to grow into a prodigious store. These he carried partly in his retentive memory, partly in annotations in his books, and partly in an ingenious mechanical con- trivance for assorting and preserving such material, the germ of which he borrowed from his friend, the publicist Lieber. A journal lying before me remarks: "Those who have watched General Garfield during his long career in Congress, must often have been struck with his remarkable faculty of discerning, at short notice, any question that may arise. This is largely due to the fact that, for twenty years, he has been accu- mulating what is, perhaps, now the best collection of scrap-books in the country.'' As he grew in the House, and especially when he became the leader of his party, and in a sense of the House, this accumulated material was as useful to him as his rapid powers of acquisition. Few men have a just idea of what his position in the House implies. Paradoxical as it may sound, many of his best speeches were never made ; by which I mean that, in order to be ready to take part in a debate on short notice, he was obliged to make preparation on special sub- jects in advance, and it sometimes happened that a turn in the proceedings adjourned the speech indefinitely. Senator Hoar of Massa- chusetts, a man of sober statements, said in his Worcester eulogy : " Since the year 1864, you can not think of a question which has been debated in Congress, or discussed be- fore the American people, in regard to which you wiU not find, if you wish instruction, the argument on one side stated, and stated in almost every instance better than by any- body else, in some speech made in the House of Eepresentatives or on the hustings by Mr. Garfield." To perform these great labors has re- quired great courage, as well as great intel- lectual ability. Of course Mr. Garfield is a party man; it will be for history to sit in judgment both on him and his party; but his relations to his party and to his imme- diate constituency evince courage of a high order. At the very time of his nomination at Chicago he was standing almost alone in the House on a party question . He has never believed or acted upon that degrading theory of representation which bids the representa- tive carry out the thought or impulse that may be uppermost in men's minds for the day or even the year. In the Ohio Senate Chamber, after his election to the Senate of the United States, he said : During the twenty years that I have been in public life (almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States) I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my convictions, at whatever personal cost to myself. I have repre- sented for many years a district in Congress whose approbation I greatly desired ; but, though it may seem perhaps a little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person, and his name was Garfield. He is the only man that I am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and live with, and die with ; and if I could not have his approbation, I should have bad companionship. Mr. Garfield is a singularly round and symmetrical man. He has been a man of mark in education, war, law, and politics; and he might have been a man of mark in any of the callings that do not demand spe- cial genius. As a politician he has always GENERAL GARFIELD'S PUBLIC LIFE. 8a relied upon mental and moral forces. He has never been connected with a " ring " or belonged to a " group " ; he has never con- stracted or managed a " machine " ; to " bar- gains,'' " slates," and " booms " he is astran- ger. He has never sought office, save as h\s abilities and character have commended him to the public mind. This history does not em- brace a full account of the Chicago Conven- tion, in which his last great services to the public were rendered. It suflBces to say, his work and bearing there under circumstances most embarrassing, when a less well-poised man would have lost his head, are, for the time, the fitting close of his great career. But my outline is finished. Its subject served his country ably and faithfully in war, but as a Presidential candidate he stands distinctly upon his civic record. Says Sena- tor Hoar: "No President of the United States, since John Quincy Adams, began to bring to the Presidential office, when he en- tered upon it, anything like the experience in statesmanship of James A. Garfield." All in all, Mr. Garfield is one of the best products of our American soil and institu- tions. He began life nearly fifty years ago in the Ohio forest, poor as the poo'est ; and by his own exertions, abilities, and charac- ter, he has made his way upward until with- in a stone's cast of the highest place. His road has led him by the log-house, chopping- fallow, district school, tow-path, academy, and college, to the Ohio Senate, the army, the House of Kepresentatives, a Senatorial election, and a Presidential nomination. He sums up American life in himself. I do not believe that the Chicago Conven- tion could have nominated another man who touches the American mind and heart with equal power at so many points. His early life of toil and hardship, as well as his sym- pathy with the working classes, endears him to the toiling millions. There is a pathos in that early history which touches the heart of the humble worker. His masterly grasp of politico-economic questions, and his steady fealty to sound doctrine in all the financial madness and treachery of the last ten years, gain him the support of merchants, manu- facturers, and bankers. The school-teachers of the land count him one of their number. He is more than acceptable to the religious men, to temperance people, and to the min- isters of the Gospel. Enter the chill atmos- phere of the college and university lecture and recitation rooms, whose masters are not stirred by campaign stories, but who respect thoroughness, scholarship, and noble char- acter, and you find that he is a favorite. Enter the bare quarters of the toiling stu- dent, who is struggling with his poverty and his lessons, and the name of Garfield is an inspiration. A friend wrote me, the evening of the nomination, from the great University of Michigan : " I can not refrain from drop- ping you a line to-night to congratulate you on the well-deserved triumph of your friend General Garfield. Everybody here is in high glee. No other candidate would have been so strong. Now let the Democrats do their best." Once more the American people have an opportunity to elevate to the Chief Magis- tracy of the Republic a great civilian. His- tory will record whether they know their opportunity. However that may be, no Presidential nomination for years has so stirred the best elements of American life. Even the casual newspaper reader has not failed to notice the enthusiasm awakened among the more serious, thoughtful, and moral of our people. His record of twenty years is the pledge that, if elected to the office of President, he will give the Nation an administration that in ability, purity, and honor will be commensurate with its own greatness. PART II. GEKEEAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. The following sketch of General Arthur, the Bepublioan Vice-Presidential candidate, first appeared in the " New York Times " : General Chester A. Arthur was born in Franklin county, Vt., October 5, 1830. He is the oldest of a family of two sons and five daughters. His father was the Eev. Dr. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman who emigrated to this country from the County Antrim, Ireland, in his eighteenth year, and died October 2'T, 1875, in Newtonville, near Albany. Dr. Arthur was in many respects a remarkable man. He acquired extended fame, not only in his calling, but also in the domains of authorship. His work on Family Names is regarded the world over as one of the curiosities of English erudite literature. From 1855 to 1863 he was pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church of this city. He also filled the pulpits of Baptist churches at Bennington, Hinesburg, Fairfield, and Willis- ton, in Vermont, and York, Perry, Green- wich, Schenectady, Lansingburg, Hoosic, "West Troy, and Newtonville, in this State. His other son made a gallant record in the war of the rebellion, and is now a paymaster of the regular army, with the rank of major. General Arthur was educated at Union College, and was graduated in the class of '49. After leaving college he taught a country school during two years in Vermont, and then, having managed by rigid economy to save about $500, he started for this city and entered the law office of ex-Judge E. D. Culver as a student. After being admitted to the bar, he formed a partnership with his intimate friend and room-mate, Henry D. Gardiner, with the intention of practicing in the West, and for three months they roamed about in the Western States in search of an' eligible site ; but in the end returned to this city, where they hung out their joint shingle, and entered upon a suceessfol career almost from the start. General Arthur soon after married the daughter of Lieutenant Herndon, United States Navy, who was lost at sea, and who calmly went down to death smoking a cigar. Congress voted a gold medal to his widow in recognition of the conspicuous bravery he displayed on that occasion. Mrs. Arthur died only a short time ago. In 1852, Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon, Virginian slaveholders, intendiugto emigrate to Texas, came to this city to await the sail- ing of a steamer, bringing eight slaves with them. A writ of habeas corpus was obtained from Judge Paine to test the question wheth- er the slaves were not freed by the act of bringing them into free territory. Judge Paine rendered a decision holding that they were, and ordering the Lemmon slaves to be liberated. Henry L. Clinton was one of the counsel for the slaveholders. A howl of rage went up from the South, and the Vir- gmia Legislature authorized the Attorney- General of that State to assist in taking an appeal. William M. Evarts and Chester A. Arthur were employed to represent the people, and they won their case, which then GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 85 went to the Supreme Court of the United States. Charles O'Conor here espoused the cause of the slaveholders, but he, too, was beaten by Messrs. Evarts and Arthur, and a long step was taken toward the emancipation of the black race. Another great service was rendered by General Arthur in the same cause in 1856. Lizzie Jennings, a respect- able colored woman, was pat off a Foarth- avenue car, with violence, after she had paid her fare. General Arthur sued on her behalf, and secured a verdict of five hundred dollars damages. The next day the company issued an order to permit colored persons to ride on their cars, and the other car companies quickly followed their example. Before that the Sixth-avenue company ran a few special cars for colored persons, and the other lines refused to let them ride at all. General Arthur was a delegate to the Convention at Saratoga that founded the Republican party. Previous to the outbreak of the war he was Judge-Advocate of the Second Brigade of the State Militia, and Governor Edwin D. Morgan, soon after his inauguration, selected him to fill the position of Engineer in Chief of his staff. In 1861 he held the post of Inspector-General, and soon afterward was advanced to that of Quarter- master-General, which he held until the ex- piration of Morgan's term of ofiice. No higher encomium can he passed upon him than the mention of the fact that, although the war account of the State of New York was at least ten times larger than that of any other State, yet it was the first audited and allowed in Washington, and without the deduction of a dollar; while the quarter- masters' accounts from other States were re- duced from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 each. During his term of office every present sent to him was immediately returned. Among others, a prominent clothing house offered him a magnificent uniform, and a printing- house sent him a costly saddle and trappings. Both gifts were indignantly rejected. When Mr. Arthur became Quartermaster-General he was poor. When his term expired he was poorer still. He had opportunities to m^ke millions unquestioned. Contracts larger than the world had ever seen were at his disposal. He had to provide for the clothing, arming, and transportation of hun- dreds of thousands of men. Speaking of him at this period, a friend says: "So jealous was he of his integrity that I have known instances where he could have made thou- sands of dollars legitimately, and yet refused to do it on the ground that he was a public officer, and meant to be, like Caesar's wife, ' above suspicion.' His own words to me in regard to this matter amply illustrate his character: 'If I had misappropriated five cents, and on walking down town saw two men talking together, I would imagine they were talking of my dishonesty, and the very thought would drive me mad.' " At the expiration of Governor Morgan's term, General Arthur returned to his law practice. Business of the most lucrative character poured in upon him, and the firm of Arthur & Gardiner prospered exceed- ingly. Much of their work consisted in the collection of war-claims and the drafting of important bills for speedy legislation ; and a great deal of General Arthur's time was spent in Albany and Washington, where his uniform success won for him a national re- putation. For a short time he held the position of Counsel to the Board of Tax Commissioners of this city, at $10,000 per annum. Gradually he waa drawn into the arena of politics. He nominated, and by his efforts elected, the Hon. Thomas Murphy a State Senator. When the latter resigned the collectorship of the port on November 20, 1871, President Grant nominated General Arthur to the vacant position, and four years later, when his term expired, renominated him, an honor that had never been shown to any previous Collector in the history of the port. He was removed by President Hayes on July 12, 1878, despite the fact that two special committees made searching investi- gation into his administration, and both reported themselves unable to find anything upon which to base a charge against him. In their pronunciamientos announcing the change, both President Hayes and Secretary Sherman bore official witness to the purity of his acts while in office. A petition for his retention was signed by every judge of every court in the city, by all the prominent members of the bar, and by nearly every im- porting merchant in the collection district ; but this General Arthur himself suppressed. THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. In a letter to Secretary Sherman, review- ing the work of one of the investigating committees, General Arthur produced statis- tics to show that during his term of over six years in office the percentage of removals was only two and three fourths, against an annual average of twenty-eight per cent, ^under three immediate predecessors, and an annual average of about twenty-four per cent, since 185T. Of the nine hundred and twenty-three persons in office prior to his ap- pointment, five hundred and thirty-one were Btill retained on May 1, 1877. All appoint- ments, except two, to the one hundred posi- tions commanding salaries of $2,000 per year were made on the plan of advancing men from the lower to the higher grades on the recommendation of the heads of bureaus. The reforms which General Arthur instituted in the methods of doing business in the Custom-house were as numerous as they were grateful to the mercantile community. Since his removal he has been engaged in the practice of the law, and in the direction of Republican politics in the State, being chairman of the Republican State Committee. In person he is over six feet in height, broad- shouldered, athletic, and handsome. Like his predecessor, William A. Wheeler, he is an ardent disciple of Walton and a member of the Restigouche Salmon-Fishing Club, which was described in yesterday's " Times." He is a man of great culture and wide ex- perience, an able lawyer, with refined tastes, and manners of the utmost geniality. II. GENERAL AETHUE's LBTTEE AOCEPTING THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. New Tobk, July 15, 1880. Dear Sir : I accept the position assigned me by the great party whose action you an- nounce. This acceptance implies approval of the principles declared by the Conven- tion, but recent usage permits me to add some expression of my own views. The right and duty to secure honesty and order in popular elections is a matter so vital that it must stand in front The authority of the National Government to preserve from fraud and force elections at which its own officers are chosen is a chief point on which the two parties are plainly and intensely opposed. Acts of Congress for ten years have, in New York and elsewhere, done much to curb the violence and wrong to which the ballot and the count have been again and again sub- jected — sometimes despoiling great cities, sometimes stifling the voice of a whole State; often seating, not only in Congress, but on the Bench and in Legislatures, numbers of men never chosen by the people. The Dem- ocratic party, since gaining possession of the two Houses of Congress, has made these just laws the object of bitter, ceaseless assault, and, despite aU resistance, has hedged them with restrictions cunningly contrived to baffle and paralyze them. This aggressive majority boldly attempted to extort from the Execu- tive his approval of various enactments de- structive of these election laws, by revolu- tionary threats that a constitutional exercise of the veto power would be punished by withholding the appropriations necessary to carry on the Government. And these threats were actually carried out by refusing the needed appropriations, and by forcing an extra session of Congress, lasting for months and resulting in concessions to this usurping demand, which are likely, in many States, to subject the majority to the lawless will of a minority. Ominous signs of public disap- proval alone subdued this arrogant power into a sullen surrender for the time being of a part of its demands. The Republican party has strongly approved the stern re- fusal of its representatives to suffer the overthrow of statutes believed to be salutary and just. It has always insisted, and now insists, that the Government of the United States of America is empowered and in duty bound to efifeotually protect the elections denoted by the Constitution as national. More than this, the Republican party holds, as a cardinal point in its creed, that the Government should, by every means known to the Constitution, protect all American citizens everywhere in the full enjoyment of their civil and political rights. As a great part of its work of reconstruction, the Re- publican party gave the ballot to the eman- cipated slave as his right and defense. A large increase in the number of members of Congress, and of the Electoral College, from the former slaveholding States, was the im- GENERAL CHESTER A. AETHUK. 87 mediate result. The history of recent years aboauds in evidence that in many ways and in many places — especially where their num- ber has been great enough to endanger Dem- ocratic control — the very men by whose elevation to citizenship this increase of rep- resentation was effected, have been debarred and robbed of their voice and their vote. It is true that no State statute or Constitu- tion in so many words denies or abridges the exercise of their political rights; but the modes employed to bar their way are no less effectual. It i^ a suggestive and start- ling thought that the increased power de- rived from the enfranchisement of a race now denied its share in governing the coun- try — wielded by those who lately sought the overthrow of the Government — is now the sole reliance to defeat the party which represented the sovereignty and nationality of the American people in the greatest crisis of oar history. Republicans cherish none of the resentments which may have animated them during the actual conflict of arms. They long for a full and real reconciliation between the sections which were needlessly and lamentably at strife ; they sincerely offer the hand of good will, but they ask in re- turn a pledge of good faith. They deeply feel that the party, whose career is so illus- trious in great and patriotic achievement, will not fulfill its destiny until peace and prosperity are established in all the land, nor until liberty of thought, conscience, and action, and equality of opportunity shall be not merely cold formalities of statute, but living birthrights, which the humble may confidently claim and the powerful dare not deny. The resolution referring to the public service seems to me deserving of approval. Surely, no man should be the incumbent of an office the duties of which he is for any cause unfit to perform, who is lacking in the ability, fidelity, or integrity which a proper administration of such office demands. This sentiment would doubtless meet with gen- eral acquiescence; but opinion has been widely divided upon the wisdom and practi- cability of the various reformatory schemes which have been suggested, and of certain proposed regulations governing appoint- ments to public office. The efficiency of such regulations has been distrusted, mainly because they have seemed to exalt mere educational and abstract tests above general business capacity, and even special fitness for the particular work in hand. It seems to me that the rules which should be ap- plied to the management of the public ser- vice may properly conform, in the main, to such as regulate the conduct of successful private business. Original appointments should be based upon ascertained fitness. The tenure of office should be stable. Po- sitions of responsibility should, so far as practicable, be filled by the promotion of worthy and efficient officers. The investi- gation of all complaints, and the punish- ment of all official misconduct, should be prompt and thorough. These views, which I have long held, repeatedly declared, and uniformly applied when called upon to act, I find embodied in the resolution, which, of course, I approve. I will add that, by the acceptance of public office, whether high or low, one does not, in my judgment, escape any of his responsibilities as a citizen, or lose or impair any of his rights as a citizen ; and that he should enjoy absolute liberty to think and speak and act in political matters according to his own conscience, provided only that he honorably, faithfully, and fully discharges all his official duties. Tlie resumption of specie payments — one of the fruits of Republican policy — ^has brought the return of abundant prosperity, and the settlement of many distracting ques- tions. The restoration 'of sound money, the large reduction of our public debt and of the burden of interest, the high advancement of the public credit, all attest the ability and courage of the Eepublican party to deal with such financial problems as may hereafter de- mand solution. Our paper currency is now as good as gold, and silver is performing its legitimate function for the purposes of change. The principles which should govern the relations of these elements of the cur- rency are simple and clear. There must be no deteriorated coin, no depreciated paper. And every doUar, whether of metal or paper, should stand the test of the world's fixed standard. The value of popular education can hard- ly be overstated. Although its interests must 88 THE EEPUBLICAK TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. of necessity be chiefly confided to voluntary efEort and the individual action of the sev- eral States, they should he encouraged, so far as the Constitution permits, by the gen- erous cooperation of the National Govern- ment. The interests of the whole country demand that the advantages of our common- school system should be brought within the reach of every citizen, and that no revenues of the nation or of the States should be devoted to the support of sectarian schools. Such changes should be made in the pres- ent tariff and system of taxation as wiU relieve any overburdened industry or class, and enable our manufacturers and artisans to compete successfully with those of other lands. The Government should aid works of internal improvement national in their char- acter, and should promote the development of our water-courses and harbors wherever the general interests of commerce require. Four years ago, as now, the nation stood at the threshold of a Presidential election, and the Republican party, in soliciting a continuance of its ascendancy, founded its hope of success not upon its promises, but upon its history. Its subsequent course has been such as to strengthen the claims which it then made to the confidence and support of the country. On the other hand, con- siderations more urgent than have ever be- fore existed forbid the accession of its op- ponents to power. Their success, if success attends them, must chiefly come from the united support of that section which sought the forcible disruption of the Union, and which, according to all the teachings of our past history, will demand ascendancy in the councils of the party to whose triumph it will have made by far the largest contribution. There is the gravest reason for apprehen- sion that exorbitant claims upon the public Treasury, by no means limited to the hun- dreds of millions already covered by hills introduced in Congress within the past four years, would be successfully urged if the Democratic party should succeed in supple- menting its present control of the national Legislature by electing the Executive also. There is danger in intrusting the control of the whole law-making power of the Gov- ernment to a party which has, in almost every Southern State, repudiated obligations quite as sacred as those to which the faith of the nation now stands pledged. I do not doubt that success awaits the Eepublican party, and that its triumph will assure a just, economical, and patriotic adr ministration. I am, respectfully, Tour obedient servant, 0. A. Aethtte. To the Hon. Geobgi: F. Hoae, President of ihe Sepublican NatiOTial Convention. PART in. GENERAL GAREIELD'S SPEECHES. NuMKKOtrs quotations from General Gar- field's speeches have already been made in the history of his public life. Generally, however, these veere made to verify or to illustrate points of history, rather than to give an exposition of positive doctrine. In this third part of the work it is proposed to present such selections from his speeches — whole speeches or extracts — as will fully present his views on current public ques- tions. A fitting introduction to such se- lections will be a list of his speeches made in the House of Kepresentatives, with the dates of their delivery. It is believed that no man now in public life has swept over so wide a field of discussion. In no way can the breadth of that field be better shown than by this list. Only those speeches that have appeared in pamphlet editions are inciuded. 1. Free Commerce between the States : On the Bill to declare the Karitan and At- lantic Eailroad a Legal Structure, March 24 and 31, 1864. 3. Constitutional Amendment to Abolish Slavery, January 13, 1865. 8. Freedman's Bureau: Restoration of the Rebel States, February 1, 1866. 4. The Public Debt and Specie Payments, March 16, 1866. 6. To Establish a National Bureau of Education, June 8, 1866. 6. On the Bill to place the Rebel States under Military Control, February 8, 1867. T. On Reconstruction, and the Constitu- tional Power of Congress to control the Army, January 17, 1868. 8. On the Impeachment of Andrew John- son, February 29, 1868. 9. The Currency, May 15, 1868. 10. Taxation of United States Bonds, in reply to Eons. Fred. A. Pike and B. F. But- ler, July 15, 1868. 11. Ninth Census, December 16, 1869. 12. Public Expenditures and the Civil Service, March 14, 1870. 13. The Tariff, AprU 1, 1870. 14. Currency and the Banks, June 7, 1870. 15. Debate on the Currency Bill, June 15, 1870. 16. The McGarrahan Claim, February 20, 1871. 17. The Right to originate Revenue Bills, March 3, 1871. 18. Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, April 4, 1871. 19. Public Expenditures: their Increase and Diminution, January 23, 1872. 20. National Aid to Education, February 6, 1872. 21. Revenues and Expenditures, March 5, 1874. 22. Currency and the Public Faith, April 8, 1874. 28. Appropriations of the First Session of the Forty-third Congress, June 23, 1874. 24. Cheap Transportation and Railways, June 22, 1874. 25. Amnesty : Reply to Hon. B. H. Hill, January 12, 1876. 26. Can the Democratic Party be safely intrusted with the Administration of the Government ? August 4, 1876. 27. John "Winthrop and Samuel Adams, December 19, 1876. 28. Counting the Electoral Vote, Jann ary 25, 1877. 90 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 29. Repeal of the Resumption Law, No- vember 16, 1877. 30. The New Scheme of American Fi- nance: a Reply to Hon. W. D. Kelley, March 6," 1878. 31. Carpenter's Painting, "Lincoln and Emancipation," February 12, 1878. 32. The Policy of Pacification, and the Prosecutions in Louisiana, February 19, 1878. 33. The Army and the Public Peace, May 21, 1878. 34. The Tariff, June 4, 1878. 35. Joseph Henry, January 16, 1879. 36. Relation of the National Government to Science, February 11, 1879. 37. Sugar Tariff, February 26, 1879. 38. Speeches at the Extra Session, March 18 to July 1, 1879, embracing these titles : Revolution in Congress ; Close of Debate on First Army Bill ; Legislative Appropriation Bill; Second Army Appropriation Bill ; Ju- dicial Appropriation Bill; Judicial Appro- priation Bin, Nullification ; Defense of Union Soldiers of Seceded States ; Resumption and the Currency; The New Silver Bill ; The Mis- sissippi River an Object of National Care ; The Revived Doctrine of State Sovereignty ; Ancient and Modern Panics. 39. Obedience to the Law the Foremost Duty of Congress, March 17, 1880. 40. Pulp and Paper : How News and Public Opinion are manufactured. May 1, 1880. NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. In the House of Sepresentatives, February 6, 1872. " 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." — JoTin Adams's WorTcs^ Illy 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 per- petuation 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 faculties." — John Stuart Mill: " The Posi- tive Philosophy of Avguste Comte," p. 92. The House having under consideration the bill (H. R. No. 1043) to estabhsh an educational fund, and to apply the proceeds of the public lands to the education of the people — Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, said: Mr. Speaker : In the few minutes given me, I shall address myself to two questions. The first is: What do we propose by this biU to give to the cause of education ? and the second is : How do we propose to give it ? Is the gift itself wise, and is the mode in which we propose to give it wise ? This arrangement will include aU 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 fu- ture 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 en- dorsement. It seems to me that, in this act of giving, we almost copy its prototype in what God himself has done on this great continent of ours. In the center of its greatest breadth, where otherwise there might be a desert for ever, he has planted a chain of the greatest lakes on the earth, and the exhalations arising from their pure wa- ters every day come down in gracious show- ers, and make that a blooming garden which otherwise might be a desert waste. And from our great wilderness lands it is pro- posed that their proceeds, like the dew, shall fall for ever, not upon the lands, but upon the minds of the children of the na- tion, giving them, for all time to come, all the blessing and growth and greatness that 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 language, 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? GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 91 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 mea- sure ; and here and now, when we are inau- gurating this policy, I desire to state for myself, and, as I believe, for many who sit around me, that we do here solemnly pro- test 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 I have been compelled heretofore to differ with many friends of education, here and elsewhere, many who have thought it might be wise for Congress, in certain contingen- cies, to take charge of the system of educa- tion in the States. I will not now discuss the constitutional aspects of that question ; but I desire to say that all the philosophy 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 some- times with great admiration at a Govern- ment like Germany, that can command the light of its education to shine everywhere, that can enforce its school laws everywhere throughout the empire. Under our system we do not rejoice in that, but we rather re- joice that here two forces play with all their vast power upon our system of education. The first is that of the local, municipal pow- er under our State governments. There is the center of responsibility. There is the chief educational power. There can be enforced Luther's great thought of placing on magistrates the duty of educating chil- dren. Luther was the first to perceive that Chris- tian schools were an absolute necessity. In a celebrated paper addressed to the muni- cipal councilors of the empire in 1524, he demanded the establishment of schools in all the villages of Germany. To tolerate ig- norance was, in the energetic langtiage of the reformer, to make common cause with the devU. The father of a family who aban- doned his children to ignorance was a con- summate rascal. Addressing the German authorities, he said : Magistrates, remember that God formally com- mands you to instruct children. This divine com- mandment parents have transgressed by indo- lence, by lack of intelligence, and because of overwork. The duty devolves upon you, magistrates, to call fathers to their duty, and to prevent the re- turn 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, mag- istrates, who have allowed our youth to grow up like neglected shrubbery in the forest ? Ignorance is more dangerous for a people than the armies of an enemy. After quoting this passage from Luther, Laboulaye, in his eloquent essay entitled " L'Etat et ses Limites," pages 204 and 205, says: This familiar and true eloquence was not lost. There is not u 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 utter- ances 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 obliga- tions may be urged with all the strength of their high sanctions. There may be brought to bear all the patriotism, all the morality, all the philanthropy, all the philosophy of our people ; and there it is brought to bear in its noblest and best forms. But there is another force even gi-eater than that of the State and the local govern- ments. It is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that force which has built up the multitude of private schools, academies, and colleges throughout the United States, not always wisely, but always with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. I say, therefore, 92 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. that our local self-government, joined to and cooperating with private enterprise, have 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 signifi- cance. The Governments of Europe are now beginning to see that our system is better and more efficient than theirs. The public mind of England is now, and has been for several years, profoundly moved on the sub- ject of education. Several commissioners have lately been sent by the British Govern- ment to examine the school systems of other countries, and lay before Parhament the re- sults of their investigations, so as to enable that body to profit by the experience of other nations. Eev. J. Erazier, one of the assistant com- missioners 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 expres- sions of astonishment at the important part which private enterprise played in our sys- tem. In concluding his report, 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 peo- ple on the globe." But a more valaable report was delivered to Parliament in 1868, by Matthew Arnold, one of the most cultivated and profound thinkers of England. He was sent by Par- liament to examine the schools and univer- sities of the Continent, and, after visiting all the leading states of Europe, and making himself thoroughly familiar with their sys- tem of education, he delivered a most search- ing and able report. In the concluding chapter, he discusses the wants of England on the subject of education. No one who reads that chapter can fail to admire the boldness and power with which he points out the chief obstacles 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 European governments, England, with all her liberty and progress, is shackled with what he calls a civil organ- ization, which is, from the top to the bot- tom of it, not modern. He says: Transform she must unless she means to come at last to the same sentence as the church of Sar- dis : " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." However, on no part of this immense task of transformation 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 accomplishment 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 in- struction in this country? It is this, that the moment the working class of this country have this question of instruction really brought home to them, their self-respect will make them de- mand, like the working classes on the Continent, pubUc schools, and not schools which the clergy, man, 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 coun- try. In France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the public elementary school has, and exists by hav- ing, the commune, and the municipal government of the commune, as its foundations, and it could not exist without them. But we, in England, have our municipal organization still to get ; the coun- try districts, with us, have at present only the feudal and ecclesiastical organization of the Mid- dle Ages, or of France before the revolution. . . . The real preliminary to an effective system of popular education is, in fact, to provide the coun- try with an effective municipal organization ; and here, then, Is at the outset an illustration of what I said, that modern societies need a civil organi- zation which is modern. In the early part of 1870 a report was made to the Minister of Public Instruction by Mr. 0. Hippeau, a man of great learning, and who in the previous year had been or- dered by the French Government to visit the United States and make a careful study of our system of public education. In sum- ming up his conclusions, at the end of his report, he expresses opinions which are re- markable for their boldness, when we re- member the character of the French Gov- ernment at that time ; and Ms recommends- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 93 tions have a most significant application to tlie principle under consideration. I trans- ■ late his concluding paragraphs : What impresses me most strongly as the re- sult of this study of public instruction in the United States, is the admirable power of private enterprise in a country where the citizens early adopted the habit of foreseeing their own wants for themselves ; of meeting together and acting in concert ; of combining their means of action ; of determining the amount of pecuniary contribu- tion which they will impose upon themselves, and of regulating its use ; and, finally, of choosing administrators who shall render them an account of the resources placed at their disposal, and of the use which they may make of their authority. The marvelous progress made in the United States during the last twenty years would have been impossible, if the national life, instead of being manifested on all points of the surface, had been concentrated in a capital, under the pres- sure of a strongly organized administration, which, holding the people under constant tute- lage, wholly relieved them from the care of thinliing and acting by themselves and for them- selves. Will France enter upon that path of decentralization which will infallibly result in giving a scope, now unknown, to all her vital forces and to the admirable resources which she possesses f In what especially concerns public instruction, shall we see her multiplying, as in America, those free associations, those generous donations which will enable us to place public in- struction on the broadest foundation, and to re- vive 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 u part of the duties now imposed upon them, and aid the people- in supporting the rigid regime of liberty, by enlarging the powers of the municipal councils and of the councils of the departments, by favoring associations and public meetings, by opening the freest field to the examination and discussion of national interests ; in short, by de- serving the eulogy addressed by a man of genius to a great minister of France : " Monseigneur, you have labored ten years to make yourself useless." I have made these citations to show how strongly the public thought of Europe is mov- ing 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 con- trasted with centralized government. I am considering what is the best system of or- ganizing the educational work of a nation, not from the political standpoint alone, but from the standpoint of the school-house it- self. This work of public education par- takes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the human mind in its efforts for culture. The mind must be as free from extraneous control as possible; must work under the inspiration of its own desires for knowledge ; and while instructors and books are necessary helps, the fullest and highest success must spring from the power of self-help. So the best system of education is that which draws its chief support from the vol- untary effort of the community, from the in- dividual efforts of citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which they voluntarily impose upon themselves. The assistance pro- posed in this bill is to be given through the channels of this, our American system. The amount proposed is large enough to stimu- late to greater effort and to general emula- tion the different States and the local school authorities, 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 edu- cational system of the States. We only re- quire 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 people. This policy is in harmony with the act of ISST creating the Bureau of Education, and whose fruits have already been so abundant in good results. I hope that the House will set its seal of approval on our American sys- tem of education, and will adopt this mode of advancing and strengthening it. 94 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND- MENT TO ABOLISH SLAVERY. In the House of Representatives, January 13, 1865. Thb House having under consideration tlie joint resolution to amend the Constitu- tion of the United States so as to abolish slavery — Mr. Garfield said : Mr. Speaker: We shall never know why slavery dies so hard in this Republic and in this hall till we know why sin has such longevity and Satan is immortal. "With marvelous tenacity of existence, it has outlived the expectations of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It has been declared here and elsewhere to be in all the several stages of mortality, wounded, mori- bund, dead. The question was raised by my colleague [Mr. Cox] yesterday, whether it was indeed dead, or only in a troubled sleep. I know of no better illustration of its condition than is found in Sallust's ad- mirable history of the great conspirator Catiline, who, when his final battle was fought and lost, his army broken and scat- tered, was found far in advance of his own troops, lying among the dead enemies of Rome, yet breathing a little, but exhibiting in his countenance all that ferocity of spirit which had characterized his life. So, sir, this body of slavery lies before us among the dead enemies of the republic, mortally wounded, impotent in its fiendish wicked- ness, but with its old ferocity of look, bear- ing the unmistakable marks of its infernal origin. Who does not remember that thirty years ago — a short period in the life of a nation — but little could be said with impunity in these halls on the subject of slavery? How well do gentlemen here remember the his- tory of that distinguished predecessor of mine, Joshua R. Giddings, lately gone to his rest, who, with his forlorn hope of faith- ful men, took his life in his hand, and in the name of justice protested against the great crime, and who stood bravely in his place until his white looks, like the plume of Henry of Navarre, marked where the battle for freedom raged fiercest ! We can hardly realize that this is the same people, and these are the same halls, where now scarcely a man can be found who will venture to do more than falter out an apology for slavery, protesting in the same breath that he has no love for the dying tyrant. None, I believe, but that man of more than supernal boldness from the city of New York [Mr. Fernando Wood], has ventured this session to raise his voice in favor of slavery for its own sake. He still sees in its features the reflection of beauty and divinity, and only he. " How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations ! " Many mighty men have been slain by thee ; many proud ones have humbled themselves at thy feet ! All along the coast of our po- litical sea these victims of slavery lie like stranded wrecks, broken on the headlands of freed om. How lately did its advocates, with impious boldness, maintain it as God's own, to be venerated and cherished as divine ! It was another and higher form of civilization. It was the holy evangel of America dispens- ing its mercies to a benighted race, and des- tined to bear countless blessings to the wil- derness of the West. In its mad arrogance it lifted its hand to strike down the fabric of the Union, and since that fatal day it has been a "fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth." Like the spirit that Jesus cast out, it has, since then, been "seeking rest and finding none." It has sought in all the corners of the re- public to find some hiding-place in which to shelter itself from the death it so richly de- serves. It sought an asylum in the untrodden ter- ritories of the West, but, with a whip of scorpions, indignant freemen drove it thence. I do not believe that a loyal man can now be found who would consent that it should again enter them. It has no hope of harbor there. It found no protection or favor in the hearts or consciences of the freemen of the republic, and has fled for its last hope of safety behind the shield of the Constitu- tion. We propose to follow it there, and drive it thence as Satan was exiled from heaven. But now, in the hour of its mortal agony, in this hall it has found a defender. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 95 My gallant colleague [Mr. Pendleton], for I recognize him as a gallant and able man, plants himself at the door of hia dar- ling, and bids defiance to all assailants. He has followed slavery in its flight, until at last it has reached the great temple where liberty is enshrined — the Constitution of the United States — and there, in that last re- treat, declares that no hand shall strike it. It reminds me of that celebrated passage in the great Latin poet, in which the serpents of the sea, when they had destroyed Lao- coon and his sons, fled to the heights of the Trojan citadel and coiled ' their slimy lengths around the feet of the tutelar god- dess, and were covered by the orb of her shield. So, under the guidance of my col- league [Mr. Pendleton], slavery, gorged with the blood of ten thousand freemen, has climbed to the high citadel of American nationality, and coiled itself securely, as he believes, around the feet of the statue of Justice and under the shield of the O'onstitu- tion of the United States. We desire to fol- low it even there, and kill it beside the very altar of Liberty. Its blood can never make atonement for the least of its crimes. But the gentleman has gone further. He is not content that the snaky sorceress shall be merely under the protection of the Oonsti- tion. In his view, by a strange metamor- phosis, slavery becomes an invisible essence, and takes up its abode in the very grain and fiber of the Constitution; and when we would strike it he says, " I can not point out any express clause that prohibits you from destroying slavery ; but I find a prohibition in the intent and meaning of the Constitu- tion. I go under the surface, out of sight, into the very genius of it, and in that invis- ible domain slavery is enshrined, and there is nopower in the republic to drive it thence." That I may do no injustice to my colleague, I will read from his speech of yesterday the passage to which I refer : My colleague from the Toledo district [Mr. Ashley], in the speech which he made the other day, told us with reference to this point : " If I read the Constitution aright, and un- derstand the force of language, the section which I have just quoted is to-day free from all limita- tions and conditions save two, one of which pro- 7 Tides that the suffrage of the several States in the Senate shall be equal, and that no State shall lose this equality by any amendment of the Con- stitution without its consent ; the other relates to taxation. These are the only conditions and limitations." I deny it. I assert that there is another limitation stronger even than the letter of the Constitution ; and that is to be found in its in- tent and its spirit and its foundation idea. I put the question which has been put before in this debate : Can three fourths of the States constitu- tionally change this Government, and make it an autocracy ? It is not prohibited by the letter of the Constitution. It does not come within the two classes of limitations and conditions asserted by my col- league. Why is it that this change can not be made? I will tell you why. It is because re- publicanism lies at the very foundation of our sys- tem of government, and to overthrow that idea is not to amend, but to subvert, the Constitution of the United States ; and I say that if three fourths of the States should undertake to pass an amendment of that kind, and Rhode Island alone dissented, she would have the right to resist by force. It would be her duty to resist by force ; and her cause would be sacred in the eyes of just men, and sanctified in the eyes of a just God. He goes behind the letter of the Consti- tution, and finds a refuge for slavery in its intent, and with that intent he declares we have no right to deal in the way of amend- ment. But he has gone even deeper than the spirit and intent of the Constitution. He has announced a discovery to which I am sure no other statesman will lay claim. He has found a domain where slavery can no more be reached by human law than the life of Satan by the sword of Michael. He has marked the hither boundary of this newly discovered continent, in his response to the question of the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Wilson]. I will read it : I will not be drawn now into a discussion with the gentleman as to the origin of slavery, nor to the law which lies behind the Constitution of the United States, and behind the government of the States, by which these people are held to slavery. Not finding anything in the words and 96 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. phrases of the Constitution that forbids an amendment abolishing slavery, he goes be- hind all human enactments, and far away, among the eternal equities, he finds a primal law which overshadows states, nations, and constitutions, as space envelops the uni- verse, and by its solemn sanctions one hu- man being can hold another in perpetual slavery. Surely, human ingenuity has never gone further to protect a malefactor or de- fend a crime. I shall make no argument with my colleague on this point, for in that high court to which he appeals eternal jus- tice dwells with freedom, and slavery has never entered. I now turn to the main point of his ar- gument. He has given us the key to his theory of the Constitution in the three words which the gentleman from Rhode Island [Mr. Jenckes] commented upon last even- ing. Upon those words rests the strength or weakness of his position. He describes the Constitution of the United States as a " compact of confederation.'''' If I understand the gentleman, lie holds that each State is sovereign ; that in their sovereign capacity, as the source and foun- tain of power, the States, each for itself, rati- fied the Constitution which the Convention had framed. What powers they did not grant, they reserved. They did not grant to the Federal Government the right to con- trol the subject of slavery. That right stiU resides in tlie States severally. Hence no amendment of the Constitution by three fourths of the States can legally aflfeot slav- ery in the remaining fourth. Hence no amendment by the modes pointed out in the Constitution can reach it. This, I believe, is a succinct and just statement of his argu- ment. The whole question turns upon the sovereignty of the States. Are they sover- eign and independent now ? Were they ever so ? I shall endeavor to answer. I appeal to the facts of history, and to bring them clearly before us I affirm : I. That prior to the 4th day of July, 1776, these colonies were neither free nor inde- pendent. Their sovereignty was lodged in the crown of Great Britain. I believe no man will deny this. It was admitted in the first Declaration of Eights, put forth by the Pvovolutionary Congress that assembled in Philadelphia, in 1774, to pray for a redress of grievances. That body expressly ad- mitted that the sovereignty of the colonies was lodged in the crown of Great Britain. II. On the 4th of July, 1776, the sov- ereignty was withdrawn from the British crown by the whole people of the colonies, and lodged in the Eevolutionary Congress. No colony declared itself free and indepen- dent. Neither Virginia, New York, nor Massachusetts declared itself free and inde- pendent of the crown of Great Britain. The declaration was made, not even by all the colonies as colonies, but in the name and by the authority of "the good people of the colonies," as one people. In the following memorable declaration the sovereignty was transferred from the crown of Great Britain to the people of ihe colonies : We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publiah and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connections between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that as free and independent States they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, es- tablish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. In vindication of this view I read from the 197th page of the first volume of Jus- tice Story's " Commentaries " : The colonies did not severally act for them- selves and proclaim their own independence. It is true that some of the States had previously formed incipient governments for themselves, but it was done in compliance with the recommenda- tions of Congress. . . . The declaration of the independence of all the colonies was the united act of all. It was a "declaration by the representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled," " by the delegates appointed by the good people of the colonies," as in a prior declaration of rights they were called. It was not in an act done by the State governments then organized, nor by persons chosen by them. It was emphati- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 97 cally the act of the whole people of the United States, by the instrumentality of their represen- tatives, chosen for that, among other purposes. It was an act not competent to the State govern- ments, or any of them, as organized under the charters, to adopt. Those charters neither con- templated the case nor provided for it. It was an act of original inherent sovereignty by the people themselves, resulting from their right to change the form, of government, and to institute a new government whenever necessary for their safety and happiness. So the Declaration of In- dependence treats it. No State had presumed of itself to form a new government, o; to provide for the exigencies of the times, without consult- ing Congress on the subject ; and when they acted, it was in pursuance of the recommenda- tion of Congress. It was, therefore, the achieve- ment of tlie whole for the benefit of the whole. The people of the United Colonies made the United Colonies free and independent States, and absolved them from all allegiance to the British crown. The Declaration of Independence has accordingly always been treated as an act of par- amount and sovereign authority, complete and perfect, per se and ipso facto working an entire dissolution of all political connections with or al- legiance to Great Britain. And this, not merely as a practical fact, but in a legal and constitutional view of the matter by courts of justice. When these people ot the colonies becamo free, having withdrawn the sovereignty from the crown of Great Britain, where did they lodge it ? Not in the States ; but so far as they delegated it at all, they lodged it in the Revolutionary Congress then sitting in Phila- delphia. My colleague dissents. I ask his attention again to the language of this dis- tinguished commentator, on page 200 of the same volume : In the next place, we have seen that the power to do this act was not derived from the State governments, nor was it done generally with their cooperation. The question then naturally pre- sents itself, if it is to be considered as a national act, in what manner did the colonies become a na- tion, and in what manner did Congress become possessed of this national power ? The true an- swer must be that as soon as Congress assumed powers and passed measures which were in their nature national, to that extent the people from whose acquiescence and consent they took effect must be considered as agreeing to form a nation. Mr. Pendleton : I desire to ask my col- league from what power the delegates who sat in that Congress derived their authority to make the declaration ; whether they did not derive it from the colonies, or the States if the gentleman prefers that word, and whether each delegate did not speak in the Congress for the State government which authorized him to speak there ? Mr. Gaeeieid: 1 say, in answer to the point the gentleman makes, as I have already said, and in the language of this distin- guished commentator, that the moment the Eevolutionary Congress assumed national prerogatives, and the people, by their si- lence, consented, that moment the people of the colonies were constituted a Nation, and that Eevolutionary Congress became the au- thorized Government of the Nation. But the declaration was made "hy the authority of the good people," and hence it vi^as their declaration. Mr. Pendleton : Will the gentleman per- mit me to ask him whether, from that mo- ment, they became the representatives of the Nation, or whether they still retained their position as representatives of the States ? Mr. Gaefield : They were both. They were still representatives of the States ; but the new function of national representatives was added. They then took upon them that which now belongs to the gentleman, the twofold quality of State citizenship and na- tional citizenship. The gentleman is twice a citizen, subject to two jurisdictions ; and so were they. I shall still further fortify my position by reading from the 203d page of the same volume : From the moment of the Declaration of In- dependence, if not for most purposes at an ante- cedent period, the united colonies must be consid- ered as being a nation de facto, having a General Government over it, created and acting by the general consent of the people of all the colonies. The powers of that Government were not, and indeed could not be, well defined. But still its exclusive sovereignty in many cases waS' firmly established, and its controlling power over the States was in most, if not all, national measures universally admitted. III. On the 1st day of March, 1781, the sovereignty of the new Nation was lodged, by the people, in the " Articles of Confed- eration." The Government thus formed 98 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR TEE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. was a Confederacy. Its Constitution might properly be styled a " Compact of Confeder- ation," though by its terms it established a "perpetual union," and left small ground for the doctrine of secession. IV. On the 21st day of June, 1788, our national sovereignty was lodged, by the people, in the Constitution of the United States, where it still resides, and for its pres- ervation our armies are to-day in the field. In all these stages of development, from co- lonial dependence to full-orbed nationality, the people, not the States, have been om- nipotent. TheyhsLve abolished, established, altered, and amended, as suited their sov- ereign pleasure. For the greater security of liberty, they chose to distribute the functions of govern- ment. They left to each State the regula- tion of its local and municipal affairs, and endowed the Federal Republic with the high functions of national sovereignty. They made the Constitution. That great charter tells its own story best ; We, Ihe people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con- stitution for the United States of America. ISTot "we, the sovereign States," do enter into a league or form a " compact of confederation." If the gentleman looks, then, for a kind of political " apostolic succession " of American sovereignty, he will find that neither colonies nor States were in the royal line; but this is the genealogy: first, the Crown and Parlia- ment of Great Britain ; second, the Revolu- tionary Congress; third, the Articles of Confederation ; fonrth and now, the Consti- tution of the United States ; and all this by the authority of the people. Now, if no one of the colonies was sov- ereign and independent, when and how did any of the States become so? The gentle- man must show us by wliat act it was done, and where the deed was recorded. I think I have shown that his position has no foun- dation in history, and the argument based upon it falls to the ground. In framing and establishing the Consti- tution, what restrictions were laid upon the people? Absolutely no human power be- yond themselves. No barriers confined them but the laws of nature, the laws of God, their love of justice, and their as- pirations for liberty. Over that limitless expanse they ranged at will, and out of such materials as their wisdom selected they built the stately fabric of our Government. That Constitution, with its amendments, is the latest and the greatest utterance of American sovereignty. The hour is now at hand when that majestic sovereign, for the benignant purpose of securing stUl farther the " blessings of liberty," is about to put forth another oracle ; is about to declare that nniversal freedom shall be the supreme law of the land. Show me the power that is authorized to forbid it. The lapse of eighty years has not abated one jot or tittle from the original sovereignty of the American people. They made the Constitution what it is. They could have made it otherwise then ; they can make it otherwise now. But my colleague [Mr. Pendleton] has planted himself on the intent of the Consti- tution. On that point I ask him by what means the will of this Nation reaches the cit- izen with its obligations ? Only as that will is revealed in the logical and grammatical meaning of the words and phrases of the written Constitution. Beyond this there is, there can be, no legal force or potency. If the amending power granted in the Consti- tution be in any way abridged or restricted, such restriction must be found in the just meaning of the instrument itself. Any other doctrine would overthrow the whole fabric of jurisprudence. What are the limitations of the amending power ? Plainly and only these : That no amendment which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State without its consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Sen- ate. — Article V. The first restriction, being bounded by the year 1808, is of conrse functvs officio, and no longer operative; the last is still binding. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 99 The gentleman [Mr. Pendleton] does not claim that any other sentence is restrictive ; but he would have us believe there is some- thing not written down, a tertium quid, a kind of exhalation rising out of the depths of the Constitution, that has the power of itself to stay the hand of the people of this great Eepublic in their attempt to put away an evil that is deleterious to the Nation's life. He would lead us in pursuit of these intan- gible shadows, would place us in the domin- ion of vague, invisible powers that exhale like odors from the Constitution, but are more potent than the Constitution itself. Such an ignis fatuus I am not disposed to follow, especially when it leads to a hopeful future for human slavery. I can not agree with my colleague, and the distinguished gentleman from Massa- chusetts [Mr. Boutwell], who unite in de- claring that no amendment to the Constitu- tion can be made which would be in conflict with its objects as declared in the preamble. What special immunity was granted to that first paragraph ? Could not our forefathers have adopted a different preamble in the beginning? Could they not have employed other words and declared other objects as the basis of their Constitution ? If they could have made a different preamble, declaring other and different objects, so can we now declare other objects in our amendments. The preamble is itself amendable just as is every clause of the Constitution, excepting only the ones already referred to. But this point is not necessary in the case we are now considering. We need no change of the preamble to enable us to abol- ish slavery. It is only by the final over- throw of slavery that the objects of the preamble can be fully realized. By that means alone can we " establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the hlessings of liberty to pursehes and our posterity.'''' The gentleman [Mr. Pendleton] puts an- other case which I wish to notice. He says that nine of the thirteen original colonies adopted the Constitution, and by its very terms it was binding only on the nine. So if three fourths of the States should pass this amendment, it would not bind the other fourth. In commenting upon this clause, Judge Tucker of Virginia, in his appendix to Blackstone, says that if the four colonies had not adopted the Constitution they would have been a foreign people. The writers of " The Federalist" hold a different doctrine, and fall back upon the original riglit of the nation to preserve itself, and say that the nine States would have had the right to compel the other four to come in. But the question is unim- portant from the fact that they did come in and adopt the Constitution. The contract once ratified, and obligations once taken, they became an integral part of an indivisi- ble nation, as indivisible as a State. The argument is irrelevant ; for the mode of adopting the Constitution is one thing ; the mode pointed out in the Constitution for adopting amendments to it is quite an- other. The two have no necessary relation to each other. I therefore agree with my colleague from the Columbus district [Mr. Cox], that except in the two cases of limitation, two thirds of Congress and three fourths of the States can do anything in the way of amendment, being bound only by their sense of duty to God and the country. The field is then fully open before us. On the justice of the amendment itself no arguments are necessary. The reasons crowd in on every side. To enumerate them would be a work of superfluity. To me it is a matter of great surprise that gentlemen on the other side should wish to delay the death of slavery. I can only account for it on the ground of long-continued familiarity and friendship. I should be glad to hear them say of slavery, their beloved, as did the jeal- ous Moor : " Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men." Has she not betrayed and slain men enough ? Are they not strewn over a thou- sand battle-fields? Is not this Moloch al- ready gorged with the bloody feast? -Its best friends know that its final hour is fast approaching. The avenging gods are on its track. Their feet are not now, as of old, shod with wool, for slow and stately step- ping, but winged like Mercury's to bear the swift message of vengeance. No human power can avert the final catastrophe. I did not intend, Mr. Speaker, ever again 100 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 18S0. to address the House on tlie subject of slav- ery. I had hoped we might, without a struggle, at once and for ever remove it from the theatre of American politics, and turn our thoughts to those other and larger fields now opening before us. But when I saw the bold and determined efforts put forth in this House yesterday for its preservation, I could not resist my inclination to strike one blow, in the hope of hastening its doom. THE REVIVED DOOTEINE OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY. In the House of Representatives, June S7, 1879. The House being in Committee of the Whole on the Marshals Appropriation Bill, Mr. Garfield said : Mr. Chairman: "To this favor" it has come at last. The great fleet that set out on the 18th of March, with all its freightage and armament, is so shattered that now all the valuables it carried are embarked in this little craft, to meet whatever fate the sea and the storm may offer. This little bill contains the residuum of almost everything that has been the subject of controversy at the present session. I will not discuss it in detail, but will speak only of its central fea- ture, and especially of the opinions which the discussion of that feature has brought to the surface during the present session. The majority in this Congress have adopted what I consider very extreme and dangerous opinions on certain important constitutional questions. They have not only drifted back to their old attitude on the subject of State sovereignty, but they have pushed that doc- trine much further than most of their pred- ecessors ever went before, except during the period immediately preceding the late war. So extreme are some of these utterances, that nothing short of actual quotations from the record will do their authors justice. I therefore shall read several extracts from de- bates at the present session of Congress, and group them in the order of the topics dis- cussed. Senator Wallace (" Congressional Rec- ord," June 3d, pp. 3 and 6) says : The Federal Government has no voters ; it can make none, it can constitutionally control none. . . . When it asserts the power to create and hold " national elections" or to regulate the conduct of the voter on election day, or to maintain equal suffrage, it tramples under foot the very basis of the Federal system, and seeks to build a consoli- dated government from a democratic republic. This Is the plain purpose of the men now in con- trol of the Federal Government, and to this end the teachings of leading Republicans now are shaped. There are no national voters. Voters who vote for national representatives are qualified by State constitutions and State laws, and national citizenship is not required of a voter of the State by any provision of the Federal Constitution nor in practice. If there be such a thing, then, as a "national election," it wants the first clement of an election . — a national voter. The Federal Government, or (if it suits our friends on the other side better) the Nation, has no voters. It can not create them, it can not qualify them. Representative Clark, of Missouri (" Rec- ord," April 26th, p. 60), says : The United States has no voters. Senator Maxey, Texas (" Record," April 21st, p. 72), says : It follows as surely as " gi-ass grows and water runs " that, under our Constitution, the entire con- trol of elections must be under the State whose voters assemble ; whose right to vote is not drawn from the Constitution of the United States, but existed and was freely exercised long before its adoption. Senator Williams, Kentucky (" Record," April 25th, p. 8), .says : The Legislatures of the States and the people of the several districts are the constituency of Senators and Representatives in Congress. They receive their commissions from the Governor, and when they resign (which is very seldom) they send their resignations to the Governor, and not to the President. They are State oflScers, and not Fed- eral officers. Senator Whyte ("Record," May 21st, p. 14) says: There are no elections of United States ofiBcers and no voters of the United States. The voters are voters of the States, they are the people of the States, and their members of the House of GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 101 Representatives are chosen by the electors of the States to represent the people of the States, whose agents they are. Mr. McLane ; Do I understand him to say that the Government of the United States has the right to keep the peace anywhere within a State ? Do I understand him to say that there is any "peace of the CTnited States" at all recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States ? Mr. Robeson: Certainly I do.— (" Record," April 4th, p. 14.) Mr. McLane (" Record," April 4th, p. 15) says: I believe that the provision of law which we are about to repeal is unconstitutional ; that is to say, that it is unconstitutional for the United States to "keep the peace" anywhere in the States, either at the polls or elsewhere ; and if it were constitutional, I believe, in common with gentlemen on this side of the House, that it would be highly inexpedient to exercise that power. . . . When that law used the phrase " to keep the peace," It could only mean the peace of the States. . . . It is not a possible thing to have a breach of the United States peace at the polls. Senator Whyte ("Record," May 21st, p. 18) says: Sovereignty is lodged with the States, where it had its home long before the Constitution was created. The Constitution is the creature of that sovereignty. The Federal Government has no inherent sovereignty. All its sovereign powers are drawn from the States. The States were in existence long before the Union, and the latter took its birth from their power. The State governments are supreme, by in- herent power originally conceded to them by the people, as to the control of local legislation and administration. The Federal Government has no part or lot in this vast mass of inherent sovereign power, and its interference therewith is utterly unwarrantable. Senator "Wallace ("Record," June 8d, pp. 3 and 4) says : Thus we have every branch of the Federal Government, House, Senate, the Executive and Judiciary Departments, standing upon the State governments, and all resting finally upon the peo- ple of the States, qualified as voters by State Con- stitutions and State laws. Senator Whyte (" Record," May 2l8t, p. 15) says: No, Mr. President ; it never was declared that we were a Nation. In the formation and adoption of the Consti- tution the States were the factors. These are the declarations of seven dis- tinguished members of the present Congress. The doctrines set forth in the above quota- tions maybe fairly regarded as the doctrines of the Democracy as represented in. this Capitol. Let me summarize them : First, there are no national elections; second, the United States has no voters ; third, the States have the exclusive right to control all elections of members of Congress ; fourth, the Senators- and Representatives in Congress are State officers, or, as they have been called during the present session, " ambassadors " or "agents" of the State; fifth, the United States has no authority to keep the peace anywhere within a State, and, in fact, has no peace to keep ; sixth, the United States is not a Nation endowed with sovereign pow- er, but is a confederacy of States ; seventl), the States are sovereignties possessing in- herent supreme powers ; they are older than the Union, and as independent sovereignties the State governments created the Union and determined and limited the powers of the General Government. These declarations embody the sum total of the constitutional doctrines which the Democracy has avowed during this extra session of Congress. They form a body of doctrines which I do not hesitate to say are more extreme than was ever before held on this subject, except, perhaps, at the very crisis of secession and rebellion. And they have not been put forth as ab- stract theories of government. True to the logic of their convictions, the majority have sought to put them in practice by affirmative acts of legislation. Let me enumerate these attempts. First, they have denounced as unconstitutional all attempts of the United States to supervise, regulate, or protect national elections, and have tried to repeal all laws on the national statute-book enacted for that purpose. Sec- 102 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. ond, following the advice given by Calhoun in his political testament to his party, they have tried to repeal all those portions of the venerated Judiciary Act of 1789, the Act of 1833 against nullification, the Act of 1861, and the acts amendatory thereof, which pro- vide for carrying to the Supreme Court of the United States all controversies that re- late to the duties and authority of any officer acting under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Third, they have at- tempted to prevent the President from en- forcing the laws of the Union, by refusing necessary supplies, and by forbidding the use of the army to suppress violent resistance to the laws, by which, if they had succeeded, they would have left the citizens and the authorities of the States free to obey or dis- obey the laws of the Union as they might choose. This, I believe, Mr. Chairman, is a fair summary both of the principles and the at- tempted practice to which the majority of this House has treated the country during the extra session. Before quitting this topic, it is worth while to notice the fact that the attempt made in one of the biUs now pending in this House, to curtail the jurisdiction of the na- tional courts, is in the direct line of the teachings of John C. Calhoun. In his " Dis- course on the Constitution and Government of the United States," published by authority of the Legislature of South Carolina in 1851, he sets fortli at great length the doctrine that ours is not a National Government, but a confederacy of sovereign States, and then proceeds to point out what he considers the dangerous departures which the Government has made from his theory of the Constitu- tion. The first and most dangerous of these de- partures he declares to be the adoption of the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789, by which appeals were authorized from the judgments of the supreme courts of the States to the Supreme Court of the Uni- ted States. He declares that section of the act unconstitutional, because it mates the supreme court of a " sovereign " State subor- dinate to the judicial power of the United States; and he recommends his followers never to rest until they have repealed, not only that section, but also what he calls the still more dangerous law of 1833, which for- bids the courts of the States to sit in judg- ment on the acts of an officer of the United States done in pursuance of national law. The present Congress has won the unenvi- able distinction of making the first attempt, since the death of Calhoun, to revive and put in practice his disorganizing and destruc- tive theory of government. Firmly believing that these doctrines and attempted practice of the present Congress are erroneous and pernicious, I wiU state briefly the counter-propositions : I afiirm : first, that the Constitution of the United States was not created by the governments of the States, but was ordained and established by the only sovereign in this country — the common superior of both the States and the Nation — the people them- selves; second, that the United States is a Nation, having a Government whose powers, as defined and limited by the Constitution, operate upon all the States in their corporate capacity and upon aU the people; third, that by its legislative, executive, and judicial authority the Nation is armed with adequate power to enforce all the provisions of the Constitution against all opposition of indi- viduals or of States, at all times and all places within the Union. These are broad propositions ; and I take the few minutes remaining to de- fend them. The constitutional history of this country, or, rather, the history of sov- ereignty and government in this country, is comprised in four sharply defined epochs : First. Prior to the 4th day of July, 1776, sovereignty, so far as it can be affirmed of this country, was lodged in the crown of Great Britain. Every member of every colony (the colonists were not citizens, but subjects) drew his legal rights from the crown of Great Britain. "Every acre of land in this country was then held mediately or immediately by grants from that crown," and " all the civil authority then existing or exercised here flowed from the head of the British empire." Second. On the 4th day of July, 1776, the people of these colonies, asserting their natural inherent right as sovereigns, with- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 103 drew tlie sovereignty from the crown of Great Britain, and reserved it to themselves. In so far as they delegated this national authority at all, they delegated it to the Continental Congress assembled at Philadel- phia. That Congress by general consent became the supreme Government of this country — executive, judicial, and legislative in one. During the whole of its existence it wielded the supreme power of the new Nation. Third. On the 1st day of March, 1781, the same sovereign power, the people, withdrew the authority from the Continental Congress, and lodged it, so far as they lodged it at all, with the Confederation, which, though a league of States, was declared to be a per- petual union. Fourth. When at last our fathers found the Confederation too weak and inefiScient for the purposes of a great nation, they abol- ished it, and lodged the national authority, enlarged and strengthened by new powers, in the Constitution of the United States, where, in spite of all assaults, it still remains. All these great acts were done by the only sovereign in this Republic, the people them- selves. That no one may charge that I pervert history to sustain my own theories, I call at- tention to the fact that not one of the colonies declared itself free and independent. Neither Virginia nor Massachusetts threw off its allegiance to the British crown as a colony. The great declaration was made not even by all the colonies as colonies, but it was made in the name and by authority of '' all the good people of the colonies " as one people. Let me fortify this position by a great name that will shine for ever in the constel- lation of our Southern sky — the name of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. He was a leading member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and also a member of the Convention of South Caro- lina which ratified the Constitution. In this latter Convention the doctrine of State sov- ereignty found a few champions ; and their attempt to prevent the adoption of the Con- stitution, because it established a supreme National Government, was rebuked by him in these memorable words. I quote from his speech as recorded in Elliott's " Debates ": This admirable manifesto, which, for impor- tance of matter and elegance of composition, stands uni'ivaled, sufficiently confutes the, honor- able gentleman's doctrine of the individual sov- ereignty aud independence of the several States. In that declaration the several States are not even enumerated, but after reciting, in nervous language, and with convincing arguments, our right to independence, and the tyranny which compelled us to assert it, the declaration is made in the following words : " We, therefore, the rep- rcsentatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name, and by the author- ity, of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to he, free and independent States." The separate independence and individual sov- ereignty of the several States were never thought of by the enlightened band of patriots who framed this declaration. The several States are not even mentioned by name in any part of it, as if it was intended to impress this maxim on America, that our freedom and independence arose from our union, and that without it we could neither bi free nor independent. Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this union by maintaining that each is separately and individually indepen- dent as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses. For a further and equally powerful vindi- cation of the same view, I refer to the " Com- mentaries " of Justice Story, vol. i, p. 197. In this same connection, and as a per- tinent and effective response to the Demo- cratic doctrines under review, I quote from the first Annual Message of Abraham Lin- coln, than whom no man of our generation studied the origin of the Union more pro- foundly. He said : Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of them ever having been a State out of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British colonial dependence, and the new ones each came into the Union directly from a condi- tion of dependence, excepting Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a State. The new ones only took the designation of States on coming into the Union, while that name was first adopted for the old ones 104 THE REPUBLICAN' TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the "united colonies" were declared to be "free and independent States " ; but, even then, the ob- ject plainly was not to declare their independence of one another, or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and afterward abun- dantly show. . . . The States have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves sep- arately, procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase, the Union gave each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and in fact it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw off their old dependence for them and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State Constitution independent of the Union. Of course it is not forgotten that all the new States framed their Constitutions before they entered the Union ; nevertheless dependent upon and preparatory to coming into the Union. In further enforcement of the doctrine that the State Governments were not the sovereigns who created t)iis Government, I refer to the great decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Chisholm vs. The State of Georgia, reported in 2 Dallas, a decision replete with the most enlightened national spirit, in which the Court stamps with its indignant condemna- tion the notion that the State of Georgia was "sovereign" in any sense that made it independent of or superior to the Nation. Mr. Justice Wilson said : As a judge of this Court I know, and can de- cide upon the knowledge, that the citizens of Georgia, when they acted upon the large scale of the Union as -i part of the "people of the United States," did not surrender the supreme or sovereign power to that State ; but, as to the pur- poses of the Union, retained it to themselves. As to the purposes of the Union, therefore, Georgia is not a sovereign State. ... ' AVhoever considers in a combined and com- prehensive view the general texture of the Con- stitution will bo satisfied that the people of the United States intended to form themselves into a nation for national purposes. They instituted for such purposes a National Government, com- plete in all its parts, with powers legislative, exe- cutive, and judiciary, and in all those powers ex- tending over the whole nation. Is it congruous that, with regard to such purposes, any man or body of men, any person, natural or artificial, should be permitted to claim successfully an en- tire exemption from the jurisdiction of the Na- tional Government ? Mr. Chairman, the dogma of State sov- ereignty, which has reawakened to such vigorous life in this chamber, has borne such bitter fruits and entailed sucli suffering upon our people that it deserves more particular notice. It should be noticed that the word "sovereignty" can not be fitly applied to any government in this country. It is not found in our Constitution. It is a feudal word, born of the despotism of the Middle Ages, and was unknown even in imperial Rome. A " sovereign " is a person, a prince, who has subjects that owe him allegiauoe. There is no one paramount sovereign in the United States. There is no person here who holds any title or authority whatever, except the oflSoial authority given him by law. Americans are not subjects, but citizens. Our only sovereign is the whole people. To talk about the "inherent sovereignty" of a corporation — an artificial person — is to talk nonsense ; and we ought to reform our habit of speech on that subject. But what do gentlemen mean when they tell us that a State is sovereign ? What does sovereignty mean in its accepted use, but a political corporation having no superior? Is a State of this Union such a corporation ? Let us test it by a few examples drawn from the Constitution. No State of this Union can make war or conclude a peace. "With- out the consent of Congress it can not raise or .support an army or a navy. It can not make a treaty with a foreign power, nor enter into any agreement or compact with another State. It can not levy imposts or duties on imports or exports. It can not coin money. It can not regulate commerce. It can not authorize a single ship to go into commission anywhere on the high seas ; if it should, that ship would be seized as a pirate or confiscated by the laws of the United States. A State can not emit bills of credit. It can enact no law which makes anything but gold and silver a legal tender. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 105 It has no flag except the flag of the TTnion. And there are many other gubjects on which the States are forbidden by the Constitution to legislate. How much inherent sovereignty is left in a corporation which is thus shorn of all these great attributes of sovereignty ? But this is not all. The Supreme Court of the United States may declare null and void any law or any clause of the Constitu- tion of a State which happens to be in con- flict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. Again, the States appear as plaintifis and defendants before the Supreme Court of the United States. They may sue each other ; and, until the Eleventh Amend- ment was adopted, a citizen might sue a State. These " sovereigns " may all be sum- moned before their common superior to be judged. And yet they are endowed with supreme inherent sovereignty ! Again, the government of a State may be absolutely abolished by Congress, in case it is not republican in form. And, finally, to cap the climax of this absurd pretension, every right possessed by one of these " sov- ereign" States, every inherent sovereign right, except the single right to equal repre- sentation in the Senate, may be taken away, without its consent, by the vote of two thirds of Congress and three fourths of the States. But, in spite of all these disabili- ties, we hear them paraded as independent, sovereign States, the creators of the Union and the dictators of its powers. How in- herently "sovereign" must be that State west of the Mississippi which the Nation bought and paid for with the public money, and permitted to come into the Union a half century after the Constitution was adopted! And yet we are told that the States are in- herently sovereign and created the National Government. Eead a long line of luminous decisions of tlie Supreme Court. Take the life of Chief- Justice Marshall, that great judge, who found the Constitution paper and made it a power, who found it a skeleton and clothed it with flesh and blood. By his wisdom and genius he made it the potent and beneficent instrument for the government of a great nation. Everywhere he repelled the insid- ious and dangerous heresy of the sovereign- ty of the States in the sense in which it has been used in these debates. Half a century ago this heresy threatened the stability of the Nation. The eloquence of Webster and his compeers and the patri- otism and high courage of Andrew Jackson resisted and for a time destroyed its power ; but it continued to live as the evU genius, the incarnate devil, of America ; and in 1861 it was the fatal phantom that lured eleven millions of our people into rebellion against their Government. Hundreds of thousands of those who took up arms against the Union stubbornly resisted all inducements to that fatal step until they were summoned by the authority of their States. The dogma of State sovereignty in alli- ance with chattel slavery finally made its appeal to that court of last resort where the laws are silent, and where kings and nations appear in arms for judgment. In that awful court of war two questions were tried : Shall slavery live? And is a State so sovereign that it may nullify the laws and destroy the Union? Those two questions were tried on the thousand battle-fields of the war ; and if war ever "legislates," as a leading Demo- crat of Ohio once wisely afiirmod, then our war legislated finally upon those subjects, and determined, beyond all controversy, that slavery should never again live in this Kepublic, and that there is not sovereignty enough in any State to authorize its people either to destroy the Union or nullify its laws. I am unwilling to believe that any con- siderable number of Americans will ever again push that doctrine to the same ex- treme ; and yet, in these summer months of 1879, in the Congress of the reunited Nation, we find the majority drifting fast and far in the wrong direction, by reasserting much of that doctrine which the war ought to have settled for ever. And what is more lamen- table, such declarations as those which I read at the outset are finding their echoes in many portions of the country which were lately the theatre of war. No one can read the pro- ceedings at certain recent celebrations, with- out observing the growing determination to assert that the men who fought against the Union were not engaged in treasonable con- spiracy against the Nation, but that they did 106 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. right to fight for their States, and that, in the long run, the lost cause will be victori- ous. These indications are filling the people with anxiety and indignation ; and they are beginning to inquire whether the war has really settled these great questions. I remind gentlemen on the other side that we have not ourselves revived these issues. "We had hoped they were settled be- yond recall, and that peace and friendship might be fuUy restored to our people. But the truth requires me to say that there is one indispensable ground of agree- ment on which alone we can stand together, and it is this : The war for the Union was right, everlastingly right; and the war against the Union was wrong, for ever wrong. However honest and sincere indi- viduals may have been, the secession was none the less rebellion and treason. "We de- fend the States in the exercise of their many and important rights, and we defend with equal zeal the rights of the United States. The rights and authority of both were re- ceived from the people — the only source of inherent power. We insist not only that this is a Nation, but that the power of the Government, with- in its own prescribed sphere, operates directly upon the States and upon all the people. "We insist that our laws shall be construed by our own courts and enforced by our Executive. Any theory which is in- consistent with this doctrine we will resist to the end. Applying these reflections to the subject of national elections embraced in this bill, I remind gentlemen that this is a National House of Representatives. The people of my Congressional district have a right to know that a man elected in New York city is elected honestly and lawfully ; for he joins in making laws for forty-five millions of people. Every citizen of the United States has an interest and a right in every election within the republic where national represen- tatives are chosen. We insist that these laws relating to our national elections shall be enforced, not nullified ; shall remain on the statute-books, and not be repealed ; and that the just and legal supervision of these elections ought never again to be surren- dered by the Government of the United States. By our consent it never shall be surrendered. Now, Mr. Chairman, this bill is about to be launched upon its stormy passage. It goes not into unknown waters ; for its fel- lows have been wrecked in the same sea. Its short, disastrous, and, I may add, ig- noble voyage is likely to be straight to the bottom. In reply to Mr. Hurd, same day, Mr. Garfield said : Mr. Chairman: Two points were made by my colleague from Ohio [Mr. Hurd], to which I desire to call attention. To strengthen his position, that the United States has no voters, he has quoted, as othet gentlemen have quoted, the case of Minor vs. Happersett, 21 Wallace, page 170. The question before the Court in that case was, whether a provision in the State Constitution which confines the right of vot- ing to male citizens of the United States is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The Court decided that it was not ; and, in delivering his opinion, the Chief Justice took occasion to say that " the United States has no voters in the States, of its own creation." Now, all the gentlemen on the other side who have quoted this de- cision, have left out the words " of its own creation," which makes a very essential dif- ference. The Constitution of the United States declares who shall vote for members of Congress, and it adopts the great body of voters whose qualifications may be or have been prescribed by the laws of the States. The power of adoption is no less a great governmental power than the power of creation. But the second point to which I wish to refer, and which has been made by several gentlemen, and very markedly by my col- league [Mr. Hurd], is this : He says that the contemporaneous construction of that clause of the Constitution which provides that Congress may at any time make or alter the regulations in regard to the time, place, and manner of holding elections, has deter- mined that Congress can never exercise that right so long as the States make provisions for it. So long as the States do not neglect or refuse to act, or are not prevented by re- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 107 bellion or war from acting, it was their ex- clusive right to control the subject. That is what my colleague says. That is what is said in " The Record " of June 3d by a distin- guished member of the Senate. "Now, mark how plain a tale shall put that down." On the 2l3t day of August, 1789, in the first House of Eepresentatives that ever met, Mr. Burke, a member from South Carolina, offered the following as one of the amend- ments to the Constitution. I will read it : The Congress shall not alter, modify, or in- terfere in the times, places, or manner of holding elections of Senators or Representatives, except when any State shall refuse or neglect, or be un- able by invasion or rebellion, to make such elec- tions. That was the very proposition which my colleague says is the meaning of the Consti- tution as it now stands. This amendment was offered in a House of Representatives nearly one half of whose membership was made up of men who were in the Conven- tion that framed the Constitution. That amendment was debated; and I hold in my hand the brief record of the debate. Fisher Ames of Massachusetts, approving of the clause as it now stands, said : He thought this one of the most justifiable of all the powers of Congress. It was essential to a body representing the whole comnfunity that they should have power to regulate their own elections, in order to secure a representation from every part, and prevent any improper regulations, calculated to answer party purposes only. It is a solecism in politics to let others judge for them, and is a departure from the principles upon which the Constitution was founded. ... He thought no Legislature was without the power to deter- mine the mode of its own appointment ; . . . that such an amendment as was now proposed would alter the Constitution ; it would vest the supreme authority in places where it was never contem- plated. Mr. Madison was willing to make every amendment that was required by the States . which did not tend to destroy the principles and efficacy of the Constitution; he conceived that the proposed amendment would have that ten- dency ; he was therefore opposed to it. Mr. Sherman observed that the Convention was very unanimous in passing this clause ; that it was an important provision, and if it was re- signed it would tend to subvert the Government. Mr. Goodhue hoped the amendment never would obtain. . . . Now, rather than this amend- ment should take affect, he would vote against all that had been agreed to. His greatest appre- hensions were that the State Governments would oppose and thwart the general one to such a de- gree as finally to overturn it. Now, to guard against this evil, he wished the Federal Govern- ment to possess every power necessary to its ex- istence. After a full debate, in which the doc- trine of State Rights was completely over- whelmed so far as this subject was con- cerned, the vote was taken, and 23 voted in favor of the amendment and 28 voted against it. It did not get even a majority, much less a two-thirds vote, in the House ; and it never was called up in the Senate at all. Now, who were the men that voted against it ? Let me read some of their hon- ored names : Fisher Ames of Massachusetts ; Charles Carroll of Carrollton; Clymer of Pennsylvania, whose distinguished descen- dant is a member of this House ; Fitzsim- mons of Pennsylvania; Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, who was Speaker of the first House of Representatives; Lee and Madi- son of Virginia ; Trumbull and Sherman of Connecticut — all these great names are re- corded against the very construction of the Constitution which my colleague defends as the correct interpretation of the existing clause on that subject. That is all I desire to say. THE CIVIL SERVICE. From a Speech made in the House of Repre- sentatives, March IJf, 1S70. I concur in the expression of my friend from Indiana [Mr. Niblack] that the Repub- lican party must stand by its own conduct, and I desire to call the attention of the Chair- man of the Committee on Appropriations [Mr. Dawes] to a measure of economy and reform to which he may, with great pro- priety, direct his efforts, and in which I have no doubt he will have the hearty coopera- 108 THE EEPUBLICAK TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. tion of the President and the executive departments, and the gratitude of all good men. I refer to our civil service. I shall not now enter that broad field which my distinguished friend from Ehode Island [Mr. Jenckes] has occupied, but I call atten- tion to the fact that our whole civil ser- vice is costing us far too much. Secretary ilcCulloch once made this remarkable state- ment: If you will give me one half what it costs to run the Treasury Department of the United States, I, will do all its work better than it is now done, and make a great fortune out of what I can save. The same might be said of all our execu- tive departments. And if there is one thing to which my distinguished friend from Mas- sachusetts [Mr. Dawes] can devote Ms atten- tion with most marked results, with the ap- plause of this House and of New Hampshire and of the whole country, it is the reorgani- zation of these departments. In the Annual Eeport of the Secretary of the Interior there is a passage which should be commended to every member of this House. That oflBcer says that ho can do the work of his department with two thirds of the force which he now has under his control, if you will only give him a reason- able and wise organization. I quote his words : The first measure of reform is to raise the standard of qualification, make merit as tested by the duty performed the sole ground of promotion, and secure to the faithful incumbent the same permanence of employment that is given to ofii- ccrs of the army and navy. Under the present system the general conviction among the clerks and employees is that the retention of their places de- pends much more upon the political influence they can command than upon energy or zeal in the performance of duty. After a careful examina- tion of the subject, I am fully persuaded that the measure I have suggested would have enabled this department to do the work of the past fiscal year with a corps of clerks one third less in num- ber than were found necessary. I believe I am right in saying that one half of all that great army of clerks em- ployed in the civil departments are engaged in the mere business of copying ; not in the use of judgment or expert knowledge of business, nor the application of the law to the adjustment of accounts ; but to the mere manual labor of copying, filing, or counting. Now, to do just such work as this, men can be hired all over the country for six or eight hundred dollars a year. Every business man knows that he can get a good, efficient copying clerk at that rate. But, without any rational organization, wo are paying that whole class of employees at least double what they can get elsewhere. The whole business of civtil appointments depends upon, that vague, uncertain, intangible thing called po- litical influence. Take the messenger service in these vari- ous departments. I saw a man in one of the departments this morning whose whole business is to sit at a door and open it when people come in and shut it when they go out, and occasionally to run into an office a few feet distant. Under our laws these messen- gers get eight hundred dollars a year, and if they were to go to any business man in this city they could not get half the money from him for the same kind of service. We employ common laborers in our ex- ecutive departments, to do work for which we pay them twice or more than twice as much as they can get anywhere else in the country where they are paid at the current rate of wages. In doing so we demoralize the whole system of labor. We pick one man out of a thousand and give him triple wages, thus making all the rest discontented offiee-seekers. Now, who is at fault in this? Not the President of the United States, not the Secretary of the Treasury, not the head of any Department of this Administration — not any or all of these, exclusively or main- ly. The fault lies here, fellow citizens of the House of Representatives ; here with us and our legislation. We make the laws ; we fix the rates of wages ; we render working- men discontented with ordinary gains, by picking out and promoting in an unreason- able and exceptional way the few men we hire, and they hold their places at our mercy and at our caprice. They are liable at any moment to be pushed aside for another favor- ite. Their service is miserable for its uncer- tainty. It tends to take away their indepen- dence and manliness, and make them the mere creatures of those in power. We do all this ourselves ; we go, man by GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 109 man, to the heads of these several depart- ments, and say, "Here is a friend of mine ; give him a place." We press such appoint- ments upon the departments ; we crowd the doors ; we fill the corridors ; Senators and Kepresentatives throng the offices and bu- reaus until the public business is obstructed, the patience of officers is worn out, and sometimes, for fear of losing their places by our influence, they at last give way and ap- point men, not because they are fit for the positions, but because wo ask it. There, Mr. Chairman, is, in my own judgment, the true field for retrenchment and reform. I believe that we can, at almost half the present cost, manage all these departments better than they are now managed if we adopt a judi- cious system of civil service. There are scores of auditing and accounting officers, heads of bureaus and divisions, there are clerks charged with quasi judicial functions, through wliose hands pass millions in a day, and upon whose integrity and ability the revenues of the nation largely depend, who are receiving far less than the railroad, tele- graph, insurance, manufacturing, and other companies pay for services far less responsi- ble. Such officers we do not pay the mar- ket value of their services. When we find that the duties of any office demand ability, cultivation, and experience, let a liberal sal- ary be given in order to procure the services of the best man ; and for the mere manual duties of these civil departments, let us get men for the market price. Now, sir, what do we see ? The Eepub- lican party is not moving forward to make this needed change. The Democratic party is not moving forward to make it. We are enjoying these privileges, so called, and our political opponents are waiting and watching and hoping for the time to come when they can do the same — when wo shall be out of power, and they shall come in, to do the same miserable work of ousting and appointing which we are called upon to do year after year. Now, in the name of justice, in the name of econotay, let us take hold of this matter, and sustain the Secretary of the In- • terior in the kind of work which he is doing, and help all the other departments to follow his example. Some one may say, "That is very fine talk ; show us the practice." I will tell you about the practice. The Patent Office of the Interior Department has during a whole year been conducted in part on the plan I am here advocating. No man, so far as I know, has been appointed to service in that bureau except on a strict competitive examination. The result is that we see in the management of the Patent Office marked efficiency and economy. But what can a department do, what can a bureau do, with the whole weight of Congressional influence pressing for the appointment of men because they are our friends ? In this direction is the true line of statesmanship, the true path of economy. I will follow cheerfully in the steps of my distinguished friend whenever he leads toward genuine economy. Let us take this great subject in hand, and it can be settled in a very few weeks. CONGRESS AND THE EXECUTIVE. From " A Century of Congress,'''' in " The Atlantic Monthly," July, 1877. This brings me to consider the present relations of Congress to the other great de- partments of the Government, and to the people. The limits of this article will permit no more than a glance at a few principal heads of inquiry. In the main, the balance of powers so ad- mirably adjusted and distributed among the three great departments of the Government has been safely preserved. It was the pur- pose of our fathers to lodge absolute power nowhere ; to leave each department indepen- dent within its own sphere, yet, in every case, responsible for the exercise of its dis- cretion. But some dangerous innovations have been made. And, first, the appointing power of the President has been seriously encroached upon by Congress, or rather by the members of Congress. Curiously enough, this encroach- ment originated in the act of the Chief Ex- ecutive himself. The fierce popular hatred of the Federal party, which resulted in the elevation of Jefferson to the Presidency, led that officer to set the first example of remov- ing men from office on account of political opinions. For political causes alone ho re- 110 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. moved a considerable number of officers who had recently been appointed by Presi- dent Adams, and thus set the pernicious ex- ample. His immediate successors made only a few removals for political reasons. But Jackson made his political opponents who were in office feel the full weight of his ex- ecutive hand. From that time forward the civil offices of the Government became the prizes for which political parties strove ; and, twenty- five years ago, the corrupting doc- trine that " to the victors belong the spoils " was shamelessly announced as an article of political faith and practice. It is hard- ly possible to state with adequate force the noxious influence of this doctrine. It was bad enough when the Federal officers numbered no more than eight or ten thou- sand ; but now, when the growth of the country, and the great increase in the num- ber of public offices occasioned by the late war, have swelled the civil list to more than eighty thousand, and to the ordinary motives for political strife this vast patronage is of- fered as a reward to the victorious party, the magnitude of the evil can hardly be measured. The public mind has, by degrees, drifted into an acceptance of this doctrine ; and thus an election has become a fierce, selfish struggle between the " ins " and the "outs," the one striving to keep and the other to gain the prize of office. It is not possible for any President to select, with any degree of intelligence, so vast an army of of- fice-holders without the aid of men who are acquainted with the people of the various sections of the country. And thus it has be- come the habit of Presidents to make most of their appointments on the recommenda- tion of members of Congress. During the last twenty-five years it has been under- stood, by the Congress and the people, that offices are to be obtained by the aid of Sen- ators and Representatives, who thus become the dispensers, sometimes the brokers, of patronage. The members of State Legisla- tures who choose a Senator, and the district electors who choose a Representative, look to the man of their choice for appointments to office. Thus, from the President down- ward, through all the grades of official au- thority, to the electors themselves, civil of- fice becomes a vast corrupting power, to be used in running the machine of party poli- ties. This evil has been greatly aggravated by the passage of the Tenure of Office Act of 1867, whose object was to restrain President Johnson from making removals for political cause. But it has virtually resulted in the usurpation by the Senate of a largo share of the appointing power. The President can remove no officer without the consent of the Senate; and such consent is not often given, unless the appointment of the suc- cessor nominated to fill the proposed vacancy is agreeable to the Senator in whose State the appointee resides. Thus, it has happened that a policy, inaugurated by an early Presi- dent, has resulted in seriously crippling the just powers of the Executive, and has placed in the hands of Senators and Representatives a power most corrupting and dangerous. Not the least serious evil resulting from this invasion of the Executive functions by members of Congress is the fact that it greatly impairs their own usefulness as leg- islators. One third of the working hours of Senators and Representatives is hardly sufficient to meet the demands made upon them in reference to appointments to office. The spirit of that clause of the Constitution which shields them from arrest " during their attendance on the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and from the same," should also shield them from being arrested from their legislative work, morning, noon, aud night, by office-seekers. To sum up in a word : the present system invades the in- dependence of the Executive, and makes him less responsible for the character of his appointments; it impairs the efficiency of the legislator by diverting him from his proper sphere of duty, and involving him in the intrigues of aspirants for office ; it de- grades the civil service itself by destroying the personal independence of those who are appointed ; it repels from the service those high and manly qualities which are so neces- sary to a pure and efficient administration ; and, finally, it debauches the public mind by holding up public office as the reward of mere party zeal. To reform this service is one of the high- est and most imperative duties of statesman- ship. This reform can not be accomplished GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. Ill without a complete divorce between Con- gress and the Executive in the matter of ap- pointments. It will be a proud day when an Administration Senator or Representative, who is in good standing in his party, can say ns Thomas Hughes said, daring his recent visit to this country, that though he was on the most intimate terms with the members of his own Administration, yet it was not in his power to secure the removal of the hum- blest clerk in the civil service of his Govern- ment. This is not the occasion to discuss the re- cent enlargement of the jurisdiction of Con- gress in reference to the election of a Presi- dent and Vice-President by the States. But it can not be denied that the Electoral Bill has spread a wide and dangerous field for Congressional action. Unless the boundaries of its power shall be restricted by a new amendment of the Constitution, we have seen the last of our elections of President on the old plan. The power to decide who has been elected may be so used as to exceed the power of electing. I have long believed that the official re- lations between the Executive and Congress should be more open and direct. They are now conducted by correspondence with the presiding officers of the two Houses, by con- sultation with committees, or by private in- terviews with individual members. This frequently leads to misunderstandings, and may lead to corrupt combinations. It would be far better for both departments if the members of the Cabinet were permitted to sit in Congress and participate in the de- bates on measures relating to their several departments — but, of course, without a vote. This would tend to secure the ablest men for the chief executive offices; it would bring the policy of the Administration into the fullest publicity by giving both parties ample opportunity for criticism and defense. ON THE BILL TO STRENGTHEN THE PUBLIC CREDIT. In House of Representatives, March 5, 1869. Now, sir, I favor the first section of this bill because it declares plainly what the law 8 is. I affirm again, what I have often de- clared in this Hall, that the law does now require the payment of these bonds in gold. I hope I may without impropriety refer to the fact that during the last session I proved from the record in this House, and in the presence of the author of the law by which these bonds were authorized, that five dis- tinct times in his speech, which immediately preceded the passage of the law, he declared the five-twenty bonds were payable, princi- pal and interest, in gold ; and that every member who spoke on the subject took the same ground. That law was passed with that declaration uncontradicted, and it went into effect stamped with that declaration by both Houses of Congress. That speech, made on the eve of the Presidential cam- paign, was widely circulated throughout the country as a campaign document, and those who held the contrary were repeat- edly challenged to refute its statements. I affirm that its correctness was not success- fully denied. Not only Congress so under- stand and declare, but every Secretary of the Treasury from that day to this has de- clared that these bonds are payable in gold. The authorized agents of the Government sold them, and the people bought them, with this understanding. The Government thus bound itself by every obligation of honor and good faith, and it was not until one year after the pas- sage of the law that any man in Congress raised even a doubt on the subject. The doubts since raised were raised mainly for electioneering purposes, and the question was referred to the people for arbitrament at the late Presidential election. After the fullest debate ever had on any great question of national politics in a contest in which the two parties fairly and squarely joined issue on the very point, it was solemnly decided by the great majority which elected General Grant that repudiators should be repudiated, and that the faith of the Nation should be preserved inviolate. We are, therefore, bound by the pledged faith of the Nation, by the spirit and meaning of the law, andfinallybythe voice of the peo- ple themselves, to resolve all doubts and set- tle the credit of the United States by this explicit declaration of the national will. The 112 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. action of the House on this bill has already- been hailed throughout the world as the dawn of better days for the finances of the Nation, and every market has shown a won- derful improvement of our credit. We could this day refund our debt on terms more ad- vantageous to the Government by $120,- 000,000 than we could have done the day be- fore the passage of this bill by the House. Make it a law, and a still greater improve- ment will result. I can in no way better indi- cate my views of the propriety of passing the second section of this bill than by reminding the House that I introduced this proposition In a separate bill on the 10th of February, 1868, and its passage has been more generally demanded by the people and press of the country than any other financial measure be- fore Congress. The principle involved in this section is simply this : to make it possible for gold to come into this country and to remain here. Gold and silver are lawful money of the United States, and yet the opponents would have us make it unlawful for a citizen to make and enforce contracts which he may hereafter make, to pay gold when he has re- ceived gold or its equivalent as the consider- ation of his contract. The very statement of this doctrine ought to be its sufficient refutation. But the minds of gentlemen are vexed with the fear that this section will be an engine of oppression in the hands of cred- itors. If any new safeguards can be devised that are not already in this section, I know not what they are. Whenever this law is carried out in its letter and spirit, no injustice can possibly result. The whole power of the law is in the hands of the creditor, and he alone is supposed to be in danger of suffer- ing wrong. In the moment that remains to me I can do no more than to indicate the grounds on which the justice of this mea- sure rests. It is a great and important step toward specie payments, because it removes the unwise and oppressive decree which al- most expatriates American gold and silver from the country. It will not only allow our own coin to stay at home, but it will permit foreign coin to flow hither from Eu- rope. More than 170,000,000 of our gold are going abroad every year, in excess of what comes to us, and at the same time in eight kingdoms of Europe there are nearly $500,000,000 of idle gold ready to be in- vested at less than three per cent, interest. In the Bank of England and the Bank of France there has been for more than a year an average of more than $300,000,000 of bullion, and most of that time the bank rate of interest has been less than two per cent. Who can doubt that much of this gold will find its way here, if it can be invested with- out committing the fortunes of its owners to the uncertain chances of unconvertible paper money ? But the passage of this bill will enable citizens to transact their business on a fixed and certain basis. It wiU give stability and confidence to trade, and pave the way for specie payments. The Supreme Court has decided that tbis is now the law, but let us put it on the statute-book as a notice to the people and to prevent unneces- sary litigation. GUSTAVE SCHLEICHER. Remwrlcs in the House of Jiepresentatwes, February 17, 1879. The House having under consideration the resolutions of respect to the memory of the late Hon. Gustave Schleicher — Mr. Garfield said : Mr. Speaker : I stand with reverence in the presence of such a life and such a career as that of Gustave Schleicher. It illustrates more strikingly than almost any life I know the mystery that envelops that product which we call character, and which is the result of two great forces: the initial force which the Creator gave it when He called the man into being ; and the force of all the external influence and culture that mold and modify the development of a life. In contemplating the first of these ele- ments, no power of analysis can exhibit all the latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a new-born child, which derive their origin from the thoughts and deeds of remote an- cestors, and, enveloped in the awful mystery of life, have been transmitted from genera- tion to generation across forgotten centuries. Each new life is thus "the heir of all the GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 113 Applying these reflections to tlie charac- ter of Gustavo Schleicher, it may be justly said that we have known few men in whose lives were concentrated so many of the deeply interesting elements that made him what he was. We are accustomed to say, and we have heard to-night, that he was born on foreign soil. In one sense that is true; and yet in a very proper historic sense he was born in our fatherland. One of the ablest of recent historians begins his opening volume with the declaration that England is not the fatherland of the English-speaking people, but the ancient home, the real fatherland of our race, is the ancient forests of Germany. The same thought was suggested by Mon- tesquieu long ago, when he declared in his " Spirit of Laws " that the British Constitu- tion came out of the woods of Germany. To this day the Teutonic races maintain the same noble traits that Tacitus describes in his admirable history of the manners and character of the Germans. We may there- fore say that the friend whose memory we honor to-night is one of the elder brethren of our race. He came to America direct from our fatherland, and not, like our own fathers, by the way of England. We who were born and have passed all our lives in this wide New World can hardly appreciate the influences that surrounded his early life. Born on the borders of that great forest of Germany, the Odenwald, filled as it is with the memories and traditions of cen- turies, in which are mingled Scandinavian mythology, legends of the Middle Ages, romances of feudalism and chivalry, histories of barons and kings, and the struggles of a brave people for a better civilization ; reared under the institutions of a strong, semi-despotic government ; devoting his early life to personal culture, entering at an early age the University of Giessen, venerable with its two and a half centuries of existence, with a library of four hundred thousand vol- umes at his hand, with a great museum of the curiosities and mysteries of nature to study, he fed his eager spirit upon the rich culture which that Old World could give him, and at twenty-four years of age, in company with a band of thirty-seven young students, like himself, cultivated, earnest, liberty-loving almost to the verge of communism — and who of us would not be Communists in a despotism? — he came to this country, attract- ed by one of the most wild and romantic pictures of American history, the picture of Texas as it existed near forty years ago ; the country discovered by La Salle at the end of his long and perilous voyages from Quebec to the Northern Lakes and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico ; the country possessed alternately by the Spanish and the French, and then by Mexico ; the country made mem- orable by such names as Blair and Houston, Albert Sidney Johnston and Mirabean Lamar, perhaps as adventurous and daring spirits as ever assembled on any spot of tie earth ; a country that achieved its freedom by heroism never surpassed, and which maintained its perilous independence for ten years in spite of border enemies and European intrigues. It is said that a society was formed in Europe embracing in its membership men of high rank, even members of royal families, for the purpose of colonizing the new repub- lic of the Lone Star, and making it a depen- dency of Europe under their patronage ; but, without sharing in their designs, some twen- ty thousand Germans found their way to the new republic, and among these young Schleicher came. The people of Texas had passed through a period as wild and exciting as the days of the Crusaders, and had just united their for- tunes to this Eepublic. How wide a world opened before these German students I They could hardly imagine how great was the na- tion of which they became citizens. Even the new State of their adoption was an em- pire in itself. I suppose few of us who have never visited that State can appreciate its imperial proportions. Vastly larger than the present republic of France ; larger than all our Atlantic States from the northern line of Pennsylvania to the southern boundary of Georgia ; as large as the six New England States, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and one half of Indiana united. To such a State, with its measureless possibilities of development, young Schlei- cher came. It was a noble field for a bright, aspiring, liberty-loving scholar of the Old World, in which to find ample scope for the fullest de- velopment of all his powers.. 114 THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. The sketches we have already heard show with what zeal and success our friend made use of his advantages. His career as a mem- ber of this House has exhibited the best re- sults of all these influences of nature and nurture. He has done justice to the scholar- ship which Germany gave him and the large and comprehensive ideas with which life in the New "World inspired him. To exhibit with a little more fullness the origin of those decided opinions which Mr. Schleicher held on the great questions of finance, I venture to refer briefly to an inter- esting chapter in the history of Texas. It may be doubted whether in any part of the world life has been more intense and experi- ence more varied than among the people of Texas. In the short space of ten years they had tried the whole range of financial experi- ments as fully as France had done in two hundred years. Every possible form of mon- etary theory that is recorded in history Texas had tried ; for with that brave, quick- thinking, and quick-acting people, to think was to resolve, and to resolve was to exe- cute. They had tried a land-bank scheme as wild and magnificent as. the land-bank of John Law. They had tried the direct issue of treasury notes, and had seen them go down from par to half, to ten cents, to five cents, to two cents, to nothing on the dollar. They had tried " red-backs " of the repub- lic, notes of corporate banks, scrip of private citizens, and worthless notes from banks of neighboring States, and had seen them all fail. Awakening from the dream of their experiments, under the leadership of clear- sighted men, they put into their Constitution, as they entered the Union, a provision that " in no case shall the Legislature have power to issue treasury warrants, treasury notes, or paper of any description to circulate as mon- ey.'' More radical still, they decreed that " no corporate body shall be created, re- newed, or extended with banking or dis- counting privileges," and " no person or per- sons within this State shall issue any bill, promissory note, or other paper to circulate as money." They put an end to all paper- money systems, and since then the majority of the people of that State have never looked with favor upon any other currency than specie. With such traditions and influences among the people of his adoption, and with a student life back of it, formed in the solid Old "World ways of thinking, it is not won- derful that in all our financial discussions here we found Mr. Schleicher the sturdy supporter and able advocate of a currency based on coin of real value and full weight. I would say nothing that has even the ap- pearance of controversy on this occasion. I mention these facts only to do justice to his memory. Of his character as we knew it here, two things strnck me as most notable. First, he possessed that quality without which no man ever did, and I hope no man ever vnh, achieve success in this forum — ^the habit of close, earnest, hard work. All his associates knew that when he rose to speak in this hall, it was because he had something to say, something that was the result of work, and that he said it because it came from the depth of his convictions, as the result of his fullest investigation. I stop to notice the fact that, although he spoke with an accent brought from the fatherland, he had that rare purity of lan- guage and style which I am inclined to be- lieve that you and I, Mr. Speaker, wiU never achieve, and which few persons on our soil can rival. "We learned our language in the street ; he came at once into the parlors of English, and learned it from the masters. His printed English was as pure as the purest which can be found in the records of our debates. He possessed and exhibited a noteworthy independence of character. In this he taught a lesson which ought never to be forgotten here. His people trusted him, and by their approval enforced the lesson that the men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own con- victions. That principle never fails in the long run, for the people who send represen- tatives here do not want a mere echo, but a man who sees with his own eyes and fear- lessly utters his own thoughts, as our friend did with a boldness and courage that made him a worthy example to all American states- men. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 115 viir. THE TARIFF. From a Speech in the ffouse of Representa- tives, June 4, 1878. I HAVE given this brief historical sketch for the purpose of exhibiting the ideas out of ■which the tariff legislation of this coun- try has sprung. It has received the support of the most renowned names in our early history; and, though the principle of pro- tection has sometimes been carried to an unreasonable extreme, thus bringing re- proach upon the system, it has nevertheless borne many of the fruits which were antici- pated by those who planted the germ. Gentlemen who oppose this view of pub- lic policy tell us that they favor a tariff for revenue alone. I, therefore, invite their at- tention to the revenue phase of the question. The estimated expenditures for the next fis- cal year are two hundred and eighty and one half million dollars, including interest on the public debt and the appropriations required by law for the sinking fund. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the rev- enues which our present laws will furnish at $269,000,000 : from customs, one hundred and thirty-three millions ; from internal rev- enue, one hundred and twenty millions ; and from miscellaneous sources, sixteen millions. He tells us that it will be necessary to cut down the expenditures eleven millions be- low the estimates in order to prevent a de- ficit of that amount. The revenues of the last fiscal year failed by three and a quarter millions to meet the expenditures required by law. In the face of these facts can we safely diminish our revenues ? If we mean to pre- serve the public faith and meet all the neces- sities of the Government, we can not reduce the present revenues a single dollar. Yet the majority of this House not only propose to reduce the internal tax on spirits and to- bacco, but they propose in this bill to reduce the revenues on customs by at least six mil- lions. To avoid the disgrace of a deficit, they propose to suspend the operations of the sinking fund, and thereby shake the foun- dation of the public credit. But they tell us that some of the reductions made in this bill wUl increase rather than diminish the rev- enue. Perhaps on a few articles this will be true ; but as a whole it is undeniable that this bill will effect a considerable reduction in the revenues from customs. Gentlemen on the other side have been in the habit of denouncing our present tariff laws as destructive to rather than productive of revenue. Let me invite their attention to a few plain facts. During the fifteen years that preceded our late war — a period of so-called revenue tariffs — we raised from customs an average annual revenue of forty-seven and a half million dollars, never in any year receiving more than sixty-four millions. That system brought us a heavy deficit in 1860, so that Congress was compelled to borrow money to meet the ordinary expenses of the Govern, ment. Do they tell us that our present law fails to produce an adequate revenue? They.de- nounoe it as not a revenue tariff. Let them wrestle with the following fact : During the eleven years that have passed since the close of the war, we have averaged one hundred and seventy and one half million dollars of revenue per annum from customs alone. Can they say that this is not a revenue tariff which produces more than three times as much revenue per annum as that law did which they delight to call "the revenue tariff"? In one year, 1872, the revenues from customs amounted to two hundred and twelve millions. Can they say that the present law does not produce revenue? It produces from textile fabrics alone more revenue than we ever raised from all sources under any tariff before the war. From this it follows that the assault upon the present law fails if made on the score of revenue alone. I freely admit that revenue is the pri- mary object of taxation. That object is attained by existing law. But it is an in- cidental and vitally important object of the law to keep in healthy growth those indus- tries which are necessary to the well- being of the whole country. If gentlemen can show me that this is, as they allege, class legislation, which benefits the few at the expense of the many, I will abandon it, and join them in opposing it. This is the 116 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Legislature of the nation; and it should make laws which will bless the whole nation. I do not affirm that all the provisions of the ex- isting tariff law are wise and just. In many respects they are badly adjusted, and need amendment. But I insist tliat in their main features they are national, not partial; that they promote the general welfare, and not the welfare of the few at the expense of the many. Let us glance at the leading industries which, under the provisions of the existing law, are enabled to maintain themselves in the sharp struggle of competition with other countries. I will name them in five groups. In the first I place the textile fabrics, manu- factures of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, jute, and silk. From these we received during the last fiscal year fifty million doUars, which is more than one third of all our customs revenue. It is said that a tax should not be levied upon the clothing of the people. This would be a valid objection were it not for the fact that objects of the highest national impor- tance are secui-ed by its imposition. That forty-five millions of people should be able to clothe themselves without helpless depen- dence upon other nations is a matter of transcendent importance to every citizen. What American can be indifferent to the fact that in the year 1875 the State of Mas- sachusetts alone produced 992,000,000 yards of textile fabrics, and in doing so consumed seventy-five million dollars' worth of the products of the fields and flocks, and gave employment to 120,000 artisans? There is a touch of pathos in the apologetic reply of Governor Spottswood, an early colonial Gov- ernor of Virginia, when he wrote to his British superiors : The people of Virginia, more of necessity than inclination, attempt to clothe themselves with their own manufactures. ... It is certainly ne- cessary to divert their application to some com- modity less prejudicial to the trade of England. — " Bancroft's History of the United States," vol. iv, page 104. Thanks to our independence, such apolo- gies are no longer needed. Some of the rates on the textiles are exorbitant and ought to be reduced ; but the general principle which pervades the group is wise and benefi- cent, not only as a means of raising revenue, but as a measure of national economy. In the second group I have placed the met- als, including glass and chemicals. Thoufrh the tariff upon this group has been severely denounced in this debate, the rate does not average more than thirty-six per cent, ad valorem, and the group produced about $14,000,000 of revenue last year. Besides serving as a source of public revenue, what intelligent man fails to see that the metals are the basis of all the machinery, tools, and implements of every industry? More than any other in the world's history, this is the age when inventive genius is bending all its energies to devise means to increase the efiectiveness of human labor. The mechanical wonders displayed at our Centennial Exposition are a sufficient illus- tration. The people that can not make their own implements of industry must be content to take a very humble and subordinate place in the family of nations. The people that can not, at any time, by their own previous train- ing, arm and equip themselves for war, must be content to exist by the sufferance of others. I do not say that no rates in this group are too high. Some of them can safely be reduced. But I do say these industries could not have attained their present success with- out the national care ; and to abandon them now will prevent their continued pros- perity. In the third group I place wines, spirits, and tobacco in its various forms which come from abroad. On these rates of duty range from 85 to 95 per cent, cui valorem; and from them we collected last year $10,000,- 000 of revenue. The wisdom of this tax will hardly be disputed by any one. In the fourth group I have placed im- ported provisions which come in competition witli the products of our own fields and herds, including breadstuffs, salt, rice, sugar, molasses, and spices. On these provisions imported into this country we collected last year a revenue of $42,000,000, $37,000,000 of which was collected on sugar. Of the duty on the principal article of this group I shall speak further on in the discussion. On the fifth group, comprising leather GENERAL GAEFIELD'S SPEECHES. 117 and manufactures of leather, wa received about $3,000,000 of revenue. On the imports included in the five groups I have mentioned, which comprise the great manufacturing industries of the country, we collect 1119,000,000— more than 90 per cent, of all our customs revenue. I ask if it be not an object of the highest national im- portance to keep alive and in vigorous health and growth the industries included in these groups? What sort of people should we be if we did not keep them alive? Suppose we were to follow the advice of the distinguished gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Tucker] when he said : Why should we make pig-iron when with Berk- shire pigs raised upon our farms we can buy more iron pigs from England than we can get by trying to make them ourselves ? ' We can get more iron pigs from England for Berkshire pigs than we can from the Pennsylvania manufacturers. Why, then, should I not be permitted to send there for them? . . . What a market for our raw material, for our products, if we only would take the hand which Great Britaiu extends to us for free trade be- tween us ! For a single season, perhaps, his plan might be profitable to the consumers of iron ; but if his policy were adopted as a permanent one, it would reduce us to a merely agricul- tural people, whose chief business would be to produce the simplest raw materials by the least skill and culture, and let the men of brains of other countries do our thinking for us, and provide for us all products requiring the cunning hand of the artisan, while we would be compelled to do the drudgery for ourselves and for them. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Tuck- er] is too good a logician not to see that the theory he advocates can only be realized in a state of universal peace and brotherhood among the nations; and, in developing his plan, he says : Commerce, Mr. Chairman, links all mankind in one common brotherhood of mutual dependence and interests, and thus creates that unity of our race which makes the resources of allthe property of each and every member. We can not if we would, and should not if we could, remain isolated and alone. Men under the benign influence of Christianity yearn for intercourse, for the inter- change of thought and the products of thought, as a means of a common progress toward a nobler civilization. . . . Mr. Chairman, I can not believe this is ac- cording to the Divine plan. Christianity bids us seek, in communion with our brethren of every race and clime, the blessings they can afford us, and to bestow in return upon them those with which our new continent is destined to fill the world. This, I admit, is a grand conception, a beautiful vision of the time when all the na- tions will dwell in peace ; when all will be, as it were, one nation, each furnishing to the others what they can not profitably produce, and all working harmoniously together in the millennium of peace. If all the kingdoms of the world should become the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, then I admit that uni- versal free trade ought to prevail. But that blessed era is yet too remote to be made the basis of the practical legislation of to-day. We are not yet members of "the parliament of man, the federation of the world." For the present, the world is divided into sepa- rate nationalities ; and that other divine command still applies to our situation : " He that provideth not for his own household has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel"; and, until that better era arrives, patriotism must supply the place of universal brotherhood. For the present GortchakofF can do more good to the world by taking care of Euasia. The great Bismarck can accomplish more for his era by being, as he is, German to the core, and promoting the welfare of the Ger- man empire. Let Beaconsfield take care of England, and MacMahon of France, and let Americans devote themselves to the welfare of America. When each does his best for his own nation to promote prosperity, jus- tice, and peace, all will have done more for the world than if all had attempted to be cosmopolitans rather than patriots. But I wish to say, Mr. Chairman, that I have no sympathy with those who approach this question only from the standpoint of their own local, selfish interest. When a man comes to me and says, " Put a prohibi- tory duty on the foreign article which com- petes with my product, that I may get rich more rapidly," he does not excite my sym- 118 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. pathy; he repels me; and when another says, " Give no protection to the manufac- turing industries, for I am not a manufac- turer and do not care to have them sus- tained," I say that he, too, is equally mer- cenary and unpatriotic. If we were to leg- islate in that spirit, I might turn to the gen- tleman from Chicago and say, "Do not ask me to vote for an appropriation to build a court-house or a post-office in your city; I never expect to get any letters from that office, and the people of my district never expect to he in your courts." If we were to act in this spirit of narrow isolation, we should he unfit for the national positions we occupy. Too much of our tariff discussion has been warped by narrow and sectional con- siderations. But when we base our action upon the conceded national importance of the great industries I have referred to, when we recognize the fact that artisans and their products are essential to the well-being of our country, it follows that there is no dwell- er In the humblest cottage on our remotest frontier who has not a deep personal inter- est in the legislation that shall promote these great national industries. Those arts that enable our Nation to rise in the scale of civi- lization bring their blessings to all, and pa- triotic citizens will cheerfully bear a fair share of the burden necessary to make their country great and self-sustaining. I will de- fend a tariff that is national in its aims, that protects and sustains those interests without which the Nation can not become great and self-sustaining. So important, in my view, is the ability of the Nation to manufacture all these arti- cles necessary to arm, equip, and clothe our people, that if it could not be secured in any other way I would vote to pay money out of tlie Federal Treasury to maintain Govern- ment iron and steel, woolen and cotton mills, at whatever cost. Were we to neglect these great interests and depend upon other na- tions, in what a condition of helplessness would we find ourselves when we should be again involved in war with the very nations on whom we were depending to furnish us these supplies? The system adopted by our fathers is wiser ; for it so encourages the great national industries as to make it possible at aU times for our people to equip themselves for war, and at the same time increase their intelligence and skill so as to make them bet- ter fitted for all the duties of citizenship, both in war and in peace. "We provide for the common defense by a system which pro- motes the general welfare. I have tried thus summarily to state the grounds on which a tariff which produces the necessary revenue, and at the same time promotes American manufactures, can be sustained by large-minded men for national reasons. How high the rates of such a tariff ought to be is a question on which there may fairly be differences of opinion. Fortunately, or unfortunately, on this question I have long occupied a position between two extremes of opinion. I have long believed, and I still believe, that the worst evil which has afflicted the interests of American artisans and manufacturers has been the tendency to extremes in our tariff legislation. Our history for the past fifty years has been a repetition of the same mis- take. One party comes into power, and, be- lieving that a protective tariff is a good thing, establishes a fair rate of duty. Not content with that, they say : " This works well ; let us have more of it." And they raise the rates still higher, and perhaps go beyond the limits of national interest. Every additional step in that direction increases the opposition and threatens the stability of the whole system. "When the policy of increase is pushed beyond a cer- tain point, the popular reaction sets in ; the opposite party gets into power and cuts dowTi the high rates. Not content with re- ducing the rates that are unreasonable, they attack and destroy the whole protective system. Then follows a deficit in the Trea- sury, the destruction of manufacturing in- terests, until the reaction again sets in, the free-traders are overthrown, and a protec- tive system is again established. In not less than four distinct periods during the last fifty years has this sort of revolution taken place in our industrial system. Our great national industries have thus been tossed up and down between two extremes of opinion. During my term of service in this House I have resisted the effort to increase the GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 110 rates of duty, whenever I thought an in- crease would be dangerous to the stability of our manufacturing interests ; and by do- ing so, I have sometimes been thought un- friendly to the policy of protecting American industry. When the necessity of the reve- nues and the safety of our manufactures war- ranted, I have favored a reduction of rates; and these reductions have aided to preserve the stability of the system. In one year, soon after the close of the war, we raised two hundred and twelve millions of dollars of revenue from customs. In 1870 we reduced the customs duties by the sum of twenty-nine and one half millions of dollars. In 1872 they were again reduced by tbe sum of forty-four and one half millions. Those reductions were in the main wise and judicious ; and although I did not vote for them all, yet they have put the fair-minded men of this country in a position where they can justly resist any considerable reduction below the present rates. My view of the danger of extreme posi- tions on the question of tariff rates may be illustrated by a remark made by Horace Greeley in the last conversation I ever had with that distinguished man. Said he : My criticism of you la that you are not suffi- ciently high protective in views. I replied : What would you advise ? He said: If I had my way — if I were king of this coun- try — I would put a duty of one hundred dollars a ton on pig iron, and a proportionate duty on everything else that can be produced in America. The result would be that our people would be obliged to supply their own wants ; manufactures would spring up ; competition would finally re- duce prices; and we should live wholly within ourselves. I replied that the fatal objection to his theory was that no man is king of this coun- try, with power to make his policy perma- nent. But as all our policies depend upon popular support, the extreme measure pro- posed would beget an opposite extreme, and our industries would suffer from violent re- actions. For this reason I believe that we ought to seek that point of stable equilibrium somewhere between a prohibitory tariff on the one hand, and a tariff that gives no pro- tection on the other. What is that point of stable equilibrium? In my judgment it is this : a rate so high that foreign producers can not flood our markets and break down our home manufacturers, but not so high as to keep them altogether out, enabling our manufacturers to combine and raise the prices, nor so high as to stimulate an unnat- ural and unhealthy growth of manufactures. In other words, I would have the duty so adjusted that every great American industry can fairly live and make fair profits; and yet so low that if our manufacturers at- tempted to put up prices unreasonably, the competition from abroad would come in and bring down prices to a fair rate. Such a tariflf I believe will be supported by the great majority of Americans. We are not far from having such a tariff in our present law. In some respects we have departed from that standard. Wherever it does, we should amend it, and by so doing we shall secure stability and prosperity. This brings me to the consideration of the pending bill. It was my hope, at the beginning of the present session, that the Committee of Ways and Means would enter upon a revision of the tariif in the spirit I have indicated. The Secretary of the Treas- ury suggested in his annual report that a considerable number of articles, which pro- duced but a small amount of revenue, and were not essential to the prosperity of our manufactures, could be placed upon the free list, thus simplifying the law and making it more consistent in its details. I was ready to assist in such a work of revision ; but the committee had not gone far before it was evident that they intended to attack the whole system, and, as far as possible, destroy it. The results of their long and arduous labors are embodied in the pending bill. Some of the rates can be slightly reduced without serious harm; but many of the re- ductions proposed in this bill will be fatal. It is related that when a surgeon was prob- ing an emperor's wound to find the ball, he said : Can your Majesty allow me to go deeper ? His Majesty replied : 120 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Probe a little deeper and you will find the Emperor. It is a little deeper probing by tbis bill that wUl toucb the vital interests of this country and destroy them. Some of its provisions are wise, and ought to be adopted. One particularly, which es- tablishes a new test of the value of sugar, should, if possible, become a law before this session ends. But, in my judgment, the bill as a whole is a most unwise and dangerous measure; dangerous to the great national industries ofthis country, so dangerous that, if we should pass it, it would greatly in- crease the prevailing distress, and would make the condition of our artisans deplorable to the last degree. The chief charge I make against this bill is, that it seeks to cripple the protective fea- tures of the law. It increases rates where an increase is not necessary, and it cuts them down where cutting will kill. One of the wisest provisions of our present law is the efltablishment ot a definite free list. From year to year, when it has been found that any article could safely be liberated from duty, it has been put upon the free list. A large number of raw materials have thus been made free of duty. This has light- ened the burdens of taxation, and at the same time aided the industries of the coun- try. To show the progress that has been made in this direction, it should be remembered that in 1867 the value of all articles import- ed free of duty was but $39,000,000, while in 1877 the free imports amounted to $181,000,000. As I have already said, the Secretary of the Treasury recommends a still further in- crease of the free list. But this bill abol- ishes the free list altogether, and imposes duties upon a large share of articles now- free. And this is done in order to make still greater reduction upon articles that must be protected if their manufacture is maintained in this country. Let me notice a few of the great indus- tries at which this bill strikes. In the group of textile fabrics, of which I have spoken, reductions are made upon the manufactures of cotton, which will stop three quarters of the cotton mills of the country and hope- lessly prostrate the business. Still greater violence is done to the wool and woolen interests. The attempt has been made to show that the business of wool-growing has declined in consequence of our present law, and the fact has been pointed out that the number of sheep has been steadily falling off in the Eastern States. The truth is that sheep-culture in the United States was never in so healthy a condition as it is to- day. In 1860 our total wool product was sixty millions of pounds. In 1877 we pro- duced two hundred and eight millions of pounds. It is true that there is not now so large a number of sheep in the Eastern States as there were a few years since ; but the cen- ter of that industry has been shifted. Of the thirty-five and a half millions of sheep now in the United States, fourteen and a half millions are in Texas and the States and Territories west of the Eocky Moun- tains. California alone has six and a half millions of sheep. Not the least important feature of this interest is the facility it oflers for cheap animal food. A great French statesman has said: "It is more impor- tant to provide food than clothing"; and the growth of the sheep accomplishes both ob- jects. Ninety-five per cent, of all the wool- en fabrics manufactured in this country are now made of native wool. The tariff on wool and woolens was adopted in 1867, after a most careful and thorough examination of both the producing and the manufacturing interests. It was the result of an adjustment between the farmers and manufacturers, and has been advan- tageous to both. A small reduction of the rates could be made without injury. Both of these interests consented to a re- duction, and submitted their plan to the Committee of "Ways and Means. But in- stead of adopting it, the Committee have struck those interests down and put a dead- level ad valorem duty upon all wools. The Chairman tells us that the Committee had sought to do away with the ad valorem sys- tem, because it gave rise to fraudulent in- voices and undervaluation. Yet on the in- terest that yields twenty millions of reve- nue he proposes to strike down the specific duties and put the interest upon one dead GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 121 level of ad valorem duty without regard to quality. I would not introduce sectional topics in this discussion, bat I must notice one cnrioua feature of this biU. In the great group of provisions, on which nearly fifty millions of revenue are paid into the Treasury, I find that thirty-seven millions of that amount come from imported sugar. No one would defend the levying of so heavy a tax upon a necessary article of food, were it not that a great agricultural interest is thereby pro- tected; and that interest is mainly confined to the State of Louisiana. I am glad that the Government has given its aid to the State, for not a pound of sugar could be manu- factured there, if the tariff law did not pro- tect it. As the law now stands, the average ad valorem duty on sugar is sixty-two and a half per cent. But what has this bill done ? The complaint is made by its advocates that the rates are now too high. The rates on all dutiable articles average about forty-two per cent.; yet on sugar the average is sixty-two and a half per cent., greatly above the aver- age. This bill puts up the average duty on sugar to about seventy per cent. This one interest, which is already protected by a duty much higher than the average, is here granted a still higher rate, while other inter- ests, now far below the average rate, are put still lower. Metals, that now average but thirty-six per cent, ad valorem — far less than the general average, but little more than half of the rate on sugar — are cut down still more, while the protection of the sugar interest is made still higher. If the planters of Louisiana were to get the benefit, there would be some excuse for the increase; but what is the fact? One thousand four hundred and fifteen million pounds of sugar were imported into this country last year, but not one pound of re- fined sugar ; every pound was imported in the crude form, going into the hands of about twenty-five gentlemen, mostly in the city of New York, who refine every pound of this enormous quantity of imported sugar. This bill increases the rates on the high grades of sugar far more than on the lower grades, and makes the importation of any finished sugar impossible. It strengthens and makes abso- lute the monopoly already given to the re- fining interest ; yet we are told that this is a revenue-reform tariff. Before closing I wish to notice one thing, which, I believe, has not been mentioned in this debate. A few years ago we had a considerable premium on gold, and as our tariflf duties were paid in coin there was thus created an increase in the tariff rates. In 1875, for instance, the average currency value of coin was one hundred and fourteen cents ; in 1876, one hundred and eleven cents; in 1877, one hundred and four cents. Now, thanks to the resumption law and the rate of our exchanges and credit, the premi- um on gold is almost down to zero. But this fall in the premium has operated as a steady reduction of the tariff rates, because the duties were paid in gold and the goods were sold in currency. Now, when gentlemen say that the rates were high a few years ago, it should be re- membered that they have been falling year by year, as the price of gold has been com- ing down. "When, therefore, gentlemen crit- icise the rates as fixed in the law of 1872, they should remember that the fall in the premium on gold has wrought a virtual re- duction of fourteen per cent, in the tariff rates. Mr. Chairman, the Committee of "Ways and Means has done a large amount of work on this bill. The Chairman has labored in season and out of season, and he deserves credit of bis friends for the energy and ear- nestness with which he has addressed himself to this task. But the views which have found expression in his bill must be criticised without regard to personal consideration. A bill so radical in its character, so dangerous to our business prosperity, would work in- finite mischief at this time, when the coun- try is just recovering itself from a long period of depression and getting again upon solid ground, just coming up out of the wild sea of panic and distress which has tossed us so long. Let it he remembered that twenty-two per cent, of all the laboring people of this country are artisans engaged in manufac- tures. Their culture has been fostered by our tariff laws. It is their pursuits, and the skill which they have developed, that pro- 122 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. duoed the glory of our Centennial Exhibition. To them the country owes the splendor of the position it holds before the world more than to any other equal number of our citi- zens. If this bill becomes a law, it strikes down their occupation, and throws into the keenest distress the brightest and best ele- ments of our population. I implore this House not to permit us to be thrown into greater confusion, either by letting this bill become a law, or by letting it hang over the country as a menace. And in all kindness to the Chairman of the Com- mittee, and the gentlemen who thiak with him, I hope we will sit here to-night until the second reading of the bill is commenced. When the first paragraph has been read I ■nill propose to strike out the enacting clause. If the Committee will do that, we can kill the bill to-day. It is not simply a stalking- horse, upon which gentlemen can leap to show their horsemanship in debate ; it is not an innocent lay-figure, upon which gentlemen may spread the gaudy wares of their rhetoric without harm ; but it is a great, dangerous monster, a very Polyphemus which stalks through the land — " Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lu- men ademptum." If its eye be not out, let us take it out and end the agony. THE CURRENCY. From a Speech in the Howe of Representa- tives, May 15, 1868. I SHALL direct my remarks on this occasion to but one feature of our legislation. I pro- pose to discuss the currency and its relation to the revenue and business prosperity of the country. In April, 1861, there began in this coun- try an industrial revolution, not yet com- pleted, as gigantic in its proportions, and as far-reaching in its consequences, as the polit- ical and military revolution through which we have passed. As the first step to any inteUigent discussion of the currency, it is necessary to examine the character and pro- gress of that industrial revolution. The year 1860 was one of remarkable prosperity in all branches of business. For seventy years no Federal tax-gatherer had ever been seen among the laboring population of the United States. Our public debt was less than sixty-five million dollars. The an- nual expenditures of the Government, includ- ing interest on the public debt, were less than sixty-four million dollars. The revenues from customs alone amounted to six sevenths of the expenditures. The value of our agri- cultural products for that year amounted to $1,625,000,000. Our cotton crop alone was two billion one hundred and fifty-five million pounds, and we supplied to the mar- kets of the world seven eighths of all the cotton consumed. Our merchant marine engaged in foreign trade amounted to two million five hundred and forty-six thousand two hundred and thirty-seven tons, and promised soon to rival the immense carrying trade of England. Let us now observe the effect of the war on the various departments of business. From the moment the first hostile gun was fired, the Federal and State Governments became gigantic consumers. As far as pro- duction was concerned, eleven States were completely separated from the Union. Two million laborers, more than one third of the adult population of the Northern States, were withdrawn from the ranks of pro- ducers, and became only consumers of wealth. The Federal Government became an insatiable devomrer. Leaving out of account the vast sums expended by States, counties, cities, towns, and individuals for the payment of bounties, for the relief of sick and wounded soldiers and their families, and omitting the losses, which can never be estimated, of property destroyed by hos- tile armies, I shall speak only of expendi- tures which appear on the books of the Federal Treasury. From the 30th of June, 1861, to the 30th of June, 1865, there were paid out of the Federal Treasury $3,340,- 996,211, making an aggregate during these four years of more than $836,000,000 per annum. From the official records of the Treasury Department it appears that, from the begin- ning of the American Revolution in 1775 to the beginning of the late rebellion, the total GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 123 expenditures of the Government for all pur- poses, including the assumed war dehts of the States, amounted to $2,250,000,000. The expenditures of four years of the rebel- lion were nearly $1,100,000,000 more than all the other Federal expenses since the Dec- laration of Independence. The debt of Eng- land, which had its origin in the revolution of 1688, and was increased by more than one hundred years of war and other politi- cal disasters, had reached in 1793 the sum of $1,268,000,000. During the twenty-two years that followed, while England was en- gaged in a life and death struggle with Na- poleon (the greatest war in history save our own), $3,056,000,000 were added to her debt. In our four years of war we spent $300,000,000 more than the amount by which England increased her debt in twen- ty-two years of war ; almost as much as she had increased it in one hundred and twenty- flve years of war. Now, the enormous de- mand which this expenditure created for all the products of industry stimulated to an unparalleled degree every department of business. The plow, furnace, mill, loom, railroad, steamboat, telegraph — all were driven to their utmost capacity. "Ware- houses were emptied; and the great re- serves of supply, which all nations in a nor- mal state keep on hand, were exhausted to meet the demands of the great consumer. For many months, the Goverment swal- lowed three millions per day of the products of industry. Under the pressure of this de- mand, prices rose rapidly in every depart- ment of business. Labor everywhere found quick and abundant returns. Old debts were canceled, and great fortunes were made. For the transaction of this enormous business an increased amount of currency was needed ; but I doubt if any member of this House can be found, bold enough to deny that the deluge of Treasury notes poured upon the country during the war was far greater even than the great de- mands of business. Let it not be forgotten, however, that the chief object of these is- sues was not to increase the currency of the country. They were authorized with great reluctance, and under the pressure of over- whelming necessity, as a temporary expedi- ent to meet the demands of the Treasury. They were really forced loans in the form of Treasury notes. By the act of July IT, 1861, an issue of demand notes was author- ized to the amount of $50,000,000. By the act of August 5, 1861, this amount was in- creased $50,000,000 more. By the act of February 25, 1862, an additional issue of $150,000,000 was authorized. On the 17th of the same month, an unlimited issue of fractional currency was authorized. On the 17th of January, 1863, an issue of $150,000,- 000 more was authorized, which was in- creased $50,000,000 by the act of March 3d of the same year. This act also authorized the issue of one and two years' Treasury notes, bearing interest at five per cent., to be a legal tender for their face, to the amount of $400,000,000. By the act of June 30, 1864, an issue of six per cent, com- pound-interest notes, to be a legal tender for their face, was authorized, to the amount of $200,000,000. In addition to this, many other forms of paper obligation were au- thorized, which, though not a legal tender, performed many of the functions of curren- cy. By the act of March 1, 1862, the issue of an unlimited amount of certificates of in- debtedness was authorized, and within ninety days after the passage of the act there had been issued and were outstanding of these certificates more than $156,000,000. Of course these issues were not all outstanding at the same time, but the acts show how great was the necessity for loans during the war. The law which made the vast volume of United States notes a legal tender operated as an act of general bankruptcy. The man who loaned $1,000 in July, 1861, payable in three years, was compelled by this law to ac- cept at maturity, as a full discharge of the debt, an amount of currency equal in value to $350 of the money he loaned. Private in- debtedness was everywhere canceled. Ris- ing prices increased the profits of business, but this prosperity was caused by the great demand for products, and not by the abun- dance of paper money. As a means of trans- acting the vast business of the country, a great volume of currency was indispensable, and its importance can not be well over- estimated. But let us not be led into the 124 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. fatal error of supposing that paper money created the husmess or produced the wealth. As well might it be alleged that our rivers and canals produce the grain which they float to market. Like currency, the chan- nels of commerce stimulate production, but can not nullify the inexorable law of demand and supply. Mr. Chairman, I have endeavored to trace the progress of our industrial revolution in passing from peace to war. In returning from war to peace all the conditions were reversed. At once the Government ceased to be an all-devouring consumer. Nearly two million able-bodied men were discharged from the army and navy and enrolled in the ranks of the producers. The expenditures of the Government, which, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1865, amounted to $1,290,000,000, were reduced to $520,000,000 in 1866 ; to $346,000,000 in 1867; and, if the retrenchment measures recommended by the Special Commissioner of the Revenue be adopted, another year will bring them below $300,000,000. Thus during the first year after the war the demands of the Federal Government as a consumer decreased sixty per cent. ; and in the second year the decrease had reached seventy-four per cent., with a fair prospect of a still further reduction. The recoil of this sudden change would have produced great financial disaster in 1866, but for the fact that there was still open to industry the work of replacing the wasted reserves of supply, which, in all coun- tries in a healthy state of business, are esti- mated to be sufiicient for two years. During 1866, the fall in price of all articles of indus- try amounted to an average of ten per cent. One year ago a table was prepared at my request, by Mr. Edward Young, in the office of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue, exhibiting a comparison of wholesale prices at New York in December, 1865, and De- cember, 1866. It shows that in ten leading articles of provisions there was an average decline of twenty-two per cent., though beef, flour, and other breadstuff's remained nearly stationary. On cotton and woolen goods, boots, shoes, and clothing, the decline was thirty per cent. On the products of manufacture and mining, including coal, cordage, iron, lumber, naval stores, oils, tal- low, tin, and wool, the decline was twenty- five per cent. The average decline on all commodities was at least ten per cent. Ac- cording to the estimates of the Special Com- missioner of the Revenue in his late report, the average decline during 1867 has amount- ed at least to ten per cent. more. During the past two years Congress has provided by law for reducing internal taxation $100,- 000,000; and the act passed a few weeks ago has reduced the tax on manufactures to the amount of $64,000,000 per annum. The repeal of the cotton tax will make a further reduction of $20,000,000. State and muni- cipal taxation and expenditures have also been greatly reduced. The work of replac- ing these reserves delayed the shook and distributed its effects, but could not avert the inevitable result. During the past two years, one by one, the various departments of industry produced a supply equal to the demand. Then followed a glutted market, a fall in prices, and a stagnation of business, by which thousands of laborers were thrown out of employment. If to this it be added that the famine in Europe and the drought in many of the agri- cultural States of the Union have kept the price of provisions from falling as other commodities have fallen, we shall have a sufficient explanation of the stagnation of business, and the unusual distress among our people. This industrial revolution has been gov- erned by laws beyond the reach of Congress. No legislation could have arrested it at any stage of its progress. The most that could possibly be done by Congress was, to take advantage of the prosperity it occasioned to raise a revenue for the support of the Gov- ernment, and to mitigate the severity of its subsequent pressure, by reducing the vast machinery of war to the lowest scale pos- sible. Manifestly nothing can be more ab- surd than to suppose that the abundance of currency produced the prosperity of 1863, 1864, and 1865, or that the want of it is the cause of our present stagnation. In order to reach a satisfactory under- standing of the currency question, it is neces- sary to consider somewhat fully the nature and functions of money or any substitute for it. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 125 The theory of money which formed the basis of the "mercantile system" of the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries has been rejected by all leading financiers and politi- cal economists for the last seventy-five years. That theory asserted that money is wealth • that the great object of every nation should be to increase its amount of gold and silver ; that this was a direct increase of national wealth. ■ It is now held as an indisputable truth that money is an instrument of trade and performs but two functions. It is a measure of value and a medium of exchange. In cases of simple barter, where no money is used, we estimate the relative values of the commodities to be exchanged in dollars and cents, it being our only universal mea- sure of value. As a medium of exchange, money is to all business transactions what ships are to the transportation of merchandise. If a hun- dred vessels of a given tonnage are just suf- ficient to carry all the commodities between two ports, any increase of the number of vessels will correspondingly decrease the value of each as an instrument of commerce ; any decrease below one hundred will cor- respondingly increase the value of each. If the number be doubled, each will carry but half its usual freight, will be worth but half its former value for that trade. There is so much work to be done, and no more. A hundred vessels can do it all. A thousand can do no more than all. The functions of money as a medium of exchange, though more complicated in their application, are precisely the same in princi- ple as the functions of the vessels in the case I have supposed. If we could ascertain the total value of all the exchanges effected in this country by means of money in any year, and could as- certain how many dollars' worth of such ex- changes can be effected in a year by one dollar in money, we should know how much money the country needed for the business transactions of that year. Any decrease be- low that amount will correspondingly in- crease the value of each dollar as an instru- ment of exchange. Any increase above that amount will correspondingly decrease the value of each dollar. If that amount be doubled, each dollar of the whole mass will perform but half the amount of business it did before ; will be worth but half its for- mer value as a medium of exchange. Recurring to our illustration : if, instead of sailing vessels, steam vessels were sub- stituted, a much smaller tonnage would bo required; so, if it were found that $500,- 000,000 of paper, each worth seventy cents in gold, were sufficient for the business of the country, it is equally evident that $350,- 000,000 of gold substituted for the paper would perform precisely the same amount of business. It should be remembered, also, that any improvement in the mode of transacting business, by which the actual use of money is in part dispensed with, reduces the total amount needed by the country. How much has been accomplished in this direction by recent improvements in banking may be seen in the operations of the clearing-houses in our great cities. The records of the New York Clearing- House show that from October 11, 1853, the date of its establishment, to October 11, 1867, the exchanges amounted to nearly $180,000,- 000,000 ; to effect which, less than $8,000,- 000,000 of money were used, an average of about four per cent. ; that is, exchanges were made to the amount of $100,000,000 by the payment of $4,000,000 of money. It is also a settled principle that all de- posits in banks, drawn upon by checks and drafts, really serve the purpose of money. The amount of currency needed in the country depends, as we have seen, upon the amount of business transacted by means of money. The amount of business, however, is varied by many causes which are irregular and uncertain in their operation. An In- dian war, deficient or abundant harvests, an overflow of the cotton lands of the South, a bread famine or war in Europe, and a score of such causes entirely beyond the reach of legislation, may make money deficient this year and abundant next. The needed amount varies also from month to month in the same year. More money is required in the autumn, when the vast products of agriculture are being moved to market, than when the great army of laborers are in winter-quarters, awaiting the seedtime. 126 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. "When tlie money of the country is gold and silver, it adapts itself to the fluctuations of business without the aid of legislation. If, at any time, we have more than is needed, the surplus flows off to other countries through the channels of international com- merce. If less, the deficiency is supplied through the same channels. Thus the mon- etary equilibrium is maintained. So im- mense is the trade of the world that the golden streams pouring from California and Australia in the specie circulation, are soon absorbed in the great mass and equalized throughout the world, as the waters of all the rivers are spread upon the surface of all the seas. Not so, however, with an inconvertible paper currency. Excepting the specie used in payment of customs and the interest on our public debt, we are cut off from the money currents of the world. Our currency resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in stagnation or rise to full banks at the caprice of the gatekeeper. Gold and silver abhor depreciated paper money, and will not keep company with it. If our currency be more abundant than business demands, not a dollar of it can go abroad ; if deficient, not a dollar of gold will come in to supply the lack. There is no Legislature on earth wise enough to ad- just such a currency to the wants of the country. Let us examine more minutely the effect of such a currency upon prices. Suppose that the business transactions of the country at the present time require $350,000,000 in gold. It is manifest that if there are just $350,000,- 000 of legal- tender notes, and no other money in the country, each dollar will perform the full functions of a gold dollar, so far as the work of exchange is concerned. Now, busi- ness remaining the same, let $350,000,000 more of the same kind of notes be pressed into circulation. The whole volume, as thus increased, can do no more than all the busi- ness. Each dollar will accomplish just half the work that a dollar did before the in- crease ; but as the nominal dollar is fixed by law, the effect is shown in prices being doubled. It requires two of these dollars to make the same purchase that one dollar made before the increase. It would require some time for the business of the country to adjust itself to the new conditions, and great derangement of values would ensue; but the result would at last be reached in all trans- actions which are controlled by the law of demand and supply. No such change of values can occur with- out cost. Somebody must pay for it. 'Who pays in this case ? We have seen that doub- ling the currency finally results in reducing the purchasing power of each dollar one half; hence every man who held a legal- tender note at the time of the increase, and continued to hold it till the full effect of the increase was produced, suffered a loss of fifty per cent, of its value; in other words, he paid a tax to the amount of half of all the currency in his possession. This new issue, therefore, by depreciating the value of all the currency, cost the holders of the old is- sue $175,000,000 ; and if the new notes were received at their nominal value at the date of issue, their holders paid a tax of $175,- 000,000 more. No more unequal or unjust mode of taxation could possibly be devised. It would be tolerated only by being so in- volved in the transactions of business as to be concealed from observation ; but it would be no less real because hidden. But some one may say : " This depreci- ation would fall upon capitalists and rich men, who are able to bear it." If this were true, it would be no less un- just. But, unfortunately, the capitalists would suffer less than any other class. The new issue would be paid in the first place in large amounts to the creditors of the Gov- ernment; it would pass from their hands before the depreciation had taken fuU effect, and, passing down step by step through the ranks of middlemen, the dead weight would fall at last upon the laboring classes in the increased price of all the necessaries of life. It is well known that in a general rise of prices wages are among the last to rise. This principle was illustrated in the report of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue for the year 1866. It is there shown that from the beginning of the war to the end of 1866, the average price of all commodities had risen ninety per cent. Wages, however, had risen but sixty per cent. A day's labor would purchase but two thirds as many of GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 127 the necessaries of life as it would before. The wrong is therefore inflicted on the la- borer long before his income can be adjusted to his increased expenses. It was in view of this truth that Daniel Webster said, in one of his ablest speeches : Of all the contriTances for cheating the la- boring classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes them with pa- per money. This is the most effectual of inven- tions to fertilize the rich man's field by the sweat of the poor man's brow. Ordinary tyranny, op- pression, excessive taxation, these bear lightly on the happiness of the mass of the community, compared with a fraudulent currency and the rob- beries committed by depreciated paper. The fraud committed and the burdens im- posed upon the people, in the case we have supposed, would be less intolerable if all busi- ness transactions could be really adjusted to the new conditions ; but even this is impos- sible. All debts would be canceled, all con- tracts fulfilled by payment in these notes — not at their real value, but for their face. All salaries fixed by law, the pay of every sol- dier iu the army, of every sailor in the navy, and all pensions and bounties, would be re- duced to half their former value. In these cases the effect is only injurious. Let it never he forgotten that every depreciation of our currency results in robbing the one hundred and eighty thousand pensioners, maimed heroes, crushed and bereaved wid- ows, and homeless orphans, who sit helpless at our feet. And who would be benefited by this policy ? A pretense of apology might be offered for it, if the Government could save what the people lose. But the system lacks the support of even that selfish and immoral consideration. The depreciation caused by the overissue in the case we have supposed, compels the Government to pay just that per cent, more on all the contracts it makes, on all the loans it negotiates, on all the supplies it purchases ; and to crown all, it must at last redeem all its legal-tender notes in gold coin, dollar for dollar. The advocates of repudiation have not yet been bold enough to deny this. I have thus far considered the influence of a redundant paper currency on the coun- try when its trade and industry are in a healthy and normal state. I now call atten- 9 tion to its effect in producing an unhealthy expansion of business, in stimulating specu- lation and extravagance, and in laying the' sure foundation of commercial revulsion and widespread ruin. This principle is too well understood to require any elaboration here. The history of all modern nations is full of examples. One of the ablest American wri- ters on banks and banking, Mr. Gouge, thus sums up the result of his researches : The history of all our bank pressures and panics has been the same in 1825, in 1837, and in 1843 ; and the cause is given in these two sim- ple words — ^universal expansion. There still remains to be considered the effect of depreciated currency on our trade with other nations. By raising prices at home higher than they are abroad, imports are largely increased beyond the exports; our coin must go abroad; or, what is far worse for us, our bonds, which have also suffered depreciation, and are purchased by foreigners at seventy cents on the dollar. During the whole period of high prices oc- casioned by the war, gold and bonds have been steadily going abroad, notwithstanding our tariff duties, which average nearly fifty per cent, ad valorem. More than five hun- dred million dollars of our bonds are now held in Europe, ready to he thrown back upon us when any war or other sufficient disturbance shall occur. No tariff rates short of actual prohibition can prevent this outflow of gold while our currency is thus depreciated. During these years, also, our merchant marine steadily decreased, and our ship - building interests were nearly ruined. Our tonnage engaged in foreign trade, which amounted in 1859-60 to more than two and a half million tons, had fallen in 1865-'66 to less than one and a half millions — a decrease of more than fifty per cent.; and prices of labor and material are still too high to enable our shipwrights to compete with foreign builders. From the facts already exhibited in refer- ence to our industrial revolution, and from the foregoing analysis of the nature and functions of currency, it is manifest : 1. That the remarkable prosperity of all industrial enterprise during the war was not 128 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. caused by the abundance of ouri-enoy, but by the unparalleled demand for every product of labor. 2. That the great depression of business, the stagnation of trade, the " hard times " which have prevailed during the past year, and which still prevail, have not been caused by an insufficient amount of currency, but mainly by the great falling off of the demand for all the products of labor compared with the increased supply since the return from ■war to peace. I should be satisfied to rest on these prop- ositions "without further argument, were it not that the declaration is so often and so confidently made by members of this House, that there is not only no excess of currency, but that there is not enough for the business of the country. I subjoin a table, carefully made up from the official records, showing the amount of paper money in the United States at the beginning of each year from 1834 to 1868 inclusive. The fractions of millions are omitted : 1884, $96,000,000 1852, $150,000,000 1835, 104,000,000 1853, 146,000,000 1836, 140,000,000 1854, 205,000,000 1837, 149,000,000 1655, 187,000,000 1838, 116,000,000 1856, 196,000,000 1839, 135,000,000 1857, 216,000,000 1840, 107,000,000 1858, 135,000,000 1841, 107,000,000 1859, 193,000,000 1842, 84,000,000 1860, 207,000,000 1843, 59,000,000 1861, 202,000,000 1844, 75,000,000 1862, 218,000,000 1845, 90,000,000 1863, 529,000,000 1846, 105,000,000 1864, 636,000,000 184'7, 106,000,000 1866, 948,000,000 1848, 129,000,000 1866, 919,000,000 1849, 115,000,000 1867, 852,000,000 1850, 131,000,000 1868, 767,000,000 1851, 155,000,000 To obtain a full exhibit of the circulat- ing medium of the country for these years, it would be necessary to add to the above the amount of coin in circulation each year. This amount can not be ascertained with ac- curacy; but it is the opinion of those best qualified to judge, that there were about two hundred million dollars of gold and sil- ver coin in the United States at the begin- ning of the rebellion. It is officially known that the amount held by the banks from 1860 to 1863 inclusive averaged about nine- ty-seven million dollars. Including bank reserves, the total circulation of coin and paper never exceeded four hundred million dollars before the war. Excluding the bank reserves, the amount was never much above three hundred million dollars. During the twenty-six years preceding the war the av- erage bank circulation was less than one hundred and thirty-nine million dollars. It is estimated that the amount of coin now in the United States is not less than $250,000,000. When it is remembered that there are $106,000,000 of coin in the Trea- sury, that customs duties and interest on the public debt are paid in coin alone, and that the currency of the States and Territories of the Pacific coast is wholly metallic, it will be seen that a large sum of gold and silver must be added to the volume of paper cur- rency in order to ascertain the whole amount of our circulation. It can not be successfully controverted that the gold, silver, and paper, used as money in this country at this time, amount to $1,000,000,000. If we subtract from this amount our bank reserves, which amounted on the 1st of January last to $162,500,000, and also the cash in the na- tional Treasury, which at that time amounted to $184,000,000, we still have left in active circulation more than $700,000,000. It rests with those who assert that our present amount of currency is insufficient, to show that one hundred and fifty per cent, more currency is now needed for the busi- ness of the country than was needed in 1860. To escape this difficulty, it has been asserted, by some honorable members, that the country never had currency enough ; and that credit was substituted before the war to supply the lack of money. It is a perfect answer to this, that in many of the States a system of free banking prevailed ; and such banks pushed into circulation all the money they could find a market for. The table I have submitted shows how perfect an index the currency is of the healthy or unhealthy condition of business, and that every great financial crisis, during the period covered by the table, has been preceded by a great increase, and followed by a great and sudden decrease, in the vol- ume of paper money. The rise and fall of mercury in the barometer is not more surely indicative of an atmospheric storm, than is a sudden increase or decrease of currency GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 129 indicative of financial disaster. Within the period covered by the table there were four great financial and commercial crises in this country. They occurred in 1837, 1841, 1854, and 1857. Now observe the change in the volume of paper currency for those years. On the first day of January, 1837, the amount had risen to $149,000,000, an in- crease of nearly fifty per cent, in three years. Before the end of that year, the reckless expansion, speculation, and over- trading which caused the increase, had re- sulted in terrible collapse ; and on the .1st of January, 1838, the volume was reduced to $116,000,000. "Wild lands, which specu- lation had raised to fifteen and twenty dol- lars per acre, fell to one dollar and a half and two dollars, accompanied by a corre- sponding depression in all branches of busi- ness. Immediately after the crisis of 1841, the bank circulation decreased twenty-five per cent., and by the end of 1842 was re- duced to $58,500,000, a decrease of nearly fifty per cent. At the beginning of 1853 the amount was $146,000,000. Speculation and expan- sion had swelled it to $205,000,000 by the end of that year, and thus introduced the crash of 1854. At the beginning of 1857 the paper money of the country reached its highest point of inflation up to that time. There were nearly $215,000,000, but at the end of that disastrous year the volume had fallen to $135,000,000, a decrease of nearly forty per cent, in less than twelve months. In the great crashes preceding 1837 the same conditions are invariably seen — great expan- sion, followed by a violent collapse, not only in paper money, but in loans and discounts ; and those manifestations have always been accompanied by a corresponding fluctuation in prices. In the great crash of 1819, one of the severest this country ever suffered, there was a complete prostration of business. It 'is recorded in Niles's Register for 1820 that, in that year, an Ohio miller sold four barrels of flour to raise five dollars, the amount of his subscription to that paper. Wheat was twenty cents per bushel, and corn ten cents. About the same time, Mr. Jeflferson wrote to Nathaniel Macon : We have now no standard of vahie. I am asked eighteen dollars for a yard of broadcloth which, when we had dollars, I used to get for eighteen shillings. But there is one quality of such a currency ]iiore remarkable than all others — ^its strange power to delude men. The spells and en- chantments of legendary witchcraft were hardly so wonderful. Most delusions can not be repeated ; they lose their power after a full exposure. Not so with irredeemable paper money. From the days of John Law its history has been a repetition of the same story, with only this difference : no nation now resorts to its use except from over- whelming necessity ; but whenever any na- tion is fairly embarked, it floats on the de- lusive waves, and, like the lotus-eating com- panions of Ulysses, wishes to return no more. Into this very delusion many of our fel- low citizens and many members of this House have fallen. Hardly a member of either House of the Thirty-seventh or Thirty- eighth Congress spoke on the subject who did not deplore the necessity of resorting to inconvertible paper money, and protest against its continuance a single day beyond the inexorable necessities of the war. The remarks of Mr. Fessenden, when he reported the first legal-tender hill from the Finance Committee of the Senate, in February, 1862, fully exhibit the sentiment of Congress at that time. He assured tlie country that the measure was not to be resorted to as a pol- icy ; that it was what it professed to be, a temporary expedient; that he agreed with the declaration of tlie chairman of the Com- mittee of Ways and Means of the House that it was not contemplated to issue more than $150,000,000 of legal-tender notes. This, I repeat, was the almost unanimous sentiment of the Thirty-seventh Congress; and though subsequent necessity compelled both that and the Thirty-eighth Congress to make new issues of paper, yet the danger was always confessed and the policy and purpose of speedy resumption were kept steadily in view. So anxious were the mem- bers of the Thirty-eighth Congress that the temptation to new issues should not over- conie them or their successors, that they bound themselves, by a kind of financial temperance pledge, that there never should be a further increase of lepral-tender notes. 130 THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Witness the following clause of the loan act of June 30, 1864 : Section 2 Provided, That the total amount of bonds and Treasury notes authorized by the first and second sections of this act shall not exceed $400,000,000 in addition to the amounts heretofore issued; nor shall the total amount o£ United States notes, issued or to be issued, ever exceed $400,000,000, and such addi- tional sum, not exceeding $50,000,000, as may be temporarily required for the redemption of temporary loan. Here is a solemn pledge to the puhlic creditors, a compact with them, that the Government will never issue non-interest- paying notes beyond the sum total of $450,- 000,000. When the war ended, the Thirty- ninth Congress, adopting the views of its predecessors on this subject, regarded the legal-tender currency as a part of the war machinery, and proceeded to redaoe and withdraw it in the same manner in which the army and navy and other accompaniments of the war were reduced. Ninety-five gen- tlemen who now occupy seats in this Hall were members of this House on the 18th of December, 1865, when it was resolved, by a vote of 144 yeas to 6 nays : That this House cordially concurs in the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the necessity of a contraction of the currency with a view to as early a resumption of specie payments as the business interests of the country, will permit; and we hereby pledge cooperative action to this end as speedily as practicable. Since the passage of that resolution the currency has been reduced by an amount less than one sixth of its volume, and what magic wonders have been wrought in the opinions of members of this House and among the financial philosophers of the country 1 A score of honorable gentlemen have exhausted their eloquence in singing the praises of greenbacks. They insist that, at the very least, Congress should at once set the printing-presses in motion to restore the $70,000,000 of national treasure so ruth- lessly reduced to ashes by the incendiary torch of the Secretary of the Treasury. Anothei', claiming that this would be a poor and meager ofiering to the offended paper god, introduces a bUl to print and issue $140,000,000 more. The philosopher of Lewiston, the Democratic Representative of the Ninth District of Illinois [Mr. Eoss], thinks that a new issue of $700,000,000 will, for the present, meet the wants of the country. Another, perceiving that the na- tional-bank notes are dividing the honors with greenbacks, proposes to abolish these offending corporations, and, in lieu of their notes, issue $300,000,000 more in green- backs, and thus increase the active circula- tion by over one hundred millions, the amount now held as bank reserves. And, finally, the Democratic masses of the West are rallying under the leadership of the coming man, the young statesman of Cin- cinnati, who proposes to cancel with green- backs the $1,500,000,000 of five -twenty bonds, and, with his election to the Presi- dency, usher in the full millennial glory of paper money I And this is the same George H. Pendleton who denounced as unconstitu- tional the law which authorized the first issue of greenbacks, and concluded an elab- orate speech against the passage of the bill in 1862 with these words : Tou send these notes out into the world stamped with irredeemability. You put on them the mark of Cain, and, like Cain, they wiU go forth to be vagabonds and fugitives on the earth. What, then, will be the consequence ? It re-, quires no prophet to tell what will be their his- tory. The currency will be expanded ; prices will be inflated ; fixed values will depreciate ; incomes will be diminished ; the savings of the poor will vanish ; the hoardings of the widow will melt away ; bonds, mortgages, and notes, everything of fixed value, will lose their value ; everything of changeable value will be appreciated ; the neces- saries of life will rise in value. . . . Contrac- tion will follow. Private ruin and public bank- ruptcy, either with or without REPUDiATioif, will inevitably follow. The chief cause of this new-born zeal for paper money is the same as that which led a member of the Continental Congress to exclaim : Do you think, gentlemen, that I will consent to load my constituents with taxes, when we can send to the printer and get a wagon-load of money, one quire of which will pay for the whole ? The simple fact in the case is that Con- gress went resolutely and almost unanimous- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 131 ly forward in the policy of gradual resump- tion of specie payments and a return to the old standard of values, until the pressure of falling prices and hard times hegan to be felt ; and now many are shrinking from the good work they have undertaken, are turn- ing back from the path they so worthily re- soved to pursue, and are askiag Congress to plunge the nation deeper than ever into the abyss from which it has been struggling so earnestly to escape. Did any reflecting man suppose it possible for the country to return from the high prices, the enormous expan- sion of business, debt, and speculation occa- sioned by the war, without much depression and temporary distress? The wit of man has never devised a method by which the vast commercial and industrial interests of a nation can suflEer the change from peace to war, and from war back to peace, without hardship and loss. The homely old maxim, " What goes up must come down," applies to our situation with peculiar force. The " coming down " is inevitable. Congress can only break the fall and mitigate its evils by adjusting the taxation, the expenditures, and the currency of the country to the changed conditions of affairs. This it is our duty to do with a firm and steady hand. Much of this work has already been done. Our national expenditures have been very considerably reduced, but the work of re- trenching expenditures can go, and should go, much further. Very many, perhaps too many, of our national taxes have been re- moved. But if this Congress shall consent to break down the dikes, and let in on the country a new flood of paper money for the temporary relief of business, we shall see all the evils of our present situation return after a few months with redoubled force. It is my clear conviction that the most formidable danger with which the country is now threatened is a large increase in the volume of paper money. Shall we learn nothing from experience ? Shall the warnings of the past be unheeded? What other nation has so painfully spelled out, letter by letter and word by word, the terrible meaning of irredeemable paper money, whether known by the name of colonial bills. Continental currency, or notes of dishonored banks ? Most of the colonies had suffered untold evils from depreciated paper before the Eevolution. Massachusetts issued her first bills of credit in 1690, to meet a war debt, and, after sixty years of vain and delusive efforts to make worthless paper serve the purposes of money, found her in- dustry perishing under the weight of colony bills equal in nominal value to $11,000,000, which, though made a legal tender and braced up by the severest laws, were worth but twelve per cent, of their face ; and, under the lead of Hutchinson, a far-sighted and courageous statesman, in 1750 resumed spe- cie payment, canceled all her bills, and by law prohibited the circulation of paper money within her borders, and made it a crime punishable by a fine of £100 for any Governor to approve any bill to make it a legal tender. For the next quarter of a century Massa- chusetts enjoyed the blessings of a sound currency. Rhode Island clung to the delu- sion many years longer. More than one hundred pages of Arnold's history of that colony are devoted to portraying the dis- tress and confusion resulting from this cause alone. The history of every colony that is- sued bills is a repetition of the same sad story. The financial history of the Eevolution is too familiar to need repetition here, but there are points in that history of which an American Congress can not be too often re- minded. Nowhere else were all the quali- ties of irredeemable paper money so fully exhibited. From the first emission of $2,- 000,000, in 1775, till the last, in 1781, when $360,000,000 had been issued, there appeared to be a purpose, perpetually renewed but always broken, to restrict the amount and issue no more. Each issue was to be the last. But notwithstanding the enormous volume reluctantly put in circulation, our fathers seemed to believe that its value could be kept up by legislation. They denounced in resolutions of Congress the first depre- ciation of these bills as the work of enemies ; and in January, 1776, resolved: That if any person shall hereafter be so lost to all virtue and regard for his country as to re- fuse to receive said bills in payment, etc., he shall be treated as an enemy, and precluded from all trade or intercourse with the inhabitants of these colonies. 132 THE KEPUBLICAN TEST-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. But tliey found before tlie struggle ended that the inexorable laws of value were above human legislation ; that resolutions can not nullify the truths of the multiplication table. The bills passed nearly at par until the issues exceeded nine millions. At the end of 1776 they were worth seventy-five per cent, of their nominal value ; at the end of 1777, twenty-five ; at the end of 1778, six- teen; at the end of 1779, two and a half; and at the end of 1780 they were worth but one cent on the dollar. Four months later $500 in Continental bills were selling for one doUar in specie. Peletiah Webster, in 1790, said : The fatal error that the credit and currency of Continental money could be kept up and sup- ported by acts of compulsion, entered so deep in the minds of Congress and all departments of administration through the States, that no con- sideration of justice, religion, or policy, or even experience of its utter inefficiency, could eradi- cate it ; it seemed a kind of obstinate delirium, totally deaf to every argument drawn from jus- tice and right, from its natural tendency and mischief, and from common justice, and even from common sense. . . . This ruiuous princi- ple was continued in practice for five suc- cessive years, and appeared in all shapes and forms, i. c, legal-tender acts, limitation of prices, in awful and threatening declarations, and in penal laws. . . . Many thousand families of full and easy fortune were ruined by these fatal measures, and lie in ruins to-day (1790), with- out the least benefit to the country or to the great and noble cause in which they were then engaged. In summing up the evils of the Continen- tal currency, after speaking of the terrible hardships of the war, the destruction of property by the enemy, who at times during its progress held eleven out of the thirteen State capitals, Mr. Webster, who had seen it all, said : Yet these evils were not as great as those which were caused by Continental money and the consequent irregularities of the financial system. We have suffered from this cause more than from every other cause of calamity ; it has killed more men, pervaded and corrupted the choicest inter- ests of our country more, and done more injustice, than even the arms and artifices of our enemies. But let it never be forgotten that the fathers of the Revolution saw, at last, the fatal error into which they had fallen, and even in the midst of their great trials restored to the young nation then struggling for its existence its standard of value, its basis for honest and honorable industry. In 1781, Eobert Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finance. He made a re- turn to specie payments the condition of his acceptance; and, onthe22d of May, Congress declared, "That the calculation of the ex- penses of the present campaign shall be made in solid coin " ; and — That experience having evinced the inefficiency of all attempts to support the credit of paper money by compulsory acts, it is recommended to such States where laws making paper bills a ten- der yet exist to repeal the same. Thus were the financial interests of the nation rescued from dishonor and utter ruin. The state of the currency from the close of the war to the establishment of the Gov- ernment under the Constitution was most deplorable. The separate States had been seized with the mania for paper money, and were rivaling each other in the extrava- gance of their issues and the rigor of their financial laws. One by one they were able, at last, to conquer the evils into which paper money had plunged them. In 1786 James Madison wrote from Richmond, to General Washington, the joyful news that the Vir- ginia Legislature had, by a majority of 84 to 17, voted— Paper money unjust, impolitic, destructive of public and private confidence, and of that virtue which is the basis of repubhcan government. The paper money of Massachusetts was the chief cause of Shays's rebellion. The paper money of Rhode Island kept that State for several years from coming into the . Union. Nearly half a century afterward, Daniel Webster, reviewing the financial history of the period now under consideration, said : From the close of the war to the time of the adoption of this Constitution, as I verily believe, the people suffered as much, except in loss of life, from the disordered state of the currency and the prostration of commerce and business as they suffered during the war. GENEEAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 133 With such an experience, it is not won- derful that the framers of our Constitution should have undertaken to protect their de- scendants from the evils they had themselves endured. By reference to the Madison Papers, vol- ume three, pages 1343-'46,it will be seen that, in the first draft of the Constitution, there was a clause giving Congress the power "to borrow money and emit bills on the credit ofthe United States." On the 16th of August, 1787, during the final revision, Gouverneur Morris moved to strike out the clause authorizing the emission of bills. Mr. Madison deol ared that he voted to strike it out so as to " cut off the pre- text for a paper currency, and particular- ly for making the bills a tender either for public or private debts." Mr. Ellsworth "thought this a favorable time to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mis- chief of the various experiments which had been made was now fresh in the public mind, and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America." Mr. Read " thought that the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelation." Mr. Langdon had rather reject the whole "plan than retain the three words * and emit bills.' " The clause was stricken out by a vote of nine States to two. Twelve days later, Roger Sherman, remarking that "this is a favor- able crisis for crushing paper money," moved " to prohibit the States from emitting bills of credit, or making anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." This clause was placed in the Constitution by a vote of eight States to two. Thus our fathers supposed they had protected us against the very evil which now afflicts the nation. X. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ARRAIGNED AT THE BAR OF PUBLIC OPINION. Speech at the Republican Mass Meeting in Cleveland, Saturday Evening, October 11, 1879. Fellow Citizens: The distinguished gentlemen who have preceded me have cov- ered the ground so completely and so ad- mirably that I have a very easy task. I will pick up a feW straws hero and there over the broad field, and ask you for a few moments to look at them. I take it for granted that every thoughtful, intelligent man would be glad, if he could, to be on the right side, believing that in the long run the right side will be the strong side. I take it for granted that every man would like to hold political opinions that will live some time, if he could. It is a very awkward thing indeed to adopt a political opinion, and trust to it, and find that it will not live over night. It . would be an exceedingly awkward thing to go to bed alone with your political doctrine, trusting and believ- ing in it, thinking it is true, and wake np in the morning and find it a corpse in your arms. I should be glad, for my part, to hold to a political doctrine that would live all, through summer, and stand the frost, and stand a freeze in the winter, and come out alive and true in the spring. I should like to adopt political doctrines that would live longer than my dog. I should be glad to hold to a political doctrine that would live longer than I shall live, and that my chil- dren after me might believe in as true, and say : " This doctrine is true to-day, and it was true fifty years ago, when my father adopted it." Every groat poUtioal party that has done this country any good has given to it some immortal ideas that have outlived all the members of that party. The old Federal party gave great, permanent ideas to this country that are still alive. The old Whig party did the same. The old, the very old. Democratic party did the same — the party of Andrew Jackson, Benton, and Calhoun. But the modern Democratic party has given this country in the last twenty years no idea that has lived to be four years old. I mean an idea, not a passion. The Democratic par- ty has had passions that have lasted longer than that. They have had an immortal ap- petite for ofiice. That is just as strong to- day as it was twenty years ago. Somebody has called the Democratic party " an organ- ized appetite." But that is not an idea ; that is of the belly, and not of the heart, nor of the brain. I say again, they have given to 134 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. this country no great national idea or doc- trine that has lived to be four years old ; and if we had in this great park, as in a great field, herded here together all the ideas that the Democratic party has uttered and put forth in the last twenty years, there would not be found a four-year-old in the lot — hardly a three-year-old — hardly a two- year-old. They have adopted a doctrine just to last till election was over ; and if it did not succeed, they have dropped it to try another ; and they have tried another until it failed, and then tried another ; and it has been a series of mere trials to catch success. "Whenever they have started in a campaign, they have looked out to all the political barns to see how the tin roosters were point- ing, to learn from the political weather- cocks which way the wind is likely to blow ; and then they have made their doctrines accordingly. This is no slander of the Dem- ocratic party. As my friend Mr. Foster has said, this is true not so much of the body of the party as of the leaders. What a dance they have put the good, sound, quiet, steady- going Democrat through during the last twen- ty years I They made him denounce our war for a long time ; and then, when it was aU over, they made him praise it. They made him vote with a party that called our sol- diers "Lincoln's hirelings," and "Lincoln's dogs " ; and tliis very day one of the men who did that is parading up and down this State, praising the Democratic party because it has two soldiers at the head of its ticket, and sneering at us because Mr. Foster was not a soldier in the field. That party has taken both sides of every great question in this country in the last twenty years. They are in favor of the war — after it is over. They are in favor of hard money — or they will be next year, after it is an accomplished fact. They were opposed to greenbacks when greenbacks were neces- sary to save the life of the nation, and when they thought it would be popular to oppose greenbacks. The moment they found it was unpopular they faced the other way, and declared that the greenback was the best currency the world ever saw. I would like to ask that good, old, quiet Democrat how he has felt when they have told him to vote against the war one year and then praise it the next, and he had to follow his leaders all the while ; how he felt when they told him to curse greenbacks, and he voted the ticket, and then when they or- dered him to wheel right around on his heel and march the other way, and vote the Dem- ocratic ticket all the time. They told him, for example, that the proposition to let the negro have his freedom was an outrageous thing that must not be listened to, and he voted the Democratic ticket. A little while after, they came around and said : " We will enforce all the amendments of the Constitu- tion — the negro amendment among the rest — and we are among the best friends that the negro ever had." And yet he voted with them every time, facing right the other way. WTien we proposed to give the ballot to the negro, they said : " Why, he is an inferior race. God made him to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water. He is inferior to us. He is of bad odor, and bad every way, of low intelligence, and we wUl never, never allow him to vote." What do they say now ? They are cooing and billing with every negro that will listen to them, and asking him to vote the Democratic ticket. They are say- ing to him: "My friend, the Democratic party was always a good friend of the negro. The Democratic party knows the negro bet- ter than the Republicans do. We have been nearer to you. We know your habits. We understand your character, and we can do you more good." Yes, they have been nearer to you. The fellow that flogs you with a cat-o'-nine-tails has to be pretty near to you. They have a warm feeling for you. The man who brands your cheek with a red- hot iron gets up a good deal of warmth to- ward you. But, my friends, the curious thing is, how a steady-going, consistent Democrat can have followed all these crooks and turns and facings-about of his party in all these years, and not have gotten dizzy by turning so fre- quently. They shouted for hard money, and he voted the Democratic ticket. They shout- ed for soft money, and he voted the Demo- cratic ticket. They said the three amend- ments to the Constitution were void, and should not be obeyed, and he voted the Democratic ticket. They walked right out to the next great election bringing Horace GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 135 Greeley in their arms, and said, "We will carry out all the amendments to the Consti- tution; we will be the best friend of the slave in the world," and he voted the Demo- cratic ticket, following in the same wake. Now, my friends, there has not been a leading prophecy, there has not been a lead- ing doctrine put forward by the Democratic party in all these years that it has not itself abandoned. I do not believe there is a fair- minded Democrat here to-night who does not rejoice in his soul that his party has abandoned the leading doctrines of the last twenty years. Are you sorry, my Demo- cratic friend, that slavery is dead? I be- lieve you are not. Then you are glad that we outvoted you when you tried to keep it alive. Are you sorry that rebellion and se- cession are dead? If you are not, then you are glad that you were overwhelmed and outvoted when you tried to keep the party that sustained them alive. Are you glad that our war was not a failure 2 If you are, you are glad that we voted you down in 1864, when your central doctrine was that the war was a failure and must be stopped. If you are glad of so many things, will you not be glad when we have voted down your party next Tuesday and elected Charley Fos- ter Governor of Ohio ? There are two great reasons why the peo- ple of this State are going to do it. One is, that they do not intend to allow any more fooling with the business of this country. For the last four years the chief obstacle in the way of the restoration of business pros- perity and the full employment of labor in this country has been the danger threatened to you by the politicians in Congress. Busi- ness has waited to awaken. Prosperity has been trying to come. General Ewing tells us that it is Divine Providence and a good crop that brought revival of business this year. I remind General Ewing that we had a bountiful crop last year, and business did not revive. I remind him that the year be- fore was a year of great harvest and plenty, and prosperity did not come. Do you know that when we commenced this campaign, General Ewing began to preach his old sermon of last year — his gos- pel of gloom, and darkness, and distress, and misery ; and some of his friends said : " But see here, Ewing, the furnaces are aflame; the mills are busy. ItwiU not do to talk that these people are all in distress." And for a week or two Mr. Ewing denied that there was any revival of business. He denied it flatly. But every mill roared in his ears, and every furnace and forge flashed in his eyes the truth that there was a revival of business ; and then for about four days he undertook to say that it was a campaign dodge of the Republican party; that they started up a few iron-mills until election to affect the election. But that would not work, for Democratic States began to start their iron-mills, rebel States began to boom in business, and that second explanation of Mr. Ewing's would not work. Then he un- dertook, and is yet undertaking, to explain this prosperity away. I heard a gentleman lately tell an incident that illustrates this futile attempt of Mr. Ewing. England wanted Garibaldi to be married to some dis- tinguished English lady, so as to ally free Italy to England. They got it well talked up in diplomatic circles ; but finally some unfortunate fellow suggested a fact that dis- turbed their calculations. It was that Gari- baldi was married ; that he had a young, healthy wife, likely to outlive him. The old diplomatists, not to be balked by any ob- stacles, said: "Never mind; we will get Gladstone to explain her away." Gladstone is a very able man, but when he attempts to explain away as real a thing as a woman, and a wife at that, he undertakes a great contract. Thomas Ewing is not any abler than Gladstone, and his attempt to explain away this prosperity of our country will be more disastrous than the attempt of Glad- stone would have been if he had made it. Everywhere he goes it meets him. Pig-iron in this country, the lowest form of the iron product, has risen in price al- most thirteen dollars the ton since re- sumption came ; and all industries depend- ing upon it have risen in proportion. My only fear, and I say it to the business men around me to-night, is that the revival of business is coming too fast, and that we may overdo it and bring a reaction by and by. But that prosperity has come, and, if we do not abuse it, has come to stay, I have no doubt. I do not claim that the resumption 136 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. of specie payments has done it all. I admit that the favorable balance of trade, that the operation of our tariff laws, that our own great crops and the failure of crops in Europe have done much to secure and aid this revi- val of business. But there is an element in this revival distinctly and markedly traceable to the re- sumption of specie payments, and I ask your indulgence for a half a minute to state it. All over this country there was hidden away in the hands of private men, in stock- ing-feet, in tills, in safes, capital that they dared not invest. "Why ? Because they did not know what Congress would do ; wheth- er it would vote their prosperity up or down, whether the wild vagaries of fiat money should rule, or whether the old God-made dollar of the Constitution and the fathers, the hundred-cent dollar, the dollar all round, should come to be our standard or not ; and they waited. But the moment our Govern- ment, in spite of the Democratic party, in spite of the fiat-money party, in spite of all croakers of all parties, resolved to redeem the great war promises of the nation, and lift our currency up to be as good as gold the world over, that moment the great need- ed restoration of confidence came ; and when it came, capital came out of its hiding-places and invested itself in business. And that investment, that confidence, that stability, gave the grand and needed impetus to the restoration of prosperity in this country. Now, what has been the trouble with us? 1860 was one shore of prosperity, and 1879 the other ; and between those two high shores has flowed the broad, deep, dark river of fire and blood and disaster through which this nation has been com- pelled to wade, and in whose depths it has been almost suffocated and drowned. In the darkness of that terrible passage we carried liberty in our arms ; we bore the Union on our shoulders ; and we bore in our hearts and on our arms what was even better than liberty and Union — wo bore the faith, and honor, and public trust of this mighty nation. And never, until we came up out of tlie dark waters, out of the darkness of that terrible current, and planted our feet upon the solid shore of 1879— never, I say, till then could this country look back to the other shore and feel that its feet were on solid ground, and then look forward to the rising uplands of perpetual peace and pros- perity that should know no diminution in the years to come. I rejoice, for my part, that the party to which I belong has not been fighting against God in this struggle for prosperity. I rejoice that the party to which I belong has not had its prospects hurt by the coming of prosperity. Can you say as much, my Democratic friend, for your party ? Would it not have been better for you at the polls nest Tuesday if the blight had fallen upon our great corn crop, if the Colorado beetle had swept every potato field in America, if the early frost had smitten us all ? Don't you think Mr. Ewing could then have talked more eloquently about the grief, and suffer- ing, and outrage, and hard times brought upon you by the Republican policy of re- sumption ? I should be ashamed to belong to a political party whose prospects were hurt by the blessing of my country. But so it was all during the war. Just before election any time in Ohio during the • war, a great battle that won a victory over the rebellion hurt the Democratic party in this State, and they walked about our streets looking down their noses in sadness and gloom, recognizing that their ballots would be fewer on election day because of the suc- cess of our arms ; and if our soldiers were overwhelmed in battle, if five thousand of your chOdren were slaughtered on the field by the enemies of the Republic, the Demo- crats in Ohio walked more confidently to the polls on election day, and said : " Didn't I tell you so ? " There is something wrong with a party about which those things could be truthfully said ; and you know that they are the truth. Now, I leave all that with this single re- flection : that it is to me for my party a matter of pride and congratulation that in all the darkness of these years we have not de- ceived you by any cunning device to flatter your passions or your hopes. We have told you these are hard times; we are in the midst of suffering, and there is no patent process by which you can get out of it. You can not print yourselves rich. You have got to suffer and be strong. You have got to GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 137 endure and be economical. You have got to wait in patience and do justice, Iteep your pledges, keep your promises, obey the laws, and by and by prosperity will come with its blessings upon you. Ve have now nothing to take back. We rejoice that we were true to you in the days of darkness, and we con- gratulate you that you have stood by the truth until your hour of triumph has come. I said there were two reasons why 1 thought we would triumph next Tuesday. I have hinted at one ; I will now speak briefly of the other. I mean to say that the great audiences that have gathered everywhere in Ohio during this campaign have had more than finance in their hearts. They have thought of something as much higher than finance, as liberty is more precious than cash. They have been moved — and I ask all,Demo- crats to hear it with patience— by what I venture to call the new rebellion against liberty and this Government. I do not mean a rebelliou with guns, for I think that was tried to the heart's content of the people that undertook it. Not that, but another one no less wicked in purpose and no less dangerous in character. Lot me try in a few words, if it be possible to reach all this vast audience, to make you understand what I mean by this new rebellion. Pellow citizens, what is the central thought in American life? Vhat is the germ out of which all our institutions were born, and have been developed? Let me give it to you in a word. When the May- flower was about to land her precious freight upon the shore of Plymouth, the Pilgrim Fathers gathered in the cabin of that little ship, on a stormy November day, and, after praying to Almighty God for the suc- cess of their great enterprise, drew up and signed what is known in history, and what will be known to the last syllable of recorded time, as " the Pilgrim Covenant." In that Covenant is one sentenee which I ask you to take home with you to-night. It is this : " We agree before God and each other that the freely expressed will of the majority shall be the law of all, which we will all obey." [Applause.] Ah, fellow citizens, it does honor to the heads and the hearts of a great New England audience here, on this Western Beserve, to applaud the grand and simple sentiment of the Pilgrim Fathers. They said: "No standing army shall be needed to make us obey. We will erect here in America a substitute for monarchy, a sub- stitute for despotism, and that substitute shall be the will of the majority as the law of all." And that germ, planted on the rocky shores of New England, has sprung up, and all the trees of our liberty have grown from it into the beauty and glory of this year of our life. Over against that there grew up in the South a spirit in absolute antagonism to the "Pilgrim Covenant." That spirit, engen- dered by the institution of slavery, became one of the most powerful and despotic of all the forces on the face of this globe. Let me state, even as an apology for that tyranny — ^if you and I owned a powder mill in the city of Cleveland, we would have a right to make some very stringent and arbitrary rules about that powder mill. We would have a right to say that no man should enter it who had nails in the heels of his boots, because a single step might ex- plode it, and ruin us all. But that would be an absurd law to make about your own house or about a greengrocer's shop. Now, the establishment of the institution of slavery required laws and customs abso- lutely tyrannical in their character. Nails in the heels of your boots in a powder mag- azine would be safety compared with letting education into slavery. It was an institution that would be set on fire by the torch of knowledge, and they knew it ; and therefore they said, " The shining gates of knowledge shall be shut everywhere where a slave lives. It shall be a crime to teach a black man the alphabet ; a crime greater still to teach him the living oracles of Almighty God ; for if once the golden rule of Christ finds its way into the heart of a negro man, and he learns the literature of liberty, our institution is in danger." Hence the whole Southern people became a disciplined, band- ed, absolute despotism over the politics of their section. They had to be. I do not blame them. I only blame the system that compelled them to be so. Now, therefore, all before the war the Southern people were the best disciplined politicians in this world. They were organized on the one 138 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOB THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. great idea of protecting their Southern so- ciety with slavery at its center. Do you know the power of discipline ? Here is a vast audience of ten or fifteen thousand people in this square, and yon are not or- ganized. One resolute captain with one hundred resolute, disciplined soldiers, such as stormed the heights of Kenesaw, could sweep through this square and drive us all out hither and thither at their pleasure. And that is nothing against our courage. It is in favor of their discipline. The clinched fist of Southern slaveholders was too much for the great, hulky, proud strength of the North. They went to Washington, consolidated for one purpose, and they called all their fellows around them from the North, and said, "Give way to our doc- trine, and you have our friendship and sup- port. Gro against us at all, and we rule you out of place and power." The result was that the Southern politicians ahsolutely com- manded and controlled their Northern allies. They converted the Northern Democrats into doughfaces of the most abject pattern ; and you know here to-night, if there he a Democrat who listens to me, that the Ee- puhlican party was born as a protest against the tyranny of that Southern political hier- archy that made slaves of all Northern Democrats. Three quarters of the Republi- can party were made up twenty-five years ago of Democrats that would no longer con- sent to be slaves. Now, why am I going into that long ti- rade in the past ? For this purpose. After the war was over, and reconstruction com- pleted, this same Southern political hierar- chy came back Into power in Washington, and to-day they are as consolidated as the slaveholding politicians of 1860-'61 were! And to-day they hold in their grip absolute- ly all the Northern members of their party ! The Northern doughface has again appeared in American politics, and he is found wher- ever a Democratic Congressman sits. I say, without ofiense, it is the literal truth that this day there is not in all this country a free and absolutely independent - minded Democratic member of either House of your Congress at Washington. Now, let me go back for a moment, and return to this point with a reenforcement. Are you aware that there is one thing that can kill this country, and kiU it beyond all hope ? That one thing is the destruction or enslavement of its voting population. The voting population of the United States is the only sovereign on this continent. You talk about the sovereign States, or even the sovereign Nation. A corporation is not a sovereign. The corporation that we call Ohio was made by the people, and they are its sovereigns. Even the grand corporation that we call the United States was created also by the people, who are its superiors, and its only sovereigns. Now, therefore, if anything happens in this country to cor- rupt, or enslave, or destroy the voters of the United States, that is an irreparable in- jury to liberty and the Union. If in Europe they slay a sovereign, one man is killed, and another can be found to take his place ; but when they slay our sovereign, there is no heir to the throne; our sovereign has no successor. Well, now, that is rather general, but I ask you to come down to particulars. Let me make this statement to you : in 1872, only seven years ago, in the eleven States that went into rebellion there were cast, at a free and fair election, 759,000 Eepublioan votes and 650,000 Democratic votes. There is liberty for you 1 There are a million and a quarter of free voting citizens casting their ballots for the men of their choice ! This country has been growing in the last seven years, but let me tell you what calamity has happened to us. In those same eleven late Rebel States there have disap- peared apparently from the face of the earth 400,000 American voters. Fellow citizens, that is an awful sentence which I have just spoken in your hearing. I repeat it. In eleven States of this Union there have dis- appeared apparently from the face of the earth 400,000 American voters. Where have they gone ? They are all Republicans. Have they gone to the Democratic party ? No ; for the Democratic party has also lost some of its voters in those States. What has happened? I will tell you. That spirit of Southern tyranny, that old spirit of des- potism born of slavery, has arisen and killed freedom intheSouth. It has slain liberty in at least seven of the eleven States of the South. GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 139 It happened in this wise: In 1872, in fire States of the South, we had a marked, overwhelming, and fair majority of Repuhli- can votes. For example, in the State of Mississippi, at the Congressional election of 1872, there were thrown 80,803 Eepnhlioan votes, and there were thrown 40,500 Demo- cratic votes. That was a fair test of the strength of the two parties. Five Repuhli- cans and one Democrat were elected to Con- gress from the State of Mississippi. Six years passed, and in 1878 there were just 2,056 Republican votes thrown in the State of Mississippi. How many Democratic votes? Thirty-flve thousand. They had fallen off 5,000 ; the Republicans had fallen off 78,000 votes. Where had the 78,000 voters gone? I will tell you. The rebel army, without uniforms, organized itself aa Democratic clubs in Mississippi, and, armed with shot- guns and rifles, surrounded the houses of Republican voters, with the muzzles of their guns at their heads, in the night, and said, " You come out and vote, if you dare. We will kill you when you come." And all over the State of Mississippi the Democratic party, being the old rebel army, deployed itself among the cabins of the blacks and killed liberty everywhere throughout that State. Why, in a district of Mississippi where, in 1872, fifteen thousand Republican votes were polled, and eight thousand Democratic, there were but four thousand polled for a rebel general, and twelve scattering votes polled for other people — not one Republican vote put in a box in all the district. So it was in Alabama. So it was in Louisiana, in part. So it was in the two Carolinas. The result was this : four hundred thousand voters substantially annihilated. And the further result was this: thirty Democratic rebels elected in Republican districts, where liberty had first been slain; and to-day there are thirty members of Congress, not one of whom has any more right to sit there and make laws for you and me than an inhabitant of that jail has a right to go there and make laws for us. They are not created Congress- men by virtue of law, but by virtue of mur- der, assassination, riot, intimidation ; and on the dead body of American liberty they stand and make laws for you and me. That gives them the House. That gives them the Senate. That gives the old slave power and the old rebel power its grip again on the country, and it gives them what we call the Solid South. I am talking plain talk. I am talking words that I expect will be read by every gentleman in Congress whom I am to- night denouncing. I expect to meet those gentlemen and make good every word I say. Now, what purpose has this Solid South in thus grasping power and killing liberty? This: they are determined to make their old "lost cause" the triumphingcause. Who is their leader to-day ? By all odds, the most popular man south of Mason and Dixon's line is Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. He is to-day their hero and their leader ; and I will give you my proof of it. Do you know that our friend General Rice has been making a great deal of small capital out of the fact that he introduced an Arrears of Pensions Bill for soldiers ? You all know what kind of a bill that was. It was a bill granting arrears of pensions to our soldiers ; but it also granted arrears of pen- sions to all rebel soldiers who had fought in the Mexican War. We made a law that the name of a man who had taken up aims against this country should be stricken from our pension rolls, and he should receive no money out of our treasury. That law Mr. Rice's bill repealed in so far as it related to the Mexican soldiers, and he knew and was told plainly that that clause included Jefferson Davis as one of the pensioners to be helped by that law ; and even in that rebel Congress there were many Democrats that could not quite be brought up to iihe scratch to vote to pension Jefferson Davis; and hence Mr. Rice's bill hung in the committee and was not reported. Then a Republican member of the House moved to discharge the com- mittee from the consideration of the whole subject. He introduced a bill that did not have Jefferson Davis in it, but had only our soldiers in it ; and that bill, not Mr. Rice's, passed. But when that bill got to the Senate a Democrat moved to add the Rice section that covered all rebel pensioners under its provisions ; and then it was that Mr. Hoar of Massachusetts called the attention of the United States Senate to the fact that that amendment would include Jefferson Davis, 140 THE EEPUBLIOAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. and he moved an amendment to the amend- ment that it should not be so construed. What followed ? Immediately there sprang to his feet our Ohio Senator. I blush for my State when I repeat it. Allen G. Thurman arose to his feet and said, " The Democratic Legislature of Ohio has in- structed me to Yote to pension the soldiers of the Mexican War, and they did not instruct me to make an exception against Jefferson Davis, and therefore I vote against Mr. Hoar's amendment." Thereupon Mr. Hoar spoke against the amendment that would pension Jefferson Davis, and the moment he did it there sprang up all over that chamber champions and defenders of Jefferson Davis. The tomahawks literally flew, or rather metaphorically flew, everywhere at the head of any Republican that dared to suggest that the Government ought not to pension Jef- ferson Davis. Lamar of Mississippi, an elo- quent and able Senator, arose in his place and said that there had not lived on this earth, from the days of Hampden to Wash- ington, a purer patriot and a nobler man than Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. Man after man exhausted his eloquence in defend- ing and eulogizing the arch-rebel, who led this country into oceans of blood. I give you that to show the spirit that animates the people that rule in Congress to-day. Now let me say a word more that con- nects what I am saying with the old story of the days before slavery was dead. I have been seventeen years a member of the House, and in all that period I never have once known, as my friends here on the stand can testify in their experience, of the members of the Eepublioan party binding themselves in a caucus to support any bill before Con- gress. I have seen it tried once or twice, but I have always seen dozens of Republicans spring to their feet, and say, " I am a free man, and I will vote according to the inter- ests of my constituents and the dictates of my conscience, and no caucus shall bind me.' But the moment the Democratic party got back iuto power again, that moment they organized the caucus — the secret cau- cus, the oath-bound caucus ; for within the recent extra session they have actually taken oaths not to divulge what occurred in caucus, and to be bound by whatever the caucus decreed, and I have known man after man, who had sworn by all the wicked gods at once that he would not be bound to go for a certain measure, walk out of the caucus like a sheep led to the slaughter, and vote for the bill that he had cursed. They brought bills at the extra session so full of manifest errors that when we pointed them out they would admit in private that there were errors that ought to be corrected, but they would say, " I have agreed to vote for it without amendment, and I will." We pointed out wretchedly bad grammar in bills, and they would not even correct their grammar, because the caucus had adopted it. Now, therefore, gentlemen, the Con- gress of the United States is ruled by a cau- cus. It has ceased to be a deliberative body. It is ruled by a secret caucus, and who rules the caucus ? Two thirds of its members are men who fought this country in war ; who tried to destroy this nation ; and who to-day look upon Jefferson Davis as the foremost patriot and highest political leader in Amer- ica. Therefore, the leadership which rules you is the rebellion in Congress. Well, now, what of that? This is not all. They look over the field of 1880, and they say they have got in their hands the Solid South, and they lack only one tljing more. They lack thirty-seven electoral votes to add to their one hundred and thirty-five, and they have captured the offices of the Gov- ernment and have captured the Presidency. The South will have the whole control of this republic in its hands. Now, how are they going to get the thirty-seven electoral votes? There are two States that will fill the bill — New York and Ohio. If they can get those two States next year, they have indeed captured the Govern- ment. This good friend says they can't have them. They can not get them in this audience. This is not the pi ace to capture the State of Ohio for rebel brigadiers. They can not capture it in any of the great agricultu- ral counties of Ohio, for they are sound and true to the Union, and loyal to their heart's core. They can not go into the central parts of patriotic New York and capture the thirty-seven votes. But I will tell you, fellow citizens, what they hope to do, and there is one way by GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 141 which they may succeed. Let me stop and say one single word to you about the great cities. Thomas Jefferson said that great cities were the sores on the body politic — the cancers whose roots run down and curse, and will ultimately break up, the country unless they are ruled. A city of the size of Cleveland has its troubles. A great city like the city of New York has passed the bounds of safety in this country. The ablest orator that Kome ever pro- duced, in describing the political party led by Catiline, said that all the bankrupts, all the desperadoes, all the thieves and robbers and murderers gathered around Catiline ; and, finally, in a horrible figure of tremen- dous power, he said that the party of Cati- line was " the bilge-water of Kome." "What a figure that is, my friends ! What do you mean by " bilge-water " ? That water that leaks stealthily through your planks and down below the deck ; and in the darkness, out of sight, out of reach, it reeks and stagnates and stinks, breeds pestilence, and brings death upon all that are on board. Cicero said that that party that gathered in Rome was " the bilge- water of Rome," and into that bilge-water, in the cities of Cincin- nati and New York, the Democratic party desire to insert their political pumps and pump out the hell-broth that can poison and corrupt and ruin the freedom of both these great cities, and gain them to the Solid South. That is the programme. If they can get control of the elections, they will make both those cities strongly enough Democratic to overwhelm all the votes that the green lanes of our country can grow. Now, what is in the way of. that 3 Just two things. The United States has passed a law to put a Detfioorat at one end of the ballot-box in the great cities and a Repub- lican at the other end, and it empowered those two men, not to run the election, hut to stand there as eyes of the Government and look— look first to see that the ballot- box is empty when they begin, and then to stand and look into the faces of every man that votes, and, if he comes to vote twice, record it and have him brought before the judge and sent to the penitentiary for his crime, and to stay there until the polls are closed, and then not allow the ballot-boxes to be sent oflf and the vote counted in secret by partisan judges, but to be opened and unfolded and read in the light of day, re- corded and certified to by the Republican and Democratic officers, so that the justice of the ballot-box should not be outraged and freedom should not be slain. No juster law was ever passed on this continent than that. It saved New York from the supremest of crimes. It elicit- ed, even from a Democratic committee of which A. V. Rice was a member, the highest possible encomium in 1876. And he and Sunset Cox, of New York, in their official report to Congress, recommended to all parts of the country the admirable elec- tion law of Congress that brought into uni- son and coSperation the officers of the State and the officers of the nation, in keeping a pure ballot and a free election in the great cities. That is what the Democratic party said of this law in 1876. Bat their masters of the caucus had not then given out their decree. They have now given it, and the decree from the secret caucus, the decree from their old slave-masters, has now gone forth : " Take those two men away from the ballot-box. Wipe out the election law, so that the Tweeds of New York and the Eph Hollands of Cincinnati may have free course, and do the work and fix 1880 in their own way." That is the programme of the rebel brigadiers in Congress. I understand that Mr. Ewing said here the other night be was amazed to hear Re- publicans talk as though they were afraid of a few rebel brigadiers. It was not so sur- prising, ho said, that our friend Foster should be afraid of them, throwing a slur at him be- cause he was not in the army, hut he was surprised that General Garfield should be alarmed at the brigadiers. I am here to an- swer General Ewing. As to who is afraid of brigadiers, let him boast who has the first need to boast. But there are some things I am afraid of, and I confess it in this great presence. I am afraid to do a mean thing. I am afraid of any policy that will let the vileness of New York City pour its foul slime over the freedom of the American ballot-box and ruin it. And the man that is not afraid of that, I am ashamed of him. 142 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 'Sow, how to get those two men away from the hallot-box is the rebel problem. If they get them away, the Solid South has triumphed. If they get them away, " the lost cause " has won, and Jefferson Davis is crowned as the foremost man in America. If they get them away, good-hy for a gen- eration to come to the old " Pilgrim Cove- nant " and the doctrine of the right of the majority to rule. Now, how did they undertake to get them away ? In this way : They said to us, "At last we have got you. We have the control of the Treasury. No money can be employed to support the Government unless we vote it by an appropriation. Now, we tell you that we will never vote one dollar to support your Government until you join us in tearing down that election law and taking away those two witnesses ft-om the polls." That is what they told us. Then we answered them thus : " Eigh- teen years ago you were in power in this Congress, and the last act of your domina- tion was this : you told us that, if we dared to elect Abraham Lincoln President, you would shoot our Government to death ; and we answered, ' We are free men, begotten of freedom, and are accustomed to vote our thoughts. We believe in Abraham Lincoln. We will elect him President.' And we did. And then eleven great States declared that they would shoot the Union to death, and we appealed to the majesty of the great North land, and went out into a thousand bloody battle-fields, and we shot the shooters to death and saved this Union alive. And for eighteen years you have been in exile, banished from power, and now, by virtue of murder, and assassination, and the slaying of liberty, you have come back; and the first act you do on your return is not now com-ageonsly to dare us out to battle, but, like assassins, cowards, murderers, you come to us and say, ' With our hand on the throat of your Government, we will starve it to death if you do not let us pluck down the sacred laws that protect the purity of elec- tions.' " And we said to them : " By the sacred memories of eighteen years ago, we reply, 'You shall not starve this Govern- ment to death, nor shall you tear down these laws. The men that saved it in battle will now feed it in peace. The men that bore it on their shields in the hour of death will feed it with the gift of their hands in the hour of its glory.' " And they said, " You shall try it." And they passed their iniqui- tous bill. They took the bread of the Gov- ernment and spread upon it the poison of the bilge-water of New York and Cincinnati, and they said to the Government, " Eat this or starve." They passed the iniquity through the House and through the Senate, and it went to an Ohio Eepublican who sits in the seat of great Washington, whose arm is mailed with the thunderbolt of the Consti- tution ; and he hurled the power of his veto against the wicked bill, and killed it. Eive times they tried the iniquity, and five times he killed with the power of the Constitution the wickedness they sought to perpetrate. And then, like sneaking cowards as they were, they passed the appropriations all but six hundred thousand dollars, and said, "We wiU come back to it next winter, and we will never give it up until we conquer you ; and in the mean time," they said, " we will appeal to the people at the ballot-box." They are now making that appeal. And so are we. That is what we are here for to- night. And it is that appeal that awakens this people as it has never been awakened before since the days of Vallandigham and Brough, especially Brough. In the presence of this people, in the heart of this oldEeserve, I feel the consciousness of our strength and the assurance of our victory. Now, fellow citizens, a word before I leave you, on the very eve of the holy day of God — a fit moment to consecrate our- selves finally to the great work of nest Tues- day morning. I see in this great "audience to-night a great many young men, young men who are about to cast their first vote. I want to give you a word of suggestion and advice. I heard a very brilliant thing said by a boy the other day up in one of our northwestern counties. He said to me, " General, I have a great mind to vote the Democratic ticket." That was not the brilliant thing. I said to him, " Why ? " "Why," said he, "my father is a Eepubli- can, and my brothers are Eepublicans, and I am a Republican all over ; but I want to be an independent man, and I don't want any- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 143 body to say, ' That fellow votes the Repub- lican ticket just because his dad does,' and I have half a mind to vote the Democratic ticket just to prove my independence." I did not like the thing the boy suggested, but I did admire the spirit of the boy that wanted to have someindependenoe of his own. Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Republican ticket just because your fa- ther votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are about to pitch your tent in. one of the great political camps. Your life is full and buoy- ant with hope now, and I beg you, when you pitch your tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at all inclined to pitch it among the Demo- cratic people and with that party, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground where I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than like a camp for the living. Look at it 1 It is billowed all over with the graves of dead issues, of bur- ied opinions, of exploded theories, of dis- graced doctrines. You can not live in com- fort in such a place. Why, look here 1 Here is a little double mound. I look down on it and I read, " Sacred to the memory of squat- ter sovereignty and the Dred Scott decis- ion." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has been dead fifteen years — died by the hand of Abraham Lin- coln, and here it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you. But look a little further. Here is an- other monument, a black tomb, and beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a monument of four mil- lion pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of slaves, and I read on its little head- stone this : " Sacred to the memory of human slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic party taught that it was divine — God's institution. They defended it, they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as mourners. But here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, dead by the power of the Republican party, dead by the justice of Almighty God. Don't camp there, young man. 10 But here is another, a little brimstone tomb, and I read across its yellow face in lurid, bloody lines these words : " Sacred to the memory of State sovereignty and seces- sion." Twelve millions of Democrats mus- tered around it in arms to keep it alive ; but here it lies, shot to death by the million guns of the Repubhc. Here it lies, its shrine burned to ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It is dead! I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night air, to look at such a place. But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little mound — short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around it I see torn pieces of paper with the word "fiat" on them; and I look down in curiosity, wondering what the little grave is, and I read on it : " Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby ; nursed in the brain of aU the fanaticism of the world; rocked by Thomas Ewing, George H. Pendleton, Sam- uel Gary, and a few others throughout the land. But it died on the 1st of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty mil- lions of gold that God made, and not fiat power, lie upon its little carcass to keep it down for ever." Oh, young man, come out of that I That is no place in which to put your young life. Come out, and come over into this camp of liberty, of order, of law, of justice, of free- dom, of all that is glorious under these night stars. Is there any death here in our camp? Yesl yesl Three hundred and fifty 'thou- sand soldiers, the noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty for ever. But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead ideas here. Hang out our ban- ner from under the blue sky this night un- til it shall sweep the green turf under your feet ! It hangs over our camp. Read away up under the stars the inscription we have written on it, lo I these twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to liberty, and this is our silver wedding, fellow citizens. A worthily married pair love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the day of their first espousals ; and we are truer to 144 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. liberty to-day and dearer to God than we were when we spoke our first word of lib- erty. Read away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we uttered twenty -five years ago! What was it! "Slavery shall never extend over another foot of the territories of the Great "West." Is that dead or alive? Alive, thank God, for evermore 1 And truer to-night than it was the hour it was written ! Then it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To-night it is equal with the stars — immortal history ' and immortal truth. Oome down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have made, we have vindicated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the ground, and it touches the stars. Gome there, young man, and put in your young life where all is liv- ing, and where nothing is dead but the he- roes that defended it. I think these young men will do that. Gentlemen, we are closing this memora- ble campaign. We have got our enemies on the run everywhere. And all you need to do In this noble old city, this capital of the Western Eeserve, is to follow them up and finish it by snowing the rebellion up once more. We stand on an isthmus. This year and next is the narrow isthmus between us and perpetual victory. If you can win now and win in 1880, then the very stars in their courses will fight for us. The census will do the work, and will give us thirty more free men of the North in our Congress that will make up for the rebellion of the South. We are posted here as the Greeks were post- ed at ThermopylEe to meet this one great barbarian Xerxes of the Isthmus. Stand in your places, men of Ohio I Fight this bat- tle, win this victory, and then one more puts yon in safety for ever ! I thank you, fellow citizens, for your pa- tience. OOUNTING THE ELEOTOEAL VOTE. In the House of Representatives, January 25, 1877. " A people who can understand and act upon the counsels which God has given it in the past events of its history, is safe in the most dangerous crisis of its fate." — Gmeot. What, then, are the grounds on which we should consider a bill like this ? It would be unbecoming in me or in any member of this Congress to oppose this bill on mere technical or trifling grounds. It should be opposed, if at all, for reasons so broad, so weighty as to overcome all that has been said in its favor, and all the advantages which I have here admitted may follow from its pas- sage. I do not wish to diminish the stature of my antagonist ; I do not wish to under- value the points of strength in a measure before I question its propriety. It is not enough that this bill will tide us over a pres- ent danger, however great. Let us for a mo- ment forget Hayes and Tilden, Republicans and Democrats ; let us forget our own epoch and our own generation ; and, entering a broader field, inquire how this thing which we are about to do will affect the great future of our republic, and in what condition, if we pass this bill, we shall transmit our insti- tutions to those who shall come after us. The present good which we shall achieve by it may be very great ; yet if the evils that will flow from it in the future must be greater, it would be base in ns to flinch from trouble by entailing remediless evUs upon our children. In my view, then, the foremost qtiestion is this : What will be the effect of this mea- sure upon our institutions? I can not make that inquiry intelligibly without a brief ref- erence to the history of tbe Constitution, and to some of the formidable questions which presented themselves to our fathers nearly a hundred years ago, when they set up this goodly frame of government. Among the foremost difiioulties, both in point of time and magnitude, was how to create an executive head of the nation. Our fathers encountered that difficulty the first morning after they organized and elected the officers of the Constitutional Convention. The first resolution introduced by Randolph GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 145 of Virginia, on the 29t!i day of May, recog- nized that great question, and invited the Convention to its examination. The men v/ho made the Constitution were deeply read in the profoundest political philosophy of their day. They had learned from Montes- quieu, from Locke, from F^nelon, and other great teachers of the human race, that lib- erty is impossible without a clear and dis- tinct separation of the three great powers of government. A generation before their epoch, Montesquieu had said : When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty, be- cause apprehensions may arise lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws to execute them in a tyrannical manner. There would be. an end of everything were the same man or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise these three powers, that of enacting the laws, that of execut- ing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals. This was a fundamental truth in the American mind, as it had long been cher- ished and practiced in the British empire. There, as in all monarchies, the creation of a chief executive was easily regulated by adopting a dynasty, and following the law of primogeniture. But our fathers had drawn the deeper lesson of liberty from the inspirations of this free New "World, that their Chief Execu- tive should be born, not of a dynasty, but of the will of a free people regulated by law. In the course of their deliberations upon this subject, there were suggested seven different plaus, which may be grouped under two principal heads or classes. One group comprised all the plans for creating the Chief Executive by means of some one of the preexisting political organizations of the country. First and foremost was the prop- osition to authorize one or both Houses of the National Legislature to elect the Chief Executive. Another was to confer that power upon the governors of the States, or upon the legislatures of the States. Another, that he should be chosen directly by the peo- ple themselves under the laws of the States. The second group comprised all the various plans for creating a new and separate in- strumentality for making the choice. At first the proposition that the Execu- tive should be elected by the National Legis- lature was received by the Convention with almost unanimous approval; and for the reason that up to that time Congress had done all that was done in the way of national government. It had created the nation, and led its fortunes through a thousand perils, had declared and achieved independence, and had preserved the liberty of the people in the midst of a great war. Though Congress had failed to secure a firm and stable Govern- ment after the war, yet its glory was not forgotten. As Congress had created the Union, it was most natural that our fathers should say Congress should also create the Chief Executive of the nation. And within two weeks after the Convention assembled they voted for that plan with absolute una- nimity. But with equal unanimity they agreed that this plan would be fatal to the stability of the Government they were about to estab- lish, if they did not couple with it some pro- vision that should make the President's func- tions independent of the power that created him. To effect this, they provided that the President should be ineligible for reelection. They said it would never do to create a Chief Executive by the voice of the National Legis- lature, and then allow him to be reelected by that same voice ; for he would thus be- come their creature. And so, from the first day of their session in May to within five days of its close in September, they grappled with the mighty question. I have many times, and recently very carefully, gone through all the records that are left to us of that great transaction. I find that more than one seventh of all the pages of the Madison papers are devoted to this Samson of questions, how the Execu- tive should be chosen and made independent of the organization that made the choice. This topic alone occupied more than one seventh of all the time of the Convention. After a long and earnest debate, after numerous votes and reconsiderations, they were obliged utterly to abandon the plan of creating the Chief Executive by means of the National Legislature. I will not stop 146 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. now to prove the statement by a dozen or more pungent quotations from the masters of political science in that great assembly, in which they declared that it would be ruinous to the liberty of the people and to the per- manence of the republic if they did not ab- solutely exclude the National Legislature from any share in the election of the Presi- dent. They pointed with glowing eloquence to the sad but instructive fate of those brUliant Italian republics that were destroyed because there was no adequate separation of powers, and because their senates overwhelmed and swallowed up the executive power, and, as secret and despotic conclaves, became the destroyers of Italian liberty. At the close of the great discussion, when the last vote on this subject was taken by our fathers, they were almost unanimous in excluding the National Legislature from any share whatever in the choice of the Chief Executive of the nation. They rejected all the plans of the first group, and created a new instrumentality. They adopted the sys- tem of electors. When that plan was under discussion they used the utmost precaution to hedge it about by every conceivable pro- tection against the interference or control of Congress. In the first place, they said the States shall create the electoral colleges. They al- lowed Congress to have nothing whatever to do with the creation of the colleges, except merely to fix the time when the States should appoint them. And, in order to ex- clude Congress by positive prohibition, in the last days of the Convention they pro- vided that no member of either House of Congress should be appointed an elector ; so that not even by the personal influence of any one of its members could the Congress interfere with the election of a President. The creation of a President under our Constitution consists of three distinct steps : First, the creation of the electoral colleges; second, the vote of colleges ; and, third, the opening and counting of their votes. This is the simple plan of the Constitution. The creation of the colleges is left abso- lutely to the States, within the five limita- tions I had the honor to mention to the House a few days ago. First, it must be a State that appoints electors; second, the State is limited as to the number of electors they may appoint; third, electors shall not be members of Congress, nor officers of the United States ; fourth, the time for appoint- ing electors may be fixed by Congress ; and, fifth, the time when their appointment is announced, which must be before the date for giving their votes, may also be fixed by Congress. These five simple limitations, and these alone, were laid upon the States. Every other act, fact, and thing possible to be done in creating the electoral colleges was abso- lutely and uncontrollably in the power of the States themselves. Within these limita- tions. Congress has no more power to touch them in this work than England or France. That is the first step. The second is still plainer and simpler, namely, the work of the colleges. They were created as an independent and separate power, or set of powers, for the sole purpose of electing a President. They were created by the States. Congress has just one thing to do with them, and only one : it may fix the day when they shall meet. By the act of 1792 Congress fixed the day as it still stands in the law ; and there the authority of the Congress over the colleges ended. There was a later act — of 1845 — which gave to the States the authority to provide by law for filling vacancies of electors in these colleges; and Congress has passed no other law on the subject. The States having created them, the time of their assemblage having been fixed by Congress, and their power to fill vacancies having been regulated by State laws, the colleges are as independent in the exercise of their functions as is any department of the Government within its sphere. Being thus equipped, their powers are restrained by a few simple limitations laid upon them by the Constitution itself: first, they must vote for a native-born citizen ; second, for a man who has been fourteen years a resident of the United States ; third, at least one of the persons for whom they vote must not be a citizen of their own State; fourth, the mode of voting and certifying their returns is prescribed by the Constitution itself. Within these simple and plain limitations GENERAL GARFIBLB'S SPEECHES. 14Y the electoral colleges are absolutely indepen- dent of the States and of Congress. One fact in the history of the Constitu- tional Convention, which I have not seen noticed in any of the recent debates, illus- trates very clearly how careful our fathers were to preserve these colleges from the in- terference of Congress, a)id to protect their independence by the bulwarks of the Consti- tution itself. In the draught of the electo- ral system reported September 4, lYS?, it was provided that Congress "may deter- mine the time of choosing and assembling of the electors and the ma/nner of certifyiTig and transmitting their votes." That was the language of the original draught ; but our fathers had determined that the National Legislature should have nothing to do with the action of the col- leges ; and the words that gave Congress the power to prescribe the manner of certifying and transmitting their votes were stricken out. The instrument itself prescribed the mode. Thus Congress was wholly expelled from the colleges. The Constitution swept the ground clear of all intruders, and placed its own imperial guardianship around the in- dependence of the electoral colleges by for- bidding even Congress to enter the sacred circle. No Congressman could enter ; and, except to fix the day of their meeting. Con- gress could not speak to the electors. These colleges are none the less sovereign and independent because they exist only for a day. They meet on the same day in all the States; they do their work summarily in one day, and dissolve for ever. There is no power to interfere, no power to recall them, no power to revise their action. Their work is done ; the record is made up, signed, sealed, and transmitted ; and thus the second great act in the Presidential election is com- pleted. I ought to correct myself: the sec- ond act is the Presidential election. The election is finished the hour when the elec- toral colleges have oast their votes and sealed up the record. Still, there is a third step in the process ; and it is shorter, plainer, simpler than the other two. These sealed certificates of the electoral colleges are forwarded to the Presi- dent of the Senate, where they rest under the silence of the seals for more than two months. The Constitution assumes that the result of the election is still unknown. But on a day fixed by law, and the only day of all the days of February on which the law commands Congress to be in session, the last act in the plan of electing a President is to be performed. How plain and simple are the words that describe this third and last step ! Here they are: The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representa- tives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. Here is no ambiguity. Two words domi- nate and inspire the clause. They are the words open, and count. These words are not shrouded in the black-letter mysteries of the law. They are plain words, under- stood by every man who speaks our mother- tongue, and need no lexicon or commentary. Consider the grand and simple ceremo- nial by which the third act is to be com- pleted. On the day fixed by law, the two Houses of Congress are assembled. The President of the Senate, who, by the Con- stitution, has been made the custodian of the sealed certificates from all the electoral colleges, takes his place. The Constitution requires a " person " and a " presence." That " person " is the President of the Sen- ate ; and that " presence " is the " presence " of the two Houses. Then two things are to be done. The certificates are to be opened, and the votes are to be counted. These are not legislative acts, but clearly and plainly executive acts. I challenge any man to find anywhere an accepted definition of an exec- utive act that does not include both these. They can not be tortured into a meaning that will carry them beyond the boundaries of executive action. And one of these acts the President of the Senate is peremptorily ordered to perform. The Constitution com- mands him to "open all the certificates." Certificates of what? Certificates of the votes of the electoral colleges. Not any certificates that anybody may choose to send, but certificates of electors appointed by the States. The President of the Senate is presumed to know what are the States in the Union, who are their officers, and, when 148 THE EEPUBLIOAN TEXT-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. he opens the certificates, he learns from the official record who have been appointed electors, and he finds their votes. The Constitution contemplated the Pres- ident of the Senate as the Vice-President of the United States, the elect of all the people. And to him is confided the great trust, the custodianship of the only ofiicial record of the election of President. "What is it to " open the certificates " ? It would he a nar- row and inadequate view of that word to say that it means only the breaking of the seals. To open an envelope is not to " open the certificates." The certificate is not the paper on which the record is made ; it is the record itself. To open the certificate is not a physi- cal but an intellectual act. It is to make patent the- record; to publish it. When that is done the election of President and Vice-President is published. But one thing remains to be done ; and here the language of the Constitution changes from the active to the passive voice, from the personal to the impersonal. To the trusted custodian of the votes succeeds the impersonality of arith- metic; the votes have been made known; there remains only the command of the Con- stitution, " they shall be counted," that is, the numbers shall be added up. No further act is required. The Consti- tution itsBlf declares the result : The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed. If no person has such majority, the House of Representatives shall immediately choose a President ; not the House as organ- ized for legislation, but a new electoral col- lege is created out of the members of the House, by means of which each State has one vote for President, and only one. To review the ground over which I have traveled: The several acts that constitute the election of a President may be symbol- ized by a pyramid consisting of three mas- sive, separate blocks. The first, the creation of the electoral college by the States, is the broad base. It embraces the legislative, the judicial, and the executive powers of the States. AU the departments of the State Government and all the voters of the State cooperate in shaping and perfecting it. The action of the electoral colleges forms the second block, perfect in itseK, and in- dependent of the others, superimposed with exactness upon the first. - The opening and counting of the votes of the colleges is the little block that crowns and completes the pyramid. Such, Mr. Speaker, was the grand and simple plan by which the framers of the Constitution empowered all the people, act- ing under the laws of the several States, to create special and select colleges of indepen- dent electors to choose a President, who should be, not the creature of Congress, nor of the States, but the Chief Magistrate of the whole nation, the elect of all the people. When the Constitution was completed and sent to the people of the States for ratification, it was subjected to the severest criticism of the ablest men of that generation. Those sections which related to the election of President not only escaped censure, but re- ceived the highest commendation. The sixty- seventh number of " The Federalist," writ- ten by Alexander Hamilton, was devoted to this feature of the instrument. That great writer congratulated the country that the Convention had devised a method that made the President free from all preexisting bodies, that protected the process of election from all interference by Congress and from the cabals and intrigues so likely to arise in legislative bodies. The mode of appointment of the Chief Magis- trate of the United States is almost the only part of the system of any consequence which has es- caped without severe censure, or which has re- ceived the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents. The most plausible of these who has appeared in print has even deigned to admit that the election of the President is pretty well guard- ed. I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm that, if the manner of it be not per- fect, it is at least excellent. It unites in an emi- nent degree all the advantages the union of which was to be wished for. It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it not to any pre- established body, but to men chosen by the peo- ple for the special purpose and at the particular juncture. . . . They have not made the appoint- ment of the President to depend on any preexist- GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 149 ing bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes ; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immedi- ate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and solo purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. . . . Another and no less important desideratum was that the Executive should be independent for his continuance in office on all but the people themselves. He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessary to duration of his of- ficial consequence. This advantage will also be secured by making hia reelection to depend on a special body of representatives, deputed by the society for the single purpose of making the im- portant choice. — From the Sixty-seventh Number of " The Federalist." The earliest commentator upon the Con- Btitution, St. George Tucker of Virginia, writing at the beginning of the present cen- tury, made this clause of the Constitution the subject of special eulogy, and pointed to the fact that all the proceedings in relation to the election of a President were to be brief, summary, and decisive; that the right of the President to his oflSce depends upon no one but the people themselves, and that the certificates of his election were to be publicly opened " and counted in the pres- ence of the whole National Legislature." The electors, we perceive, are to assemble on one and the same day, in all the different States, at as many different places, at a very consider- able distance from each other, and on that day are simply to give their votes ; they then disperse and return to their respective habitations and occupations immediately. No pretext can be had for delay; no opportunity is furnished for in- trigue and cabal. The certificates of their votes . . . are to be publicly opened and counted in the presence of the whole National Legislature. . . . There is no room for the turbulence of a Campus Martina or a Polish Diet, on the one hand, nor for the intrigues of the Sacred College or a Venetian Senate on the other; unless when it unfortunately happens that two persons, having a majority of the whole number of electors in their favor, have likewise an equal number of votes, or where by any other means the election may devolve upon the House of Representatives. Then, indeed, intrigue and cabal may have their full scope ; then may the existence of the Union be put in extreme hazard. — Tucker's "Slack- stone," Appendix, pp. SSG-'SI. The authorities I have quoted show that, great as was the satisfaction of the people with the mode of choosing a President, there was still an apprehension that trouble would arise from Congress by the only avenue left open for its influence, namely, the contingency in which the House might elect. Every other door was shut and barred against the interference of Congress or any member of Congress. MARTIAL LAW. Feom the speech in the Milligan and Bowles case, March 6, 1866 : From this review of the history and character of martial law, I am warranted by the uniform precedents of English law for many centuries, by the uniform practice of our fathers during the Colonial and Eevolu- tionary periods, by the unanimous decisions of our courts, and by the teachings of our statesmen to conclude : 1. That the Executive has no authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, or to declare or administer martial law ; much less has any military subordinate of the Ex- ecutive such authority ; but these high func- tions belong exclusively to the supreme legislative authority of the nation. 2. That if, in the presence of great and sudden danger, and under the pressure of overwhelming necessity, the Chief Executive should, without legislative warrant, suspend the writ of habeas corpus or declare martial law, he must not look to the courts for jus- tification, but to the Legislature for indemni- fication. 3. That no such necessity can be pleaded to justify the trial of a civilian by a military tribunal when the legally authorized civil courts are open and unobstructed. 160 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. GENERAL GARFIELD'S ACCEPT- ANCE. Menxob, Omo, July 10, 1880. Deae Sib: On the evening of the 8th of June last I had the honor to receive from you, in the presence of the committee of which you were chairman, the oflBcial an- nouncement that the Republican National Convention at Chicago had that day nomi- nated me as their candidate for President of the United States. I accept the nomination with gratitude for the confidence it implies, and with a deep sense of the responsibilities it imposes. I cordially endorse the princi- ples set forth in the platform adopted by the Convention. On nearly all the subjects of which it treats my opinions are on rec- ord among the published proceedings of Congress. I venture, however, to make special mention of some of the principal topics which are likely to become subjects of discussion. Without reviewing the controversies which have been settled during the last twenty years, and with no purpose or wish to revive the passions of the late war, it should be said that while Republicans fully recognize and will strenuously defend all the rights retained by the people, and all the rights reserved to the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of State supremacy which so long crippled the functions of the National Government, and at one time brought the Union very near to destruction. They insist that the United States is a na- tion, with ample power of self-preservation ; that its Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are the supreme law of the land ; that the right of the nation to determine the method by which its own Legislature shall be created can not be sur- rendered without abdicating one of the fun- damental powers of Government ; that the national laws relating to the election of representatives in Congress shall neither be violated nor evaded ; that every elector shall be permitted freely and without intim- idation to cast his lawful ballot at such elec- tion and have it honestly counted, and that the potency of his vote shall not be de- stroyed by the fraudulent vote of any other person. The best thoughts and energies of our people should be directed to those great questions of national well-being in which all have a common interest. Such efforts will soonest restore perfect peace to those who were lately in arms against each other, for justice and good- will will outlast passion. But it is certain that the wounds of the war can not be completely healed, and the spirit of brotherhood can not fuUy pervade the whole country, until every citizen, rich or poor, white or black, is secure in the free and equal enjoyment of every civil and po- litical right guaranteed by the Constitution and the laws. Wherever the enjoyment of these rights is not assured, discontent will prevail, immigration will cease, and the so- cial and industrial forces will continue to be disturbed by the migration of laborers and the consequent diminution of prosperity. The National Government should exercise all its constitutional authority to put an end to these evils ; for all the people and all the States are members of one body, and no member can suffer without injury to all. The most serious evils which now afflict the South arise from the fact that there is not such freedom and toleration of political opinion and action that the minority party can exercise an effective and wholesome re- straint upon the party in power. Without such restraint party rule becomes tyrannical and corrupt. The prosperity which is made possible in the South by its great advantage of soil and climate wiU never be realized until every voter can freely and safely sup- port any party he pleases. Next in importance to freedom and jus- tice is popular education, without which" neither freedom nor justice can be perma- nently maintained. Its interests are intrust- ed to the States and to the voluntary action of the people. Whatever 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 peo- ple 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 GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. 151 Church and the State in everything relating to taxation sboald be absolate. On the subject of national finances, my views have been so frequently and fully ex- pressed that little is needed in the way of additional statement. The public debt is now so well secured, and the rate of annual interest has been so reduced by refunding, that rigid economy in expenditures', and the faithful application of our surplus revenues to the payment of the principal of the debt, will gradually but certainly free the people from its burdens, and close with honor the financial chapter of the war. At the same time the Government can provide for all its ordinary expenditures, and discharge its sa- cred obligations to the soldiers of the Union, and to the widows and orphans of those who fell in its defense. The resumption of specie payments, which the Republican party so courageously and successfully accom- plished, has removed from the field of con- troversy many questions that long and se- riously disturbed the credit of the Govern- ment and the business of the country. Our paper currency is now as national as the flag, and resumption has not only made it everywhere equal to coin, but has brought into use our store of gold and silver. The circulating medium is more abundant than ever before, and we need only to maintain the equality of all our dollars to insure to labor and capital a measure of value from the use of which no one can suffer loss. The great prosperity which the country is now enjoying should not be endangered by any violent changes or doubtful financial experi- ments. In reference to our custom laws a policy should be pursued which will bring revenues to the treasury, and will enable the labor and capital employed in our great industries to compete fairly in our own markets with the labor and capital of foreign producers. We legislate for the people of the United States, and not for the whole world ; and it is our glory that the American laborer is more intelligent and better paid than his foreign competitor. Our country can not be independent unless its people, with their abundant natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace to produce all the necessary imple- ments of labor. It was the manifest inten- tion of the founders of the Government to provide for the common defense, not by standing armies alone, but by raising among the people a greater army of artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully con- tribute to the safety and glory of the nation. Fortunately for the interest of commerce, there is no longer any formidable opposition to appropriations for the improvement of our harbors and great navigable rivers, pro- vided that the expenditures for that purpose are strictly limited to works of national im- portance. The Mississippi Kiver, with its great tributaries, is of such vital importance to so many millions of people that the safety of its navigation requires exceptional con- sideration. In order to secure to the nation the control of all its waters. President Jef- ferson negotiated the purchase of a vast ter- ritory, extending from the Gulf of Meidco to the Pacific Ocean. . The wisdom of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by which that great river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its banks, and by which its shipping may safely carry the industrial products of twenty-five mil- lions of people. The interests of agriculture, which is the basis of all our material pros- perity, and in which seven twelfths of our population are engaged, as well as the inter- ests of manufactures and commerce, demand that the facilities for cheap transportation shall be increased by the use of all our great water-courses. The material interests of this country, the traditions of its settlement, and the sen- timent of our people, have led the Govern- ment to offer the widest hospitality to emi- grants who seek our shores for new and happier homes, willing to share the burdens as well as the benefits of our society, and intending that their posterity shall become an undistinguishable part of our population. The recent movement of the Chinese to our Pacific Coast partakes but little of the quali- ties of such an immigration, either in its purposes or its result. It is too much like an importation to be welcomed without re- striction ; too much like an invasion to be looked upon without solicitude. We can not consent to allow any form of servile 152 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. labor to be introduced among us under tlie guise of immigration. Eecognizing the grav- ity of this subject, th^ present Administra- tion, supported by Congress, has sent to China a commission of distinguished citizens for the purpose of securing such a modifica- tion of the existing treaty as will prevent the evils likely to arise from the present situation. It is confidently believed that these diplomatic negotiations will be suc- cessful without the loss of commercial in- tercourse between the two powers, which promises a great increase of reciprocal trade and the enlargement of our markets. Should these efforts fail, it will be the duty of Con- gress to mitigate the evils already felt, and prevent their increase, by such restrictions as, without violence or injustice, will place upon a sure foundation the peace of our communities and the freedom and dignity of labor. The appointment of citizens to the vari- ous executive and judicial offices of the Gov- ernment is, perhaps, the most difficult of aU duties which the Constitution has imposed on the Executive. The Convention wisely demands that Congress shall cooperate with the Executive Departments in placing the civil service on a better basis. Experience has proved that with our frequent changes of administration no system of reform can be made effective and permanent without the aid of legislation. Appointments to the mili- tary and naval service are so regulated by law and custom as to leave but little ground for complaint. It may not be wise to make similar regulations by law for the civil ser- vice. But, without invading the authority or necessary discretion of the Executive, Congress should devise a method that will determine the tenure of office, and greatly reduce the uncertainty which makes that service so nnsatisfactory. "Without depriving any officer of his rights as a citizen, the Gov- ernment should require him to discharge all his official duties with intelligence, efficiency, and faithfulness. To select wisely from our vast population those who are best fitted for the many offices to be filled requires an ac- quaintance far beyond the range of any one man. The Executive should, therefore, seek and receive the information and assistance of those whose knowledge of the communi- ties in which the duties are to be performed best qualifies them to aid in making the wisest choice. The doctrines announced by the Chicago Convention are not the temporary devices of a party to attract votes and carry an elec- tion. They are deliberate convictions re- sulting from a careful study of the spirit of our institutions, the events of our history, and the best impulses of our people. In my judgment, these principles should control the legislation and administration of the Government. In any event, they will guide my conduct nntil experience points out a better way. If elected, it will be my purpose to en- force strict obedience to the Constitution and the laws, and to promote, as best I may, the interest and honor of the whole coun- try, relying for support upon the wisdom of Congress, the intelligence and patriotism of the people, and the favor of God. "V^ith great respect, I am very truly yours, J. A. Gaefibld. To the Hon. Geobgk F. Hoab, President of the Republi- can S^ational Convention, PART IT. PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. EULOGY OF GENERAL GARFIELD BY SENATOR HOAR. Senator Hoae, on his return to Worces- ter, Mas3., was made the recipient of an ovation by his friends and fellow citizens. In the course of his speech, referring to the Work of the Chicago Convention, he paid the following eloquent tribute to the char- acter of its nominee for the Presidency : But, my friends, with my full concur- rence, with your full concurrence, the Con- vention at Chicago came to another conclu- sion. And I not only say with my full concurrence, but I am willing to say to you that one of the five or six supreme moments of my life, when the delights of great periods of time seem to be crowded and concen- trated into a single moment, was that instant when I saw coming out of that confusion and turmoil and storm of passion and con- flict the result, as the ballot gradually was announced, to which the Convention finally came, the nomination of General Garfield. Accepted as it is in the beginning by all classes and shades of Republicans and of patriots, it will grow in public favor as the canvass goes on. Just think for a moment of the various qualifications for this great office which this man combines! Do you want a statesman? Do you demand that your President shall be something more than a successful soldier — that he shall have ex- perience in civil affairs? No President of the United States since John Quinoy Adams began to bring to the Presidential office, when he entered upon it, anything like the experience in statesmanship of James A. Garfield. Look out over the list. Grant and Jackson and Taylor brought great fame as soldiers; but of whom can you think since John Quincy Adams entered upon that great office who had, when he took it, such a civil career to look back upon as that of General Garfield? Since the year 1864 you can not think of a question which baa been debated in Congress, or discussed before the great tribunal of the American people, in regard to which you will not find, if you wish instruction, the argument on one side stated, and stated in almost every in- stance better than by anybody else, in some speech made in the House of Representa- tives or on the hustings by Mr. Garfield. Do you demand a man of firm, resolute, consistent adherence to what he thinks right, in spite of popular delusion, popular passion,' fear of the loss of popularity, or the attractions of personal ambitions ? Just remember how, when Republican and Demo- crat alike in the State of Ohio went crazy over the financial heresies, this man stood with his feet on a rock, demanding and vindi- cating an honest policy. Why, about six years ago I sat next, during a Congress, one of the leading Republican Representa- tives from the State of Ohio, who had an elaborate table to show how badly the West had been treated in the matter of cur- rency, by showing how much each portion 15i THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. of the country had in the way of hank hills authorized to be issued to the square mile, to show we had a great deal more in New England than they had in Ohio, and in the Southwest they were a great deal worse ofE even than in Ohio. In regard to the great questions of human rights. General Garfield has been as inflexible. He was the successor of Joshua E. Giddings, the man upon whom the mantle of that old prophet descended, but still he never has been parti- san. The best statement and argument in favor of the reform of the Civil Service will be found in the speeches of General Garfield. He was one of the earliest and the foremost advocates of building up the educational in- stitutions in the South at the national charge. Do you wish, in addition to a states- man, to pay honor to that character most deserving of honor in this republic, the volunteer citizen soldier? Here is a man who enlisted in the beginning of the war, who became, from a subordinate officer, a major-general, always trusted by the best commanders — Thomas and Rosecrans — al- ways in the thickest of the fight, always conducting successfully dangerous and diffi- cult expeditions, coming home crowned with military glory. Do you wish in the repub- lic to honor the man whose career vindicates the system of republican government; the man who for himself, without the aid of rank, or of wealth, or of family conuection, or of external aid, raises himself from the humblest to the loftiest place? Do you think that Mr. Tilden, sitting like a spider in Gramercy Park, spinning his web and wrecking his railroads, can enter into com- petition with the simple and touching story of the canal boy and the carpenter? It is a life like that of Abraham Lincoln and like that of Daniel Webster, which appeals to every affectionate chord in the heart of the American citizen. So, my friends, I think that I have at least this claim to a friendly greeting at your hands — that I am one of a body of men who had the good fortune to do well the work which the Eepublican party intrusted to them. HON. GAEL SCHUEZ. Extracts from his speech, delivered in Indianapolis, July 20, 1880 : In this way the Eepublican party, stead- ily progressing in an enlightened perception of the principles of sound finance, has be- come the reliable sound-money party of the country, to which, as parties now are, the solution of new financial problems can alone be safely trusted. And how magnificently do the effects of the results already achieved appear in the revival of our business pros- perity ! It may be said that our financial policy has not wholly originated that prosperity. True, but it has most powerfully aided it by giving us that confidence which is impossi- ble without staple money values and a sound currency system. And what prudent man would now risk these great results by turn- ing over our financial policy to the hands of a party which, as I have shown, is the refuge of all destructive elements, threatening new uncertainty and confusion ? Indeed, not only in the traditions and good sense of the Eepublican party do you find the best security there is at present for the sanctity of our national faith, as well as a successful management of the financial policy ; you find equal security in the known opinions and principles of its candidate, James A. Garfield. His convictions on these subjects have not found their first and best proclamation in the platform of his party or in his letter of acceptance. His record of nearly twenty years of Congressional service is not a blank on the great questions of the times, like that of his opponent. There is not a phase of the question of our National obligations, there is not a point of financial policy, from the first day that the subject was considered in Congress since he became a member of that body to the present hour, that he has not discussed with an ability and strength, a lucidity of argument, aptitude of knowledge, and firmness of conviction, plac- ing him in the first rank of the defenders of sound principles. If you want to study the reasons why the public faith should be inviolably maintained. PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. I55 why an irredeemable paper currency is, and always has been, a curse to all tbe economic interests of this and all other countries, why confidence can be restored and maintained, why business can obtain a healthy develop- ment, why foreign commerce can be most profitably conducted only with a money sys- tem of staple and intrinsic value, you will find in the speeches of James A. Garfield upon this subject the most convincing information. You will find there opinions, not suddenly made up to order to suit an opportunity and the necessities of a candidate in an election, but the convictions of a lifetime carefully matured by conscientious research and large inquiry, and maintained with powerful rea- son, before they had become generally pop- ular. Yon find there a teacher, statesman, and leader in a great movement, with prin- ciples so firmly grounded in his mind as well as his conscience that he would uphold them even were they not supported by a powerful party at his back. There is double assur- ance, therefore, in the traditions and acts of the party, and in the character of the leader at its head. Is the Presidency, like a presentation sword, or a gift horse, or a donation of money, or a country house, given to a vic- torious soldier to please him ? If so, then simple justice would compel us to look for the most meritorious of our soldiers and re- ward them in the order of their merit ; and brave and skillful as General Hancock has been, there are others who have claims of a still higher order. Then, General Grant having already been President, we should re- ward General Sherman and Lieutenant-Gen- eral Sheridan first; before we come to the Mjuor-General nominated by the Democratic party. Certainly, let us be grateful ; but let let us not degrade the highest and most re- sponsible trust of the Republic to the level of a mere gift of gratitude. Let military heroes be lifted up to the highest rank in the service which belongs to the soldier. Let them be rewarded with the esteem of their countrymen ; and, if need be, let wealth and luxury be showered upon them to bright- en that life which they were ready to sacri- fice for their country. But let it never be forgotten that the Presidency is a trust that is due to no man ; that nobody has ever earned it as a thing belonging to him ; and that it should not be bestowed but for ser- vices to be rendered in the way of patriotic and enlightened statesmanship. But, above all things, the Presidency should never be pointed out as the attainable goal of ambition to the professional soldier. I certainly do not mean to depreciate the high character of the regular array. But I can not refrain from saying that, in a repub- lic like ours, great care should be taken not to demoralize it by instilling political ambition into the minds of its oflBcers. The army is there to obey the orders of the civil power under the law as it stands, without looking to the right or the left. And it will be an evil day for this Eepublic when we inspire the generals of our army with the ambition to secure the highest power by paving their way to it with political pronunciamentos. I will not impute to General Hancock any such design. He may have meant ever so weU when he issued General Order No. 40, which is now held up by a political party as his principal title to the Presidency. But you once establish such a precedent, and who knows how long it will be before you hear of other general orders issued for pur- poses somewhat similar to those for which they are now issued in Mexico ? I am for the subordination of the military to the civil power. And therefore I am for making Congressman Garfield President, and for letting General Hancock remain what he is, a general, always ready to draw the soldier's sword at the lawful command of the civil power. What have we on the other hand in the Kepublican candidate? His youth was that of a poor boy. He lived by his daily labor. He rose up from that estate gradually by his own feffort, taking with him the experience of poverty and hard work, and a living sym- pathy with the poor and hard-working man. He cultivated his mind by diligent study, and he stored it with useful knowledge. From a learner he became a teacher. When the Eepublic called her sons to her defense, he joined the army and achieved distinction in active service as one of the brave on the battle-field. He was called into the great council of the nation, and has sat there for nearly twenty years. No great question was 156 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OP 1880. discussed without hia contributing the store of his knowledge to the fund of information necessary for wise decision. His speeches have ranked not only among the most elo- quent, hut among the most instructive and useful. Scarcely a single great measure of legislation was passed during that long pe- riod without the imprint of his mind. No man in Congress has devoted more thorough inquiry to a larger number of important sub- jects, and formed upon them opinions more matured and valuable. He was not as great a soldier as his competitor for the Presiden- cy, but he has made himself, and is univer- sally recognized as what a President ought to be, a statesman. He understands all phases of life, from the lowest to the high- est, for he has lived through them. He un- derstands the great problems of politics, for he has studied them and actively partici- pated in their discussion and solution. Few men in this country would enter the Presi- dential office, with its great duties and re- sponsibilities, better or even as well equipped with knowledge and experience. He need only be true to his record in order to become a wise, safe, and successful President. If the people elect him, it will be only because his services rendered in the past are just of that nature which will give assurances of his ability to render greater service in the fu- ture. The country wants a statesman of ability, knowledge, experience, and princi- ple at the head of affairs. His conduct as a legislator gives ample guarantee of great promise in all these things. MPv. G. A. TOWNSEND. Mk. George Alfred Townsend, better known perhaps as "Gath," telegraphed the following estimate of General Garfield's character to the " Cincinnati Enquirer " the night after the Chicago nomination : The writer has known General Garfield pretty well for thirteen years. He is a large, well-fed, hale, ruddy, brown-bearded man, weighing about two hundred and twenty pounds, with Ohio German colors, blue eyes, military face, erect figure and shoulders, large back and thighs, and broad chest, and evidently bred in the country on a farm. His large mouth is full of strong teeth; his nose, chin, and brow are strongly pro- nounced. A large brain, with room for play of thought and long application, rises high above his clear, discerning, enjoying eyes. He sometimes suggests a country Samson — strong beyond his knowledge, but unguarded as a school-boy. He pays httle attention to the affectation by which some men manage public opinion, and has one kind of behavior for all callers, which is the most natural be- havior at hand. Strangers would think him a little cold and mentally shy. On acquain- tance he is seen to be hearty above every- thing, loving the life around him, his family, his friends, his State and country. Loving sympathetic and achieving people, and with a large unprofessing sense of the brother- hood of workers in the fields of progress, it was the feeling of sympathy and the desire to impart which took him for chief; while as to the pulpit, or on the verge of it, fuU of. all that he saw and acquired, he panted to give it forth, after it had passed through the alembic of his mind. Endowed with a warm temperament, copious expression, large, wide-seeing faculties, and superabun- dant health, he could study all night and teach or lecture all day ; and it was a provi- dence that his neighbors discovered he was too much of a man to conceal in the pulpit, where his docility and reverence had almost taken him. They sent him to the State Legislature, where he was when the war broke out ; and he immediately went to the field, where his courage and painstaking parts, and love of open-air occupation, and perfect freedom from self-assertion, made him the delight of Eosecrans and George H. Thomas successively. He would go about any work they asked of him, was unselfish and enthusiastic, and had steady, temperate habits, and his large brain and his reverence made everything novel to him. There is an entire absence of nonchalance or worldliness about his nature. He is never indifferent, never vindictive. A base action, or ingrati- tude, or cruelty, may make him sad, but does not provoke retaliation, nor alter that faith in men or Providence which is a part of his sound stomach and athletic head. PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. 157 Garfield is simple as a cliild ; to the serpent's wisdom he is a stranger. Having no use nor aptitude with the weapons of coarser natures, he often avoids mere disputes, does not go to public resorts where men are familiar or vulgar, and the walk from his home in "Washington to the Capitol and an occasional dinner out comprise his life. The word public servant especially applies to him. He has been the drudge of his State constituents, the public, the public societies, the moral societies, and of his party and country, since 1863. Aptitude for public debate and public aSairs is associated with a military nature in him. He is on a broad scale a schoolmaster of the range of Glad- stone, of Agassiz, of Gallatin. With as hon- est a heart as ever beat above the competi- tors of sordid ambition, General Garfield has yet so little of the worldly wise in him that he is poor, and yet has been accused of dishonesty. He has no capacity for invest- ment, nor the rapid solution of wealth, nor profound respect for the penny in and out of pound, and still is neither careless, im- provident, nor dependent. The great con- suming passion to equal richer people and live finely, and extend his social power, is as foreign to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a suspicions nor a high-mettled man, and so he is taken in sometimes, partly from his obliging, unrefusing disposition. Men who were scheming imposed upon him as upon Grant and other crude-eyed men of affairs. The people of his district, who are quick to punish public venality or defection, heard him in his defense of 1873, and kept him in Congress and held up his hand, and hence he is by their unwavering support for twenty-five years candidate for President and a national character. Since John Quincy Adams no President has had Garfield's schol- arship, which is equally up to this age of wider facts. The average American, pur- suing money all day long, is now presented to a man who has invariably put the business of others above his own, and worked for that alleged nondescript, the public grati- tude, all his life. But he has not labored without reward. The great nomination came to-day to as pure and loving a man as ever wished well to anybody and put his shoulder to his neighbor's wheel. Garfield's big, boy- ish heart is pained to-night with the weight of his obligation, aflfection, and responsibility. To-day, as hundreds of telegrams caiine from everywhei-e, saying kind, strong things to him — such messages as only Americans in their rapid, good impulses pour upon a lucky friend — he was with two volunteer clerks in a room opening and reading ; and suddenly his two boys sent him one — ^little fellows at school — and as he read it he broke down, and tried to talk, but his voice choked,- and he could not see for tears. The clerks began to blubber too, and people to whom they after- ward told it. This sense of real great heart will be new to the country, and will grow if he gets the Presidency. His wife was one of his scholars in Ohio. Like him, she is of a New England family transplanted to the West, a pure-hearted, brave, unassuming woman, the mother of seven or eight chil- dren, and, as he told me only a few weeks ago, had never by any remark brought him into any trouble, while she was unstampede- able by any clamor. He is the ablest public speaker in the country, and the most serious and instructive man on the stump. His instincts, liberal and right; his courtesy, noticeable in our poli- tics; his aims, ingenuous; and his piety comes by nature. He leads a farmer's life all the recess of Congress, working like a field- hand, and restoring his mind by resting it. If elected, he will give a tone of culture and intelligence to the executive office it has never yet had, while he has no pedantry in his composition, and no conceit whatever. General Garfield may be worth twenty-five thousand dollars, or a little more than Mr. Lincoln was when he took ofl5oe. His old mother, a genial lady, livps in his family, and his kindness to her on every occasion bears out the commandment of "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land." EOSECEANS ON GARFIELD. Eeoentlt a " San Francisco Call " report- er visited General W. S. Rosecrans at his res- idence in that city, and obtained from him some interesting facts concerning the milita- 158 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ry career of the Republican nominee. " Tes,'' replied General Eosecrans, in response to an inquiry from the "Call" representative, " Garfield was a member of my military fam- ily during the early part of the war. "When he came to my headquarters I must confess I had a prejudice against him, as I understood he was a preacher who had gone into poli- tics, and a man of that cast I was naturally opposed to. He remained at headquarters a couple of days, as I wanted to become ac- quainted with him before assigning him to duty. The more I saw of him the better I liked him, and finally I gave him his choice of a brigade or to become my Chief of Staff. Most men would have probably taken the brigade, but he decided to remain with me. "We were together until the Chattanooga af- fair. I found him to be a competent and efficient officer, an earnest and devoted pa- triot, and a man of the highest honor. His views were large, and he was possessed of a thoroughly comprehensive mind. Late in the summer of 1863 he came to me one day, and said that he had been asked to accept the Republican nomination for Congress from the Ashtabula District, and asked my advice as to whether he ought to accept it, and whether he could do so honorably. I re- plied that I not only thought he could accept it with honor, but that I deemed it his duty to do so. The war is not yet over, I said, nor will it be for some time to come. There will be many questions arising in Congress which require not only statesmanlike treat- ment, but the advice of men having an ac- quaintance with military affaii-s will be need- ed ; and for that and several other reasons that I named, he would, I believed, do equal- ly as good service to his country in Congress as in the field. It was, too, a great honor to him to be nominated by the Ashtabula Dis- trict, which had been represented in the House by one man for a quarter of a century (Joshua R. Giddings) ; they were thoroughly acquainted with him, and he was in accord with their sentiments in politics. Before the interview closed I said to him: 'Garfield, I want to give you some advice. When you go to Congress, be careful what you say. Don't talk too much ; but when you do talk, speak to the point. Be true to yourself, and you will make your mark before the country.' A few years ago I met him in "Washington, and said to him : ' "Well, Garfield, you have got along pretty well following my advice.' " Recurring to the nomination. General Ro- seorans said : "I consider Garfield head and shoulders above any of the men named be- fore the Convention, and far superior to any of the political managers upon the floor. He is a man with broad views, has always been a consistent Republican, and has a clear record. I can not believe that James A. Garfield was ever guilty of a dishonest act. As the campaign progresses, it will be found, if it is not now acknowledged, that Garfield is a hard man to beat." NATIONAL REPUBLICAN LEAGUE. The National Republican League has issued the following circular to " indepen- dent voters " : Philadelphia, June S6th. — The issues of the Presidential canvass are now fully de- fined, and every voter can determine for himseH the line of action which the highest interests of the country require. In the judgment of the National Republican League, there should be no hesitation. The Democracy, with strange inconsist- ency, have adopted the expedient of nomi- nating a man whose only training has been that of the army, and whose reputation, solely military, is the precise measure of his unfitness for the highest civil position in the gift of the people. On the other hand, the friends of good government have every reason to be satisfied with the nomination of General Garfield, and with the manner in which it was se- cured. Their determination to support him ought to be intensified by the alternative presented. Simple acquiescence in the Chi- cago ticket, however, is not enough. In the coming canvass there is no place for the lukewarmers or indifierents. The zealous and united efforts of all who look with re- pugnance on Democratic methods and mea- sures will be requisite to preserve the country from the worst of all evils. The solid South requires the aid of but two Northern States to give the Democracy PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. 159 a majority in the Electoral College; and there are many devices through which the united action of both Houses of Congress may set aside the verdict of the people, if that verdict is not rendered so emphatically as to preclude all recourse to chicane. The attempted capture of Maine shows that the Democratic party is prepared to use any means that may enable it to gain pos- session of the Executive Department, with its limitless opportunities of expenditure and patronage. We may reasonably anticipate events which will strain our institutions to the ut- most, and lead to dangers which no lover of his country can contemplate without the gravest alarm. To avert these dangers it is not enough that our candidate shall be fairly and honestly elected ; his majority must be such that on no pretext can it be set aside. For this every vote is needed, and every voter should use his influence to arouse his friends to the necessity of vigorous and united action. If with such a candidate as General Garfield, nominated under the most favorable auspices, we shall fail, we may well fear for the result of any effort in the future to prevent the decadence of our pub- lic life. It is, moreover, of high importance that a Republican Executive should be supported by a Republican House of Representatives, in order to uphold financial honesty and in- dustrial prosperity ; and with proper effort a working majority in Congress may be easi- ly regained. The power which makes and unmakes parties and regulates our national policy lies in the hands of that compara- tively small numbers of voters who cast their ballots on either side, or who abstain from voting, as their sense of duty dictates. To this conscience vote we confidently appeal, believing that every patriotic motive re- quires that it should earnestly and zealously support the Republican Electoral Ticket. By order of the Executive Committee. Wm. Rotoh Wistee, Chairman. Hamptoit L. Caeson, Secretary. 11 VI. "THE NATION." ExTEACTS from an article in No. 781 : Usually " the dark horse " is a gentleman about whom the public has everything to learn. In fact, to make a horse " dark," it may be said to be necessary that he should not have been prominent in public affairs, and that the revelation of his greatness and of his claims to public confidence should have to be made by the campaign biographer and the party newspapers during the canvass. General Garfield is, however, one of the best- known men in public life, and is known in an excellent way. We have several times of late spoken in these columns of the growing tendency of politicians to neglect real politics — that is, the 'business of the country — for the work of electioneering and management, and of the growing disposition on the part of the public to let politicians of this class take possession of the Government and use it in their own game for their own hands. The Independent opposition to the nomination of Grant and Blaine and to the dictation of the Bosses was really in large part a protest against this tendency, and an attempt once more to force politicians to occupy them- selves with politics, and earn their honors by their attention to public affairs. General Garfield's political career has, however, been as far as possible removed from that of the ordinary manager and machinist. His life in Congress has really been that of a states- man of the earlier constructive type. We do not profess to know what it is in his re- lations with his district which has enabled him to give so much of his time to the proper business of a legislator without endangering his political prospects, but we do know that he is most honorably associated with every question of importance which has come up in Congress during the past twelve years. Everybody who has given even slight at- tention to politics knows what his opinions are on nearly every matter by which the public mind has been much stirred since 1868, and we can recall no such matter on which his opinions were not sound, or, if not sound according to our way of thinking, were not defended so as to show that they 160 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPaIgN OF 1S80. had been carefully and intelligently formed. On the currency question he has never for one moment gone astray, and never for one moment concealed his view of the highest expediency. He never gave any counte- nance, as nearly every prominent Eepublican politician did, to the plan of paying the bonds in paper. He opposed the Silver Bill almost alone among the Republicans, in the teeth of the craze which was sweeping over the whole West, especially his own State, on this subject. He was one of the earliest and most strenuous advocates of civil-service re- form, even in the sense in which the Inde- pendent Eepublicans have of late been preaching it. His position toward the South since the war, which for a time caused him to be frowned on by the clique who were trying to buUd up their personal for- tunes by fanning the flames of civU strife, as a heretic and blasphemer, has placed him on this subject almost alone among Eepublican politicians in the serene air of the highest statesmanship, . . . General Garfield has done better than commit Burke to memory : he has ap- jjropriated his spirit and ideas, and Las had the courage to produce them at a time when some of the leading men of his party were energetically illustrating Burke's maxim that " a great empire and little minds go ill to- gether." When that great scandal of free government — the doctrine that the President withdrew the troops from the South mero motu, as the Czar might reduce the garrison of Warsaw, and that Southerners ought therefore to have voted the Eepublican ticket out of "gratitude" — was being spread abroad by both press and politicians, General Garfield was bold enough to say that the true justification of the President's course was that he had done what it was his con- stitutional duty to do. In saying this ho did more than defend Mr. Hayes: he re- minded his own party that this is a Govern- ment of law, and that there is under it no place for gratitude to an executive officer ex- cept in the case of a pardoned criminal. In fact, the steady constitutionality and ration- ality, if we may use the expression, of General Garfield's course in Congress during times when most of his fellow Eepublicans lost their heads have been very remarkable. and show that he is not only a man of cour- age, but that he does not, in the strife and turmoil of what is called practical politics, lose his hold on the great truth that this Na- tion, in spite of its enormous natural advan- tages, must live, as every other human society has lived, by remembering, comparing, and foreseeing. JUDGE J. S. BLACK'S TWO LETTEES. Philadelphia, February 15, 1873. My Deae Sib : From the beginning of the investigation concerning Mr. Ames's use of the Credit Mobilier, I believed that Gen- eral Garfield was free from all guilty con- nection with that business. This opinion was founded not merely on my confidence in his integrity, but on some special knowl- edge of his case. I may have told you all about it in conversation, hvA, I desire now to repeat it by way of reminder. I assert unhesitatingly tliat, whatever General Garfield may have done or forborne to do, he acted in profound ignorance of the nature and character of the thing which Mr. Ames was proposing to sell. He had not the shghtest suspicion that he was to be taken into a ring organized for the purpose of defrauding the public ; nor did he know that the stock was in any manner connected with anything which came, or could come, within the legislative jurisdiction of Con- gress. The case against him lacks the scien- ter which alone constitutes guilt. In the winter of 1869-'70 I told General Garfield of the fact that his name was on Ames's list; that Ames charged him with being one of his distributees ; explained to him the character, origin, and objects of the Credit Mobilier ; pointed out the connection it had with Congressional legislation, and showed him how impossible it was for a member of Congress to hold stock in it with- out bringing his private interests in conflict with his public duty. That all this was to him a perfectly new revelation I am as sure as I can be of such a fact, or of any fact which is capable of being proved only by moral circumstances. He told me then the whole story of Train's offer to him and Ames's subsequent solicitation, and his own PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. 161 action in the premises, much as he detaih it to tJie Committee. I do not undertake to re- produce the conversation, hut the effect of it all was to convince me thoroughly that when he listened to Ames he was perfectly uncon- scious of anything evil. I watched care- fully every word that fell from him on this point, and did not regard his narrative of the transaction in other respects with much interest, because in my view everything else was insignificant. I did not care whether he had made a bargain technically binding or not; his integrity depended upon the question whether he acted with his eyes open. If he had known the true character of the proposition made to him, he wonld not have endured it, much less embraced it. Now, couple this with Mr. Ames's admis- sion that he gave no explanation whatever of the matter to General Garfield ; then re- flect that not a particle of proof exists to show that he learned anything about it pre- vious to his conversation with me; and I think you will say that it is altogether un- just to put him on the list of those who knowingly and willfully joined the fraudu- lent association in question. J. S. Black. Hon. -J. G. Blaine, Speaker of the House of liepresenta- tives. HoTKL Continental, Pari?, iftme 28, 1830. To the Editor of the Philadelphia Times. Mt Dear Sik : I have regularly received the "Times " since I have been on this side, and through it I have learned all I know about the situation at home. I am informed fully concerning the nomination at Chicago, and did not need much information about the character and history of the candidate there set up, my personal acquaintance with Mm, being tolerably full and intimate. Your express determination to see that General Garfield shall be defended against all unjust aspersions upon his personal char- acter, is equally pleasant reading to me, for I have been his devoted friend for many years, and I am resolved that I never will believe that Tie does not deserve the affection I have bestowed upon him. If he would carry the principles which regulate his private life into his public conduct, he would mahe the best Chief Magistrate we haxe ever had. But ho will act for the interests of his party, as he has acted all his lifetime, and that will re- quire him to take the advice which Stevens gave to Montpelius in the buckshot war. I do not know any really good man who has done and assisted in doing so many bad things in politics aa General Garfield. . . . I am very truly yours, J. S. Black. COLONEL BONN PIATT. Colonel Donn Piatt, editor of " The Capitol" (Washington), has often attacked General Garfield with great vehemence. Nevertheless, in his issue of June 20th he bore this testimony : Garfield's friends should study his record and understand his case before rushing to his support. In their ignorance they are doing him more harm than good. He is assailed in two oases — one the Credit Mobilier, and the otlier the De Gol- yer patent. Both can be stated briefly and clearly, and the facts clear Garfield of any wrong. Here is the Credit Mobilier : Oakes Ames had seized on and held a large amount of stock that Harry McOomb claimed and sued for. Ames's little game was this : If the suit went against him, he intended to account for the stock, as lobby agent, in a distribution of it " where it would do the most good." If he won, he intended to hold the stock as his own. He prepared for this by going just far enough with members of Congress to lay a foundation for his claim, but not far enough to enable the members to force him to give them the stock should he win against McComb. Thus, when Garfield borrowed three hundred dollars to pay his house-rent, Ames entered the amount in his little book as so much stock, that was well worth half a mil- lion at the time. When the explosion oc- curred Ames swore that the money was not a loan, but cash paid for stock never deliv- ered, the dividends on which would have made Garfield comfortable; not a cent of which did he receive, nor had it ever been intimated to him that he had a right to it. It was Ames's oath against Garfield's, 162 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. with all the circumstances in Garfield's fa- vor, with the more significant one, that while Garfield's character was unimpeach- ahle, Ames was a confessed briber of Con- gressmen, and about as corrupt an old man as the Lord permitted to cumber the earth. To take the oath of such a man against the word of an honest man is simply monstrous, and only shows to what extent partisan zeal can carry a people. In the De Golyer case Garfield was paid a retainer of five thousand dollars — not to influence his vote as a Congressman, or his power as Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, for all the appropriations had passed before he was paid. The object of the influence was in Chicago. The De Golyer company of the last- named place had employed one Chittenden to secure contracts with the Territorial Gov- ernment. In making up his bill, Chittenden claimed of the company for important ser- vices greatly exaggerated, and among those, securing the influence of Garfield. This was done reaUy through Dick Parsons, who was one of the attorneys for the company, and promised Garfield one half of his fee if he (Garfield) would take charge of the case dur- ing his (Parsons's) absence, Parsons being called home by the sickness of his family. Dick did not say what his fee was, and long after the whole affair was settled Dick paid over the five thousand. Considering the rate of cbarges indulged in by eminent lawyers, there is nothing in the amount to excite surprise or suspicion. Had Garfield been animated in either case by corrupt motives, the world would never have heard of either case ; and instead of being a man in moderate circumstances, Garfield has held positions where, as we have said, he could have winked himselt into millions, as others have done who walk among men without the shadow of a taint upon their names. HON. WM. SPPvINGER. Kemaeks of Hon. "Wm. Springer, Demo- cratic Congressman, at Sullivan, Ind., July 4, 1880 : My friends, the Republican party has nominated for its candidate for President James A. Garfield of Ohio, a man who has long been in public service, long been the leader of his party, and who stands to-day the mightiest warrior of them all, the great- est Republican member of the Lower House of Congress. I know James A. Garfield by being with him in the Lower House of Con- gress for years, and I know there is no Re- publican in that party abler than he. I see that the newspapers are making charges against his character, but, my friends, I can not say they are in any wise true. I have not read the reply by the Republican press to these charges ; if they are true, I do not know it. I must say to you, my friends, that I had hoped the good old Democratic party would select a civilian for its standard-bearer in this campaign, as I think it would have been more preferable to me than to have a man who is solely a military man. The President of the United States should be a man who knows all about civil affairs ; who knows the regulations of the various departments ; the management of the Judici- ary, Legislative, and Executive Departments ; the Department of State, which deals with foreign countries ; the Treasury Department with the millions of treasure ; with civil ser- vice ; and with the great, rapidly growing commerce of our land, thereby bringing the greatest happiness to our people. I there- fore thought the best interests of our people demanded a man experienced in civil affairs, and when our convention at Cincinnati nom- inated a purely military man, I must confess to you, my friends, I thought it would have been better to have nominated a man with some civil experience. HON. R. MILTON SPEER. Hon. R. Milton Speee, Democratic mem- ber of the Forty-third Congress from Penn- sylvania, and recent Chairman of the Demo- cratic State Committee, on his return from Cincinnati, addressed a Democratic ratifica- tion meeting at Pittsburgh, in the course of which he remarked : This is my first public utterance since the Chicago nomination, and I desire to say PUBLIC MEN AND SECULAR JOURNALS ON GENERAL GARFIELD. 163 right here tliat I served four years in Con- gress with General Garfield. I know him well, and I honor him for his honesty, his integrity, his ability, his breadth of knowl- edge, and his upright character. But he represents the party of sectionalism, while General Hancock represents a united North and South. HON. HENRY B. PAYNE. Hon. Henet B. Payne, a prominent can- didate for the Presidential nomination at Cincinnati, in a recently published interview', just after the Chicago Convention, spoke as follows : You know General Garfield well enough, then, to be convinced one way or the other in regard to his personal probity ? It isn't likely (said Mr. Payne, slowly and gravely) that I would continue to respect and admit to my intercourse any man whom I believed guilty of deliberate dishonor. No, I have never examined the specific charges against Garfield, nor acquainted myself with his defense against them. From my knowl- edge of his character, however, I should be decidedly inclined to believe that he was de- ceived rather than guilty — that his ignorance of business afiairs and methods was to blame for any error. Nothing in his outward life denotes that he has profited by corruption. He lives economically ; the present improve- ments on his house at Mentor — which may cost some three thousand dollars — involve the most considerable expenditures his neigh- bors are aware of. No, no. With General Garfield's political creed I am utterly at va- riance ; but this does not counsel me to an unconsidered assault upon that candidate's private honor. — New York World. HON. A. G. THURMAN AND THE 'NEW YORK WORLD." Hon. a. G. Thubman, long leader of the Ohio Democracy, in the autumn of 1873 bore this testimony : Oakes Ames swears that Garfield got ten shares, and Garfield swears that he did not do anything of the kind. There was a good deal of talk, but no proof against him ; and I am compelled to say that Gai-field gets out better than any one else, and, on the whole, there was not suflScient evidence to fasten corruption at his door. Thurman's opinion appeared in the " New York World" of October 10, 18T3. That Democratic journal added its own opinion as follows : After considering all the testimony, on the whole, we concur in this view of Mr. Garfield's connection with the Credit Mo- bilier. PAET Y. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. It is peculiarly gratifying to note the strong liold that General Garfield has taken of the religious mind of the country. That he has taken such hold appears plainly in the religious press. Some of the voices are found below. Christian Standard ( Cincinnati, Ohio), June 12th and 19th. We are glad to say, however, that there are men who rise above this turmoil, and stand in calm poise and grandeur far above such methods and such men ; and it is with the utmost pleasure that we recognize among them, preeminent, J. A. Garfield, to whom it was committed to name to the Convention one of the principal candidates. His speech will stand as a model, apart by itself, as the one gem of the occasion. It is no wonder that among the spectators there was de- veloped a strong sentiment that he himself was the man for the hour. At every crisis in tiie Convention his voice is heard, for principle, for sobriety, for prudence and honor. We regret that we have not the space to reproduce his speech here, but we shaU probably give it Iiereafter. We think it will commend itself to the good sense and patriotism of men of all parties. And if ever he is named for a great oflBce, we can not ask more than that it shall be as fitly done. On account, we presume, of our known long acquaintance with the candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency, and the personal friendship existing between us, we are already besieged with questions touching every rumor put in circulation by his political opponents to his injury. Ours is not a political paper, and we have nothing to say in these columns touching the party issues between Eepublicans and Democrats. But as touching the character of James A. Garfield as an honest man, a Christian gen- tleman, an upright, loyal, and faithful citi- zen, and a statesman of great ability, of high integrity, and of pure morals, we are free to say, as the result of a long and intimate per- sonal acquaintance, that we have in him, and have always had, unbounded confidence — a confidence that has never trembled for a moment. In a letter received from Bro. F. D. Power, for many years our preacher in Washington, and who has occasion to know him well, he says of General Garfield, '• He is a good, pure man, and we love him." Let this snflttce. We hope the Democrats will give us a candidate equally able and worthy, and that the campaign will be con- ducted with reference to principles rather than persons, and be free from personal warfare. The American Chriitian Review {Cincin- nati, Ohio), June SSd. General James A. Garfield, recently nominated by the Chicago Republican Con- vention for the Presidency of the United States, is a member of the Church of Christ, and has been for about thirty years. He will soon be fifty years of age. We are glad to record the fact that, besides being a statesman of acknowledged ability, his pri- THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 165 vate life has been pure, and that his Chris- tian character is without a stain. If the Democratic partj shall nominate a man for the same exalted position bearing as clean a record in morals and sobriety as that of Garfield, the nation may well have cause to rejoice. "We have known Bro. Garfield per- sonally for twenty-five years, and during all that time have known him as an humble Christian, unpretentious in his profession, magnanimous and liberal-hearted, honest, faithful, and philanthropic, with a head and heart ready to serve in the humblest cause of humanity. The last time we were in Washington city we found him teaching a Bible-class in the Sunday-school of a very obscure chui'ch. He is one of the biggest- hearted Christian men we ever met. "We have spoken these few words in praise of Bro. Garfield as a Christian citizen, and not as a politician, becanse we think our breth- ren at large feel pleased that so distinguished an honor has been conferred on one of our brethren. It does not belong to the charac- ter of the " Review " to speak of his poli- tics or of his political creed. That informa- tion must be found in political organs. m. The Christian Union (New Torh), June 16th. The nomination of General Garfield was made by the men who did not attend the Convention which apparently nominated him. He was nominated by the people, not by the politicians. His nomination is a new attestation of the political value of moral qualities. Tlie Republican party has passed by the eminent soldier, the eminent financier, and the eminent party politician, to take up a man who is chiefly eminent for the Chris- tian purity and integrity of his life and character. They are without reproach and above suspicion, though, of course, not above slander; for the morning after the nomina- tion the opposition began its campaign of calumny. If Moses were nominated for the Presidency, there are papers which would bring up the charge that he murdered an Egyptian, and ran off with the Egyptian women's jewelry. What enthusiasm the nomination will arouse remains to be seen, but it will at least excite no opposition within the Re- publican party, and will give measurable satisfaction to all its sections. The believers in a continuous tenure of office will see in General Garfield a representative of their cure for the strife of factions. For General Garfield not only comes from a district which believes in third and fourth terms, but his eminence in American politics is due to that fact. The Western Reserve has, in a period of half a century, been represented by but four men ; General Garfield has been their representative for a period of eighteen years — from 1862 to the present time. Eor the last two sessions of the House of Repre- sentatives he has been the leader of the Re- publican party in the House. To call such a> man a " dark horse " is absurd. The leader of the House is the natural leader of his party when it comes into power, and in England is almost always made Prime Min- ister as a matter of course. The advocates of Civil Service Reform must be hard to suit if they are not pleased with the nomination of a man who has never sought an office. When first elected to the House of Representatives he was with the troops in the field, and did not know that a nomination was contemplated until he was informed that it was given. When, last fall, his name was before the Ohio Legislature as a candidate for the United States Senate, in competition with several men of no little eminence in national politics, his friends were urgent that he should go to Columbus and take rooms there, to be near the Legis- lature at the critical moment. He refused ; he never had sought an office, and would not begin then ; remained at his farm ; and won more votes by his wise independence than he conld have won by wire-pulling, for he was elected without opposition within his party. At the Convention which has just nominated him, he steadfastly declined to be a candidate, and was finally declared the choice of the Convention against his protests, and because of his genuine and hearty devotion to the interests of his party and the promotion of its principles. At the same time he is a practical politician ; he does not belong to the " soratchers " ; he has always acted with his party ; he has always been simply a Re- 166 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. publican — not an " Independent Repub- lican,'' nor a "Young Eepublioan," nor a "Stalwart Republican," nor a "Bloody Sbirt Republican." He possesses the politi- cal purity and integrity which President Hayes possesses, and a skill in managing men which President Hayes lacks. Both qualities were strikingly manifested in the Conven- tion which he did so much to harmonize and which finally nominated liim. The believers in paper money, if there are any such left in the Republican party, are the only ones likely to be dissatisfied. General Garfield has been always and con- sistently a hard-money man. In the time when Ohio was most doubtful on this point, he never wavered. His record in this respect is like that of President Hayes. General Garfield is an earnest Christian man; a member of the Disciples, or Oamp- bellites, a denomination very numerous in the West and Southwest ; has never been ashamed of his faith; has often preached, though he has never been professionally a preacher; and has always carried his re- ligious principles into his political life. He has the respect of those who most widely differ from him in political views ; and the spontaneous meeting held in the House of Representatives by its members, to send him their congratulations on his nomination, was equally creditable to him and to the moral sense of the House. The nomination of such a man is a re- buke to the croakers, and a testimony to the political power of moral sentiment in the American community. For twenty years the dominant political party has taken up and presented for the sufirages of the Amer- ican people men whose first element of strength lay in their acknowledged moral worth. Abraham Lincoln, U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James A. Garfield, whatever may be thought of their political principles and their political abilities, repre- sent the highest moral elements and convic- tions of the community as applied to public questions. In character they compare favor- ably with the foremost statesmen of foreign countries, and with the foremost statesmen of our own earlier national life. The Methodist {New York), June 19th. The nomination of General Garfield by the Republicans suggests many useful reflec- tions. It is, of course, a satisfaction to all Republicans that they can unite next No- vember ; and our present impression is that the union will embrace all or nearly all the Independent or Liberal Republicans. We shall probably take no part in the discus- sions ; and we make haste to say that eflforts to prove General Garfield a corrupt man can not, in our judgment, succeed. Perhaps the excellent use of certain stories about him —which we do not believe — may be to ex- clude mud-throwing from the canvass. If the Democrats make a good nomination, as good a one as this in personal character, both sides may perceive the folly of laying stress upon doubtful circumstances in lives characterized by uprightness and fidelity to public duty. One of the best uses of this nomination may be to call out a strong Democratic nom- ination. It would certainly be vastly useful to have candidates on both sides whose pu- rity and probity were not questioned. Wc should like to feel that, whatever political dangers might arise from the election of either, the White House would continue to shelter a model Christian home, and that the American people had with substantial unity, by the choice of their candidates, ap- proved decency and honor in public life. It is a great lesson, a mighty encour- agement, that, once more, a poor boy ap- proaches the highest oflSce in the land; that one half of our people have selected for the chief place a man whose success is the fruit of his own character and deeds. We would not disfranchise the sons of the wealthy, nor disparage those who have inherited hon- ored names, but it is nevertheless a glory of our country that it has Lincolns and Gar- fields ; and the poor do well to rejoice in the success of the rail- splitters and canal-boys. We hope that the majority of our read- ers agree with us that it is better not to have raised the third-term issue, better not to have selected any candidate for whom the primary and secondary conventions had been THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 167 organized, and in some cases excessively managed ; better that Presidential lightning should strike a man who had not been worked for and organized for. This result is calculated to weaken the confidence and palsy the energy of the too active " political worker," whose power many of us have come to dread. We admit the necessity of organization : what we deprecate is organi- zation for personal ends. When the great parties should pass into the hands of the managers, the power of the people would be greatly decreased, if not hopelessly lost. We are not disposed to lament that this nomination renders It probable that the White House will cease to be a Methodist home. It has been ours for twelve years, and even the largest denomination ought cheerfully to take turns in this relation to the country. We have hope that a Chris- tian family will inhabit the Presidential Mansion after next March ; and we should be unreasonable if we felt grieved that the suc- cessor of Presidents Grant and Hayes is likely, in any case, to belong to another communion. General Garfield may not be elected, though the chances seem to be in his favor ; but we do not expect the Demo- crats to nominate a Methodist; and the Meth- odists of both parties — and in the whole Union we are about equally divided between the parties — will zealously support good can- didates without regard to their church aflili- ations. We do not believe that a hundred Methodist votes could be changed by this question ; and we take great satisfaction in the fact that, as a denomination, we can make this boast. We wish it "could be said of every denomination of Christians in the land. In taking a candidate from one of the small denominations, the Republican party asserts its belief that a truly catholic spirit pervades its ranks, and pays the high- est compliment to the great religious bodies from whom it has not taken its candidates. The Evangelist {New Tori), June nth. The great Convention at Chicago, to which the politicians have been looking for- ward with much eagerness for months past. has come and gone, leaving many surprises behind it. Like some preceding Conven- tions, it has confounded the calculations of the wisest political seers, who have found all their prophecies falsified, their sagacity proved to he folly, and their towering am- bitions brought to naught. In some respects the result has been not unlike that in the same city twenty years ago, when the nom- ination of Mr. Seward was defeated, and Abraham Lincoln for the first time appeared as a striking figure in American politics. Now, as then, the aspiring hopes of those who stood foremost — and, as they thought, almost alone — in the race are disappointed; and in place of the expectant " heirs to the succession," one comes to the front who, like Lincoln, is a stalwart " son of the for- est," whom the leaders had left quite out of their calculations. Of course the eyes of the country are at once turned upon the new candidate, and a million voices ask: Who and what is he? In this case it can not be pretended that he is " a dark horse," in the sense that he was before quite unknown. On the contrary, few of our public men have been more prominently before the country from the time that he entered the army at the be- ginning of the war, through his military ca- reer, and his long service in Congress, till the hour of his nomination at Chicago. For seventeen years he has been a member of the House of Representatives, in a position where a man very soon finds his level ; where the strong naturally come to the front, while the weak as naturally fall to the rear. Such a position is one to expose a man's weakness and incapacity, if it does not show his ability and his character. What record he has made for himself in this position is a part of the history of the country. But we do not propose to speak of Gen- eral Garfield as the public know him, but as we know him, giving our own personal im- pressions for what they are worth. While "The Evangelist " takes no part in political contests, yet it is not indifierent to the char- acter of our public men, and feels it to be a duty to contribute, as far as possible, to the information of its readers in regard to those for whom their votes are asked. With Gen- eral Garfield we have had a personal ac- 168 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1S80. quaintance for many years. He is a gradu- ate of our alma mater, and we liave met him at commencements, as wen as in Wash- ington. Not long ago he told us, very simply and modestly, the story of his early life, of his struggles to get an education; how, after studying in Ohio, he decided to come to an Eastern college, and wrote to several presidents to ask for information; and how the kind letter he received from Dr. Hopkins decided him to go to Williams College. It was a happy choice. Entering the junior class, he was there but two years, but during that time he had the invaluable instruction of that eminent teacher; and probably there is no man living for whom ho feels more sincere veneration — a feeling of mingled respect and affection — than his old teacher, so honored and beloved, Presi- dent Mark Hopkins. In college he was one of the foremost. We have seen it stated in some paper that the richer students looked down upon him because of his poverty. But this we must be- lieve to be a pure invention. At any rate, if a few smiled at the rough iigure and coarse garments of the uncouth Westerner, he soon inspired a different feeling. There is no purer democracy in the world than in an American college — no place where young men who are "stuck up," as the phrase is, elated by their wealth or social position, are sooner "taken down." Money counts for little when brought in comparison, or in contrast, with personal qualities. The things which college students respect most are muscle and brains, physical strength and intellectual capacity. Garfield had both. He could hold his own anywhere — on the ball-ground, or in a rough-and- tum- ble, as well as in the class-room. If any- body affected to "look down" upon him, the supercilious youth would soon be taught to " look tip " from his own position lying flat on his back. But he commanded re- spect not only by his strength and courage, but by his standing in his class. He was a good scholar, and especially a good debater; and when to these qualities it is added that he was also a devont Christian, it may well bo supposed that his personal influence was excellent. The deference which college boys feel for physical prowess gives to those who possess this only an evil ascen- dancy. There is no more dangerous man in such an institution than a great, hulking fellow, who, with his strength of limb, is vulgar and profane — a coarse, swearing, swaggering buUy. Such a man sometimes demoralizes a whole college. But when one comes among young men, a giant in strength, yet pure in heart and clean of tongue, his physical qualities give a prodigious momen- tum to his religious influence. Graduating in 1856, the young student returned to Ohio to engage in teaching, and occasionally in preaching, for the family be- longed to the sect of Disciples, or Oamp- bellites, which requires no ordination, and no course of theological study; and as he had special "gifts" for speaking in public, he " exercised his gifts " in the gatherings of his brethren. It was at this time that he married a lady who, though extremely mod- est and retiring, is well known to be highly educated, and full of the best womanly sense as well as womanly feehng. She has had a great influence over his subsequent ca- reer; and it is to the honor of the man that he ascribes much of his success to his wife. From these peaceful domestic scenes and this quiet life, he was called by the break- ing out of the war. The moment the coun- try was in danger, and had need of her sons, he entered the field, and rose to distinction. To this portion of his career we have no need to refer, as the chroniclers will recount it in the fullest details. We shall never for- get an evening which he spent with us at Wil- lard's in Washington, at the close of the war, when he gave us a long and Intensely inter- esting account of the battle of Ohicka- mauga, in which he had taken part. The description was so minute and so vivid, that it has remained in our memory, leaving an impression more distinct than we have of any other battle of the war. He was the Chief of Staff of General Rosecrans, and when the army was defeated, and retiring in hot haste from the field, he heard the sound of cannon in the distance, which told him that General Thomas, who commanded the left, was still fighting to save the for- tunes of the day ; and, turning his horse, he rode straight to that part of the field, think- ing perhaps, like Napoleon at Marengo, that THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 169 "though one battle was lost, there was time to gain another," and remained with that great commander till his stubborn re- sistance saved the army. Since the war General Garfield's place has been in Congress, where he lias been seen and known of all who have visited "Washington. There he has gradually risen to the position of the leader of his party in the House of Representatives, not by pushing or ambition, but by the natural ascendancy accorded to superior ability. No man could command such a position, and hold it, with- out talents of a high order, the possession of which is now conceded to him by all — not on- ly those of his own, but of the opposite party. But no degree of success has ever changed the man. He has always been the same — simple in character and modest in manner, though with the consciousness of strength which comes with long experience of his power, yet with an utter absence of arro- gance and pretension, lie is preeminently a man of the people. Born in a very humble home, among the poor, all his sympathies are with them. He has no more pride than Lincoln had. Indeed, there are many points of resemblance in the characters, as well as in the careers, of the two men. And now, if we were to sum up in one word the impression which he makes upon us, it would be that of his thorough manli- ness. He is every inch a man. There is something manly in his very physique. Tall in person, broad-chested and strong-limbed, he has the figure of an athlete. His head is large, and the expression of his face one of mingled intelligence and kindliness. He has an open countenance — one in which we can detect no lines of craft and cunning, but which shows a frank and open nature, that scorns guile and trickery and deceit. If there be anything in physiognomy — if we can read the mind in the face — we should say, This is a true, brave, honest man, who would serve his country in any station, legis- lative or executive, with the same manly courage which he showed in the field. But there is more in his countenance even than intelligence and simplicity of character. There is another thing which goes with trne manliness — great sweetness and gentleness, something which shows under a frame of iron a heart, which we do not always find united with sterner qualities. It is a face, in short, which indicates one who is brave as a lion and gentle as a woman. Such is the hero of the hour. We repeat, he is " every inch a man " — big-brained, big-breasted, and big-hearted — a man to love as a companion, and to follow as a leader. Such is he who, in the full vigor of his manhood — he is not yet fifty — is nominated for President of the United States. Should he bo elected to that office, wo are sure that he would carry into his new position the same qualities which he has shown hitherto, and that as the head of the Government he would pursue the same straightforward course, and maintain the manly simplicity and integrity of tlie early days of the Re- public. PART VI. CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. To James A. Garfield. Thou, iivho didst ride on Chickamauga's day All solitary down the fiery line, And saw the ranks of battle rusty shine, Where grand old Thomas held them from dismay, Eegret not now, while meaner pageants play Their brief campaigns against the best of men ! For those spent balls of scandal pass their way. And thou shalt see tho victory again, Modest and faithful, though these broken lines Of party reel, and thine own honor bleeds. That mole is blind which Garfield undermines, That dart falls short which hired malice speeds. That man will stay whose place tho State assigns, And whose high mind a mighty people needs. G. A. Townsend. Theee different charges affecting the in- tegrity and honor of General Garfield are made by personal enemies and the baser sort of political opponents, viz.. Credit Mobilier, Increase of Salaries, and the De Golyer Pavement. It is proposed to inquire con- cerning the merits of these matters. THE CREDIT MOBILIER COMPANY. This charge originated in ISTS-'VS, and, had it never been made, it is safe to say that little, if anything, would have been heard of the others. Although at one time drawing a considerable share of public at- tention, it had nearly passed out of the pub- lic mind. In the first place, men who care- fully looked into the matter saw that Gen- eral Garfield was in no way compromised; in the second place, another and larger class of men dismissed the charge on account of the great and growing confidence in the man ; and, in the third place, most others dropped it because it no longer produced an appreciable effect. But, naturally, the Chi- cago nomination has once more brought Credit Mobilier forward, so that it seems necessary to give here a full history of the matter. I shall begin my exposition at the very beginning. Three Acts of Congress created the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and endowed it with its franchises and responsibilities, viz., the Acts of July 1, 1862, July 2, 1864, and July 3, 1866. These Acts need not be ana- lyzed one by one ; suflBce it to say that, col- lectively, they clothed the Company with power to build a railroad and telegraph from Omaha, Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory, said railroad to form a part of the line connecting the Missouri and Sacramento Rivers. To enable the Com- pany to execute this purpose. Congress gave it a magnificent endowment: 1. A strip of land, four hundred feet wide, through the public domain ; 2. The right of eminent do- main to appropriate private lands for depots, etc., where necessary ; 3. The free gift of about twelve million acres of United States lands; 4. A loan of United States bonds to the amount of $27,218,000, payable in thirty years, with interest at six per cent, per annum. The statute of 1862 made this bond-loan a first mortgage upon all the Company's property ; but the statute of 1864 accepted a second mortgage in lieu of tho CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. in first. Under these statutes the road was huilt. Let the reader note carefully the dates 1862, 1864, and 1866. Besides, it should be said that the last Act simply fixed the eastern terminus at Omaha, the original charter having left that point practically undetermined. The provisions of law, by which the rights of the Government were to be secured, need not be stated further than to quote this paragraph from the report of the "Wilson Investigating Committee, made to the House of Representatives in 1873 : The United States was not a mere creditor, loaning a sura of money upon mortgage. The railroad corporation was not a more contractor, bound to furnish a specified structure and nothing more. The law created a body politic and cor- porate, bound, as a trustee, so to manage this great public franchise and endowment that not only the security for the great debt due the Unit- ed States should not be impaired, but so that there should be ample resources to perform its great public duties in time of commercial disas- ter and in time of war. (Page 3.) November 1, 1859, the State of Penn- sylvania chartered the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency, authorizing it to buy and sell secu- rities, and to loan money to railroads and other improvement companies. March 3, 1864, T. 0. Durant, Vice-President of the Union Pacific Company, bought this Agency for the purpose of making it a construction company to build the Union Pacific Eailroad. The 26th of the same month, its name was changed by law to the " Credit Mobilier of America." Originally, the capital stock was $2,600,000; but in 1867 it was in- creased to $3,750,000. This corporation was perfectly legitimate ; Durant had a per- fect right to buy it and to use it for building the road ; and the road had a perfect right to contract with it. At the same time, it is clear that the Fiscal Agency was bought for an improper purpose, as the following liis- tory will show. If the Credit Mobilier Company were to be used for constructing the road, the natu- ral and straightforward way of proceeding would have been for the railroad company to contract with the Credit Mobilier direct; But there were certain reasons why this simple and easily understood way of pro- ceeding would not answer. The following was therefore done : The 16th of August, 1867, Cakes Ames, a member of Congress from Massachusetts, made a contract with the Union Pacific Company, whereby he was to build six hun- dred and sixty-seven miles of road at a scale of prices that amounted in the aggre- gate to $47,925,000. Soon after he trans- ferred this great contract to other hands; not, however, to the hands of the Credit Mobilier as such, but to the hands of seven men, who were called Trustees. They were to hold the contract in trust for such stock- holders of the Credit Mobilier Company as should give to the seven irrevocable prox- ies to vote all Union Pacific Railroad stock that they might at any time hold. Octo- ber 15, 1867, a triple contract was exe- cuted between Ames, the seven trustees, and the Credit Mobilier Company. Ames made over the contract. Tlie Trustees re- ceived the contract, were to execute it, and were to hold the profits, if any, in trust for those Credit Mobilier stockholders who are described above. The Credit Mobilier Com- pany, as such, was to advance money with which to begin the work, and was to receive on such advances, in interest and commis- sion, nine and a half per cent. ; said nine and a half per cent, to be distributed as divi- dends, of course, to the stockholders of the corporation. All this was agreed to in Octo- ber, 1867, in consequence of a perfect under- standing existing at the time the Ames con- tract was made. "What is more, the seven Trustees were principal stockholders, and most of them directors, both of the Eailroad and the Credit Mobilier Companies. As di- rectors of the railroad they could not con- tract with themselves as directors of the Mobilier, as trustees, or in any other capaci- ty, to build the road ; and this is why the contract was made with Ames, who was not a director in either corporation. The mat- ter then stood thus : The seven made the contract with Ames ; the same seven as trustees received the as- signment of the contract from Ames ; and as stockholders of the Credit Mobilier Com- pany they were to receive, in company with such of their fellow stockholders in the Mobilier as should be admitted to the ring, 172 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. tte profits of tho contract. Further, they agreed to admit to this division of the profits only those Mobilier stockholders who should deliver to the even irrevocable proxies to vote the stock of the Union Pa- cific road held by them. This would con- tinue to the Trustees, what they now had, unlimited control of the Union Pacific road. The object ot the seven was twofold : first, to secure themselves against personal re- sponsibility; and, second to get the profits likely to accrue. Nor did the seven propose "to let into " the ring more of the Mobilier stock than was necessary to accomplish their purpose. The fewer the shares among which the Ames profits were divided, the larger the sum that would fall to each share. A bushel of salt will be thicker piled on a writing-table than spread over the floor. Accordingly, from this time on there were two kinds of Credit Mobilier stock, that which was, and that which was not, in the railroad ring. The first could well be worth six hundred or eight hundred per cent., while the other was only worth par. These are the objectionable features of this series of transactions: 1. These railroad stockhold- ers and directors were virtually contracting with themselves; 2. The price that they agreed to pay themselves was exorbitant. The fraud was threefold: 1. Upon certain stockholders of the Credit Mobilier Com- pany; 2. Upon tlie Union Pacific Railroad property; 0. Upon the Government of the United States. This was the beginning. Things went on swimmingly for a time. The road was built, and millions of profits were divided according to the agreement. But by and by fierce quarrels broke out among the members of the ring, and one of the quarrels brought all the foregoing history, and much more, to the surface. It is clear that, after October 15, 1867, the date of the triple con- tract, no member of Congress who fully un- derstood tlie matter could buy Credit Mo- bilier stock of Mr. Ames or his accomplices without becoming a party to this threefold fraud ; nor could he understandingly negoti- ate for such stock without dishonor. For any man after that time to buy the stock understandingly would be bad enough ; for a member of Congress it would be utterly in- excusable. But a member of Congress might nevertheless buy such stock innocently, or innocently negotiate for it ; for tlie ring wero very careful to conceal from the public all their inside transactions. As any one can see, the triple contract could not bear the light of day. We move on now to 1872. In the Presidential campaign of that year, it was asserted in the newspapers that a number of Eepresentatives and Senators had bought Credit Mobilier stock of Ames. It was said that evidence of this fact had been elicited in a suit pending at Philadelphia be- tween II. S. McComb and Oakes Ames. The testimony got into the newspapers only in fragments ; and the public knowledge of the transactions of the Union Pacific Com- pany and the Credit Mobilier Company was so meager that nobody could form an intelli- gent opinion in the premises. But one thing the public understood perfectly — the charge of bribery was made against these gentle- men. This charge most or aU of them hast- ened to deny. In the list of those alleged to have been corrupted by Ames appeared the name of James A. Garfield. Eeturning to "Washington the 13th or 14th of Septem- ber, 1872, from Montana, General Garfield saw the charge in the newspapers. He im- mediately authorized the publication of the following statement, which appeared in the Cincinnati " Gazette " a day or two later : General Garfield, ■nho has just arrived here frotQ the Indian country, has to-day had the first opportunity of seeing the charges connecting his name with receiving shares of the Credit Mobilier from Oakes Ames. He authorized the statement that he never subscribed for a single share of the stock, and that he never receive or saw a share of it. When the company was first formed George Francis Train, tlien active in it, came to Washington and exhibited a list of subscribers — of leading capitalists and some members of Con- gress — to the stock of tlie company. The sub- scription was described as a popular one of one thousand dollars each. Train urged General Gar- field to subscribe on two occasions, and each time he declined. Subsequently, ho was again informed that the list was nearly completed, but that a cbanco remained for him to subscribe, when he again declined ; and to this day he has not sub- scribed for or received any share of stock or bond of the company. Here matters rested until the opening of CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. the ensuing session of Congress. The first day of the session the members of the House against whom the charge had been made de- manded a committee of investigation. The House at once adopted the following pream- ble and resolutions : WJiereas, Accusations have been made in the public press, founded on alleged letters of Oakes Ames, a representative from Massachusetts, and upon the alleged affidavits of Henry S. McComb, a citizen of Wilmington, in the State of Delaware, to the effect that members of this House were bribed by Oakes Ames to perform certain legis- lative acts for the benefit of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, by presents of stock in the Credit Mobilier of America, or by presents of a valuable character derived therefrom ; therefore, Resolved, That a special committee of five members be appointed by the Speaker pro tempore, whose duty it shall be to investigate whether any member of this House was bribed by Oakes Ames, or any other person or corporation, in any matter touching his legislative duty. Resolved, further. That the committee have the right to employ a stenographer, and that they be empowered to send for persons and papers. And the Speaker pro tern., Mr. Cox, ap- pointed Messrs. Poland of Vermont, Banks of Massachusetts, McCrary of Iowa, Niblack of Indiana, and Merrick of Maryland, said committee. December 22, 1872, the inquiry began. February 18th following, Judge Poland, the Chairman, made the report to the House. The Committee reported that there had been transactions concerning stock between Oakes Ames and several members of the House, one of whom was Mr. Garfield. They set down the findings in each case under the member's name, and then went on to exonerate them one and all of bribery or corruption. On this point they speak expli- citly in these passages : la his negotiations with these members of Congress, Mr. Ames made no suggestion that he desired to secure their favorable influence in Con- gress in favor of the Railroad Company, and when- ever the question was raised as to whether the ownership of this stock would in any way inter- fere with or embarrass them in their action as members of Congress, he assured them that it would not. The Committee, therefore, do not find as to the members of the present House above named, that they were aware of the object of Mr. Ames, or that they had any other purpose in taking this stock than to make a profitable investment. . . . The Committee have not been able to find that any of these members of Congress have been affected in their official action in consequence of their interest in Credit Mobilier stDck. (" Poland Report," p. viii.) 'So exoneration of the original charge could be more emphatic than this. It in- cluded Mr. Garfield as well as the other mem- bers of the House said to be implicated. Let this point be distinctly noticed: Mr. Gar- field was fully exonerated of having known what Ames's intentions were ; of having had any other purpose in buying the stock than to make a good investment ; of having been influenced as alegislator thereby ; or of hav- ing " supposed he was guilty of any impro- priety, or even indelicacy, in becoming a purchaser of the stock." As to Ames, the Committee found that " he sold to several members of Congress stock of the Credit Mobilier Company at par, when it was worth double that amount or more, with the pur- pose and intent thereby to influence their votes and decisions upon matters to come before Congress." They then recommended his being expelled from the House. But the Committee distinctly held that the others were not sharers of Ames's guilt, because they were ignorant of his purposes, did not know the value of the stock, and bought it as an ordinary investment. As to the na- ture of the transaction between Ames and Garfield, the Committee found that : He agreed with Mr. Ames to take ten shares of Credit Mobilier stock, but did not pay for the same. Mr. Ames received the eighty per cent, divi- dend in bonds and sold them for ninety-seven per cent., and also received the sixty per cent, cash dividend, which together paid the price of the stock and interest, and left a balance of three hundred and twenty-nine dollars. This sum was paid over to Mr. Garfield by a check on the Sergeant-at-Arms, and Mr. Garfield then understood this sum was the balance of dividends after paying for the stock. Mr. Ames received all the subsequent dividends, and the Committee do not find that, since the pay- ment of the three hundred and twenty-nine dol- lars, there has been any communication between Mr. Ames and Mr. Garfield on the subject until this investigation began. (Page vii.) 174 THE EEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. This is the finding of the Committee, pro- fessedly hased on the testimony hefore them. As a finding it is worth no more than the testimony on which it rests. Much of that testimony was not printed when the report was suhmitted to the House, but it has now been seven years before the public, and the public can judge of it as well as the Commit- tee. It is proposed here to analyze it, hut first to offer some general remarks. (By the way, the " Poland Eeport " was never adopt- ed by the House of Eepresentatives.) 1. "What is called the public mind of the United States was in a peculiar state in the winter of 1872-73. Party feeling ran high. The Eepuhlican party, then twelve years in the possession of the Government, over- whelming in strength, contained many ele- ments of contention and bitterness within itself. Then that was the period of " In- dependent " journalism. Newspaper criti- cisms of public measures and private charac- ter were especially slashing and trenchant. The amazing developments that were made concerning the building of the Union Pacific Railroad seemed to point to a corruption that had not been dreamt of, and they scan- dalized the nation. Men feared that these developments were but harbingers of others to come. In fact, public opinion was disor- ganized ; the bottom fell out of the public mind. The wildest rumors produced the deepest impression. The truth is, the pub- lic was in no condition to make up its mind calmly upon the results of any public inves- tigation, even if said investigation had been properly conducted, as this one, it must be said, was not. The investigation had not proceeded far until the doors of the Commit- tee room were thrown open ; and in poured a multitude of excited spectators and news- paper men, the most of whom were more intent upon spreading sensational reports than doing justice. The Committee them- selves were affected by the prevailing influ- ences. The inquiry was in no sense judi- cial. 2. As respects our inquiry, the report contains the testimony of but two men, Ames and Garfield. In many points they agree, in some they disagree. But it should be remembered that Ames was the principal agent in bringing about the triple contract of October, 1867. He had been the prime mover in making the arrangement whereby the Union Pacific Railroad was defrauded, Credit Mobilier stockholders wronged, and the Government lien on the Union Pacific Railroad greatly reduced in value. Be- sides, he had tried to infiuence the oflScial action of Representatives and Senators by selling to some, and offering to sell to others, stock for one half its value. In his own words, he had put it "where it would do most good." "What is more, his right to the very stock that he said he had sold was questioned. Ames said that he had sold the stock to the persons named. MoComb said it properly belonged to him, and brought a suit to recover it. But Durant told an- other story, saying that this stock properly belonged neither to Ames nor McComb, but to the Company itself; and he said on the stand that he had a summons for Ames in his pocket, and shonld serve it when he caught Ames in New York. These points are clear : At the time of the investigation Ames had the stock in his possession; he said it properly belonged to Garfield and the others ; he was defending a suit against McComb to retain it ; and by his own testi- mony he had himself received the major part of the dividends on it. Such is the record of Ames in Union Pacific Railroad mat- ters. So far as this is a confiict of testimony (not speaking of the conflicts in Ames's own testimony), it is between Ames and Garfield ; the latter a man of singular probity up to this transaction, who had all his life inspired all fair men with an unreserved conviction of his sincerity and truth, and who since has continued to make the same impression. Every one must see that Ames went into the investigation hampered and embarrassed by his own transactions ; th.it, in a sense, he was in a false position ; while Garfield went into it wholly uncompromised. True, it will be said he was compromised by his own guilt in the transaction, if guilty; but tijat is the very fact in controversy, and can not be brought forward to impeach him in the beginning. To do that would be pro- ceeding in a circle ; it would be ruling out a man's testimony before it was given by assuming that it was false. Once more : Ames's testimony, as we shall soon see, was CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 175 singnlai-Iy confused, waTering, and conflict- ing; whiJe Garfield's was straightforward, frank, and consistent. It is nnfortunate that those who believe Mr. Garfield bought this stock, or affect to believe it, do not rest their belief upon the testimony as novir before the world, but upon the impressions made in the excited winter of 1872-'73. Nor must it be forgotten that Ames's testimony was then given out in driblets through a period of several weeks. By the time a second batch appeared the public had forgotten what the terms of the first batch were. In fact, the public never saw the testimony in a body, and never had an opportunity to com- pare Ames's different stories. It was indeed published in the "Poland Report," and the material portions of it in Garfield's pam- phlet ; but not one man in a thousand ever saw either of these documents. If men could be freed from their old impressions, and be brought to examine the testimony afresh, there would be no diflSculty — if there be any — save in the cases of those who wish to make difficulty. If a jury of Englishmen or Germans who never had heard of the case could have all the testimony spread before them, if they could be made to know what Ames was and Garfield is, they could not fail to find with Garfield when he and Ames are in conflict, just as the great majority of fair-minded Americans have done. We shall now hear what Mr. Ames said, and afterward what Mr. Garfield. All the quotations are from the " Poland Report." December 17, 1872, Ames testified concern- ing his alleged dealings with members of Congress. In his direct testimony he said concerning Garfield : I agreed to get ten shares of stock for him, and hold it until he could pay for it. He never did pay for it or receive it. (Page 21.) This is his cross-examination in full (p. 28): Q. In reference to Mr. Garfield you say that you agreed to get ten shares for him, and to hold them till he could pay for them, and that he never did pay for them nor receive them ? A. Yes, sir. Q. He never paid any money on that stock nor received any money from it ? A. Not on ac- count of it. Q. He received no dividends ? A. No, sir ; I 12 think not. Ho says he did not. My own recol- lection ia not very clear. Q. So that, as you understand, Mr. Garfield never parted with any money, nor received any money, on that transaction ? A. No, sir. He had some money from me once, some three or four hundred dollars, and called it a loan. He says that that ia all he ever received from me, and that he considered it a loan. He never took his stock, and never paid for it. Q. Did you understand it so ? A. Yes ; I am willing to so understand it. I do not recollect paying him any dividend, and have forgotten that I paid him any money. (Page 28.) The next day he testified that : Messrs. Kelley and Garfield never paid for their stock and never received their dividends. (Page 40.) Nothing further appears until January 22, 1873, when Ames testified as follows: Q. In regard to Mr. Garfield, state to the Com- mittee the details of the transactions between you and him in reference to Credit Mobilier stock. A. I got for Mr. Garfield ten shares of the Credit Mobilier stock, for which he paid par and interest. Q. When did you agree with him for that ? A. That agreement was in December, 1867, or Janu- ary, 1868 ; about that time ; about the time I had these conversations with all of them ; it was all about the same time. Q. State what grew out of it ? Q. Mr. Gar- field did not pay me any money. I sold the bonds belonging to his $1,000 of stock at 97, making $776. In June I received a dividend in cash on his stock of $600, which left a balance due him of $S29, which I paid him. This is all the transaction be- tween ua. I did not deliver him any stock before or since. That is the only transaction, and the only thing. (Page 295.) Being asked how the $329 was paid, Ames said : Paid in money, I believe. These further questions and answers should also be inserted : Q. Did you make a statement of this to Mr. Garfield ? A. I presume so ; I think I did with all of them ; that is my impression. Q. When you paid him this §329, did you un- derstand it was the balance of his dividend, after paying for his stock. A. I supposed so ; I do not know what else he could suppose. Q. You did not deliver the certificate of stock to him ? A. No, sir ; he said nothing about that. 176 THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOK THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Q. Why did he not receive his certificate ? ^. I do not know. Q. Do you remember any conversation be- tween you and him in the adjustment of these ac- counts ? ^. I do not. (Pp. 296, 296). At the same sitting of the Committee, on further cross-examination by Mr. Merrick : Q. There were dividends of Union Pacific Rail- road stock on these ten shares ? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did General Garfield ever receive these ? A. No, sir ; never has received but $329. Q. And that he has received as his own money 1 A. 1 suppose so ; it did not belong to me. I should not have given it to him if it had not belonged to him. Q. You did not understand it to belong to you as a loan ; you never called for It, and have never received it back ? A. No, sir. Q. Has there been any conversation between you and him in reference to the Pacific stock he was entitled to ? A. No, sir. Q. Has he ever called for it ? A, No, sir. Q. Have you ever offered it to him ? A. No, sir. Q. Has there been any conversation in rela- tion to it ? A. No, sir. Q. Has there ever been anything said between you and him about rescinding the purchase of the ten shares of Credit Mobilier stock ? Has there anything been said to you about its being thrown up, or abandoned, or surrendered ? A. No, sir ; not until recently. Q. How recently? A. Since this matter came up. Q. Since this investigation commenced ? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you consider at the commencement of this investigation that you held these other divi- dends, which you say you did not pay to him, in his behalf ? Did you regard yourself as custo- dian of these dividends for him ? A. Yes, sir; he paid for his stock, and is entitled to his dividends. Q. Will the dividends come to him at any time on liis demand ? A. Yes, sir ; as soon as this suit is settled [McComb vs. Ames]. Q. You say that $329 was paid to him ; how was it paid? A. I presume by a check on the Sergeant-at-Arms. I find there are some checks filed without any initials or letters indi- cating whom they were for. (Pp. 296, 297.) Ames produced at this sitting what pur- ported to be an original memorandum of his account with Garfield (p. 297), but January 29tli he produced another and very different one (p. 459). Under date of January 29th the following questions and answers appear : Q. Here is another check of the Sergeant-at- Arms, of the same date, June 22, 1868 : " Pay 0. A., or bearer, $329, and charge to my account. Oakes Ames." That seems to have been paid by somebody and taken up by the Sergeant-at-Arms. These initials are your own ? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you know who had the benefit of that check ? ^. I can not tell you. Q. Do you think you received the money on it yourself ? A. I have no idea. I may have drawn the money and handed it to another person. It was paid on that transaction. It may have been paid to Mr. Garfield. There were several sums of that amount. Q. Have you any memory in reference to this check ? A. No, sir ; I have no memory as to that particular check. I found these checks in the- package which the Sergeant-at-Arms gave me, and I find them on the Sergeant-at-Arms' books. Q. In regard to Mr. Garfield, do you know whether you gave him a check or paid him the money ? ^. I think I did not pay him the money. He got it from the Sergeant-at-Arms upon a check. Q. You think the check on which you wrote nothing to indicate the payee must have been for Mr. Garfield ? A. Yes, sir ; that is my judgment. Q. And in relation to Mr. Garfield ? A. The same in relation to him if it is not borrowed money. I consider that I sold him the stock, and that he holds it. Q. What the Committee want to learn is, whether, in conversations with any of these gen- tlemen, they have stated or admitted the matter to be different from what they have testified to before the Committee ^ A. I hardly know how to answer that question. Q. Take any one that occurs to you ; Mr. Merrick suggests Mr. Garfield? A. Mr. Garfield has been to see me about the matter, and we have talked it over. A part of the time he thinks it was a loan ; sometimes he thinks he has repaid me ; and then again he is in doubt about it. Q. You may state whether, in conversation with you, Mr. Garfield claims, as he claimed be- fore us, that the only transaction between you was borrowing $300? A. No, sir; he did not claim that with me. Q. State how he does claim it with you ; what was said ? State all that occurred in conversation between you. A. I can not remember half of it. I have had two or three interviews with Mr. Gar- CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 177 field. He wants to put it on the basis of a loan. He states that when he came back from Europe, being in want of funds, he called on me to loan him a sum of money. He thought he had repaid it. I do not know; lean not remember. (Pp. 353-368.) Under date of February 6tli appears the following : Q. Mr. Garfield has told ua how he understood it. What the Committee desire to know of you ia your understanding of the matter. A. I sup- posed it was like all the rest ; but when Mr. Gar- field says he mistook it for a loan, that he always understood it to be a loan, that I did not make any explanation to him, and did not make any statement to him, I may be mistaken. I am a man of few words, and I may not have made my- self understood to him. (Page 461.) And under the same date appears the following: Q. In testifying in Mr. Garfield's case, you say you may have drawn the money on the check and paid him ; is not that answer equally appli- cable to the case of Mr. Colfax ? A. No, sir. Q. Why not? A. I put Mr. Colfax's initials in the check, while I put no initials in Mr. Gar- field's check, and I may have drawn the money myself. Q. Do you say that if you put any initials before the words " or bearer " into a cheek, that is evidence that you gave him the check, and that he drew the money on it ? ^ . I am satisfied that I gave him the check any way, because it be- longed to him. Q. Did not Mr. Garfield's check belong to him? A. Mr. Garfield had not paid for his stock. He was entitled to $329 balance ; but Mr. Colfax had paid for his stock, and I had no business with his $1,200. The reader is now in position to form his own judgment of Mr. Ames's testimony. Testimony more confused, wavering, and conflicting it would be hard to find. It will be well to call attention to some of the points of confliction : I think not. I do not recollect paying him any dividends. riRST OATH. Q. In reference to Mr. Garfield, you say that he never paid any money on that stock, nor received any money from it? A. Not on account of it. Q. He received no dividends ? A. No, sir ; SECOND OATH. Q. In regard to Mr. Garfield, state the de- tails of the transactions between you and him ? A. I got for Mr. Gar- field ten shares of the Credit Mobilier, for which he paid par and interest. Q. How was that paid ? A. Paid in mon- ey, I believe. AMES pro. Q. Did you consider at the beginning of this investigation that you held these other divi- dends, which you say you did not pay him, in his behalf ? Did you regard yourself as cus- todian of these divi- dends for him ? A. Yes, sir; he paid for his stock and is entitled to his dividends. DIART ACCOUNT. 10 shares Cre- dit M $1,000.00 1 mos. 10 days 43.36 Total.... $1,043.36 8 per c t. bd. div. at 97 776.00 Q. The $329 which you paid him was the surplus of earnings on the stock ? A. Yes, sir, Q. When you paid him this $329, did you imderstand it was the balance of his dividend ? A. I supposed so. CHECK. Q. You say that $329 was paid. How was it paid? A. I presume by check. AMES con. Q. Has there ever been any conversation between you and him in reference to the Pa- cific stock he was en- titled to ? A. No, sir. Q. Have you ever of- fered it to him ? A. No, sir. Q. Has there ever been any conversation in relation to it? A. No, sir. Q. You did not deliv- er the certificate of stock to him ? A. No, sir. SWOEN STATEMENT. Dr. 1868. To ten shares s t ock Credit Mobi- lier of A $1,000 Interest 47 June 19. To cash 329 $267.38 Int. to J'e 20 3.64 Total... $271.00 1,000 C. M. 1,000 u. p. Total $1,376 Or. 1868. By divi- dend bonds of Union Pacific Railroad, $1,- 000 at 80 per cent, less 3 per cent 776 June 17. By dividend col- lected for your account 600 Total $1,376 178 THE EEPUBLICAK TEST-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Ames asserted that the account in the right-hand column was made up from that in the left-hand column, but it will be seen that the item of three hundred and twenty- nine dollars cash in the latter — the very ele- ment in dispute — does not appear in the former table at aU. It is not necessary to follow Ames fur- ther, only it will be well to give his own testimony concerning his memory, and the documentary materials upon which he pro- fessed to rely : Q. Tou had an envelope the other day, in which you stated Mr. Allison returned his stock, and the post-mark on which shows it was mailed in Dubuque, in March ; the year was not given. A. No sir. Q. You were in error, then, in your first state- ment, in saying that he returned Tiis stock last fall ? A. Yea, sir, according to the post-mark. As I told you, I can not remember dates. It may have been three years ago, and still I might have thought it was last fall. Q. This statement of Mr. Garfield's account in the memorandum-book is not crossed off, which indicates, does it, that the matter has never been settled or adjusted ? A, No, sir ; it never has. Q. Can you state whether you have any other entry in relation to Mr. Garfield ? A. No, sir. Q. Is your habit, as a matter of business, in conducting various transactions with different persons, to do it without taking any memo- randum? A. This was my habit. Until within a year or two I have had no bookkeeper, and I used to keep all my own matters in my own way, and very carelessly, I admit. Q. What was the character of the book in which the memoranda were kept ? A. It was in a small pocket memorandum, and some of it on slips of paper. Q, Was this entry upon this page of these various names intended to show the amount you were to pay, or that you had paid ; was that made at this date ? A. I io not know ; it was made about that time. I would not have written it on Sunday, it is not very hkely. It was made on a blank page. It is simply a list of names. Q. Were these names put down after you had made the payments or before, do you think ? A. Before, I think. Q. You think you made this list before the parties referred to had actually received their checks or received the money ? A. Yes, sir ; that was to show whom I had to pay, and who were entitled to receive the sixty per cent, divi- dend. It shows whom I had to pay here in Washington. Q. It says "paid"? A. Yes, sir; well, I did pay it. Q. What I want to know is whether the list was made out before or after payment? A. About the same time, I suppose ; probably before. The following from the "Poland Re- port " is General Garfield's account of his relations to Credit Mobilier (pp. 128-131) : Washington, B. 0., January 14, 18T3. J. A. Garfield, a member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Ohio, having been duly sworn, made the following state- ment: The first I ever heard of the Credit Mobilier was some time in 1866 or 1867 — lean not fix the date — ^when George Francis Train called on me and said he was organizing a company to be known as the Credit MobiUer of America, to be formed on the model of the Credit Mobilier of France ; that the object of the company was to purchase land and build houses along the line of the Pa- cific Bailroad at points where cities and villages were likely to spring up ; that he had no doubt that money thus invested would double or treble itself each year ; that subscriptions were limited to one thousand dollars each, and he wished me to subscribe. He showed me a long list of sub- scribers, among them Mr. Oakes Ames, to whom he referred me for further information concern- ing the enterprise. I answered that I had not the money to spare, and if I had I would not sub- scribe without knowing more about the proposed organization. Mr. Train left me, saying he would hold a place open for me, and hoped I would yet conclude to subscribe. The same day I asked Mr. Ames what he thought of the enterprise. He ex- pressed the opinion that the investment would he safe and profitable. I heard nothing further on the subject for a year or more, and it was almost forgotten, when some time, I should say during the long session of 1868, Mr. Ames spoke of it agam ; said the company had organized, was doing well, and he thought would soon pay large dividends. He said that some of the stock had been left or was to be left in his hands to sell, and I could take the amount which Mr. Train had offered me by pay- ing the one thousand dollars and the accrued in- terest. He said if I was not able to pay for it then he would hold it for me till I could pay, or until some of the dividends were payable. I told him I would consider the matter, but would not agree to take any stock until I knew, from an ex- CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 179 amination of the charter and the conditiona of the subscription, the extent to which I should be- come pecuniarily liable. He said he was not sure, but thought a stockholder would be liable only for the par value of his stock ; that he had not the stock and papers with him, but would have them after a while. From the case as presented, I should probably have taken the stock if I had been satisfied in regard to the extent of pecuniary liability. Thus the matter rested for some time, I think until the following year. During the interval I understood that there were dividends due amounting to near- ly three times the par value of the stock. But in the mean time I had heard that the company was involved in some controversy with the Pacific Railroad, and that Mr. Ames's right to sell the stock was denied. When I next saw Mr. Ames I told him I had concluded not to take the stock. There the matter ended, so,f ar as I was concerijed, and I had no further knowledge of the company's operations until the subject began to be discussed in the newspapers last fall. Nothing was ever said to me by Mr. Train or Mr. Ames to indicate or imply that the Credit Mobilier was or could be in any way connected with the legislation of Congress for the Pacific Railroad or for any other purpose. Mr. Ames never gave, nor offered to give me any stock or other valuable thing as a gift. I once asked and obtained from him, and afterward repaid to him, a loan of three hundred dollars ; that amount is the only valuable thing I ever received from or delivered to him. I never owned, received, or agreed to receive any stock of the Credit Mobilier or of the Union Pacific Railroad, nor any dividends or profits aris- ing from either of them. By the Chairman : Q. Had this loan you speak of any connection in any way with your conversation in regard to the Credit Mobilier stock ? .4. No connection in any way except in regard to the time of payment. Mr. Ames stated to me that if I concluded to sub- scribe for the Credit Mobilier stock, I could allow the loan to remain until the payment on that was adjusted. I never regarded it as connected in any other way with the stock enterprise. Q. Do you remember the time of that transac- tion ? A. 1 do not remember it precisely. I should think it was in the session of 1868. I had been to Europe the fall before and was in debt, •and borrowed several sums of money at different -times and from different persons. This loan from Mr. Ames was not at his instance. I made the request myself. I think I had asked one or two persons before him for the loan. Q. Have you any knowledge in reference to any dealings of Mr. Ames with any gentlemen in Congress in reference to the stock of the Credit Mobilier ? A. No, sir ; I have not. I had no knowledge that Mr. Ames had ever talked with anybody but myself. It was a subject I gave but little attention to ; in fact, many of the details had almost passed out of my mind until they were called up in the late campaign. By Mr. Black : Q. Did you say you refused to take the stock simply because there was a lawsuit about it ? A. No ; not exactly that ; I do not remember any other reason which I gave to Mr. Ames than that I did not wish to take stock in anything that would involve controversy. I think I gave him no other reason than that. Q. When you ascertained the relation that this company had with the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and whence its profits were to be de- rived, would you have considered that a sufficient reason for declining it irrespective of other con- siderations ? A. It would have been as the case was afterward stated. Q. At the time you talked with Mr. Ames, be- fore you rejected the proposition, you did not know whence the profits of the company were to be derived ? A. 1 did not. I do not know that Mr. Ames withheld, intentionally, from me any information. I had derived my original knowl- edge of the organization of the company from Mr. Train. He made quite an elaborate state- ment of its purposes, and I proceeded in subse- quent conversations upon the supposition that the organization was unchanged. I ought to say for myself, as well as for Mr. Ames, that he never said any word to me that indicated the least de- sire to influence my legislative action in any way. If he had any such purpose, he certainly never said anything to me which would indicate it. Q. You know now, and have known for a long time, that Mr. Ames was deeply interested in the legislation on this subject ? .4. I supposed that he was largely interested in the Union Pacific Railroad. I have heard various statements to that effect. I can not say I had any such infor- mation of my own knowledge. Q. Tou mean that he did not electioneer with you or solicit your vote ? A. Certainly not. None of the conversations I ever had with him had any reference to such legislation. By Mr. Merrick : Q. Have you any knowledge of any other mem- 180 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ber of Congress being concerned in the Credit Mobilier stock ? A. No, sir ; I have not. Q. Or any stock in the Union Pacific Rail- road ^ A. 1 have not. I can say to the Com- mittee that I never saw, I believe, in my life a certificate of stock of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and I never saw any certificate of stock of the Credit Mobilier until Mr. Brooks exhibited one, a few days ago, in the House of Representa- tives. Q. Were any dividends ever tendered to you on the stock of the Credit Mobilier upon the supposition that you were to be a subscriber ? A. No, sir. Q. This loan of $300 you have repaid, if I understood you correctly ? A. Yes, sir. By Mr. MoCrary : Q. You never examined the charter of the Credit Mobilier to see what were its objects ? A. No, sir ; I never saw it. Q. If I understood you, you did not know that the Credit Mobilier had any connection with the Union Pacific Railroad Company ? A.l un- derstood, from the statement of Mr. Train, that its objects were connected with the lands of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and' the devel- opment and settlements along that road; but that it had any relation to the Union Pacific Rail- road, other than that, I did not know. I think I did hear also that the company was investing some of its earnings in the bonds of the road. Q. He stated it was for the purpose of pur- chasing land and building houses ? A. That was the statement of Mr. Train. I think he said in that connection that he had already been doing something of that kind at Omaha, or was going to do it. Q. You did not know that the object was to build the Union Pacific Railroad ? A. No, sir ; I did not. Mr. Garfield was never called before the Committee but ouce. At the time that the investigation was going on he was carry- ing the annual appropriations through the House, and could give it no great attention. The last day of the session he said : I rise to a personal explanation. During the late investigation by the Committee of which the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Poland] was the chairman, I pursued what seemed to be the plain path of duty to keep silence except when I was called upon to testify before the Committee. When testimony was given which appeared to be in conflict with mine, I waited, expecting to be called again if anything was needed from me in reference to these discrepancies. I was not re- called ; and when the Committee submitted their report to the House, a considerable portion of the testimony relating to me had not been printed. In the discussion which followed here, I was prepared to submit some additional facts and considerations, in case my own conduct came up for consideration in the House ; but the whole subject was concluded without any direct refer- ence to myself, and since then the whole time of the House has been occupied with the public busi- ness. I now desire to make a single remark on this subject in the hearing of the House. Though the Committee acquitted me of all charges of cor- ruption in action or intent, yet there is in the report a summing up of the facts in relation to me which I respectfully protest is not warranted by the testimony. I say this with the utmost re- spect for the Committee, and without intending any reflection upon them. I can not now enter upon the discussion ; but I propose, before long, to make a statement to the public, setting forth more fully the grounds of my dissent from the summing up to which I have referred. I will only say now that the tes- timony which I gave before the Committee is a statement of the facts In the case as I have un- derstood them from the beginning. More than three years ago, on at least two occasions, I stated the case to two personal friends substan- tially as I stated it before the Committee, and I here add that nothing in my conduct or conversa- tion has at any time been in conflict with my testimony. For the present I desire only to place on record this declaration and notice. He fulfilled this promise in his " Review of the Transactions of the Credit Mobilier Company," a pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, issued from Washington in 1873. Many thousand copies of this document were cir- culated. All fair-minded men who have read it admit that it is a complete defense in every particular. 'So man has ever re- plied to it. In this "Review " he enlarged upon some points in the testimony thus : This is the case as I understand it, and as I have always understood it. In reviewing it, after all that has been said and written during the past winter, there are no substantial changes which I could now make, except to render a few points more definite. Few men can be certain that they give with absolute correctness the de- tails of conversations and transactions after a CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 181 lapse of five years. Subject to this limitation, I have no doubt of the accuracy of my remembrance concerning this transaction. From this testimony it will be seen that when Mr. Ames offered to sell me the stock in 1867- '68, my only knowledge of the character and objects of the Credit Mobilier Company was ob- tained from Mr. Train, at least as early as the winter of 1866-'6'7, long before the company had become a party to the construction contract. It has been said that I am mistaken in thinking it was the Credit Mobilier that Mr. Train offered me in 1866-'67. I think I am not. Mr. Du- rant, in explaining his connection with the Credit Mobilier Company, says (pp. 169, 170): " I sent Mr. Train to Philadelphia. We wanted it (the Credit Mobilier) for a stock operation, but we could not agree what was to be done with it. Mr. Train proposed to go on an expanded scale, but I abandoned it. I think Mr. Train got some subscriptions ; what they were I do not know." It has been said that it is absurd to suppose that intelligent men, familiar with public affairs, did not understand all about the relations of the Credit Mobilier Company to the Pacific Railroad Company, It is a sufficient answer to say that, until the present winter, few men, either in or out of Congress, ever understood it ; and it was for the interest of those in the management of that ar- rangement to prevent these facts from being known. This will appear from the testimony of Hon. J. F. Wilson, who purchased ten shares of the stock in 1868. In the spring of 1869 he was called upon professionally to give an opinion as to the right of holders of Pacific Railroad stock to vote their own shares, notwithstanding the proxy they had given to the seven trustees. To enable him to understand the case a copy of the triple contract was placed in his hands. He says (p. 213): " Down to the time these papers were placed in my hands I knew almost nothing of the organi- zation and details of the Credit Mobilier, or the value of its stock, but then saw that there was abundant ground for future trouble and litigation, and, as one of the results, sold out my interest." And again (p. 216): " Q. Do you or did you know, at the time you had this negotiation with Mr. Ames, the value of the Credit Mobilier stock ? A.I did not. I wish to state here in regard to that, that it was a very diflScult thing to ascertain what was the value of the stock. Those who, as I say in my statement, possessed the secrets of the Credit Mobilier kept them to themselves, and I never was able to get any definite information as to what the value of the stock was." When, in the winter of 1867-'68, Mr. Ames proposed to sell me some of the stock, I regarded it as a mere repetition of the offer made by Mr. Train more than a year before. The company was the same, and the amount offered me was the same. Mr. Ames knew it had formerly been offered me, for I had then asked him his opinion of such an investment; and having understood the objects of the company, as stated by Mr. Train, I did not inquire further on that point. There could not be the slighest impropriety in taking the stock, had the objects of the com- pany been such as Mr. Train represented them to me. The only question upon which I then hesi- tated was that of the personal pecuniary liabil- ity attaching to a subscription ; and, to settle that question, I asked to see the charter, and the con- ditions on which the stock were based. I have no doubt Mr. Ames expected I would subscribe. But more than a year passed without further dis- cussion of the subject. The papers were not brought, and the purchase was never made. In the winter of 1869-70 I received the first intimation I ever had of the real nature of the connection between the Credit Mobilier Company and the Pacific Railroad Company, in a private conversation with the Hon. J. S. Black of Penn- sylvania. Finding m the course of that conver- sation that ho was familiar with the history of the enterprise, I told him all I knew about the matter, and informed him of the offer that had been made me. He expressed the opinion that the managers of the Credit Mobilier were attempts ing to defraud the Pacific Railroad Company, and informed me that Mr. Ames was pretending to have sold stock to members of Congress, for the purpose of influencing their action in any legis- lation that might arise on the subject. Though I had neither done nor said anything which placed me under any obligation to take the stock, I at once informed Mr. Ames that if he was still holding the offer open to me he need do so no longer, for I would not take the stock. This I did immediately after the conversation with Judge Black, which, according to his own recollection, as well as mine, was early in the winter of 1869-'70. One circumstance has given rise to a painful conflict of testimony between Mr. Ames and my- self. I refer to the loan of three hundred dol- lars. Among the various criticisms that have been made on this subject, it is said to be a sus- picious circumstance that I should have bor- rowed so small a sum of money from Mr. Ames 182 THE REPUBLICAN TEST-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. about this time. As stated in my testimony, I had just returned from Europe only a few days before the session began, and the expenses of the trip had brought me short of funds. I might have alluded in the same connection to the fact that before going abroad I had obtained money from a banker in New York, turning over to him advanced drafts for several months of my Congressional salary when it should be due. And needing a small sum early in the session, for current expenses, I asked it of Mr. Ames, for the reason that he had volunteered to put me in the way of making what he thought would be a profitable investment. He gave me the money, asking for no receipt, but saying at the time that if I concluded to take the stock, he would settle both matters together. I am not able to fix the exact date of the loan, but it was probably in January, 1868. This history is straightforward and con- sistent from first to last. What is more, it is supported by other testimony. Here it should he said, there is much valuable evidence now before the public that never came before the Poland Committee. Dr. J. P. Eobison, a well-known citizen and business man of Cleveland, is an intimate friend of General Garfield's, and has been a confidential ad- viser of the General on bnsine.ss matters for more than twenty years. The follow- ing letter speaks for itself: Cleveland, Ohio, May 1, 1873, Dear General: I send you the facts con- cerning a conversation which I had with you (I think in the spring of 1868) when I was stop- ping In Washington for some days, as your guest, during the trial of the impeachment of President Johnson. While there, you told me that Mr. Ames had offered you a chance to invest a small amount in a company that was to operate in lauds and buildings along the Pacific Railroad, which he (Ames) said would be a good thing. You asked me what I thought about it as a busi- Tiess proposition ; that you had not determined what you would do about it ; and suggested to me to talk with Ames, and form my own judgment, and if I thought well enough of it to advance the money and buy the stock on joint account with you, and let you pay me interest on the one half, I could do so. But I did not think well of the proposi- tion as a business enterprise, and did not talk with Ames on the subject. After this talk, having at first told you I would give the subject thought, and perhaps talk with Ames, I told you one evening that I did not think well of the proposition, and had not spoken to Ames on the subject. Yours truly, J. P. ROBISON. Hon. J. A. Gakfield. The author may with propriety introduce the following letter of his own : Hieam, Ohio, February 18, 18T8. Dear Sir: It may be relevant to the ques- tion at issue between youself and Mr. Cakes Ames, in the Credit Mobilier investigation, for me "to state that three or four years ago, in a private conversation, you made a statement to me involv- ing the substance of your testimony before the Poland Committee, as published in the newspa- pers. The material points of your statement were these : That you had been spoken to by George Fran- cis Train, who offered you some shares of the Credit Mobilier stock ; that you told him that you had no money to invest in stocks ; that subse- quently you had a conversation in relation to the matter with Mr. Ames ; that Ames offered to carry the stock for you until you could pay for it, if you cared to buy it ; and that you had told him in that case perhaps you would take it, but would not agree to do so until you had inquired mxtre fully into the matter. Such an arrangement as this was made, Ames agreeing to carry the stock until you could decide. In this way the matter stood, as I understood it, at the time of our conversation. My ujiderstandiv^ was distinct that you had not accepted Mr. Ameses preposition^ but that the shares were still held at your op- tion. You stated, further, that the company was to operate in real property along the line of the Paci- fic road. Perhaps I should add that this conversa- tion, which I have always remembered very dis- tinctly, took place here in Hiram. I have re- membered the conversation the more distinctly from the circumstances that gave rise to it. Having been intimately acquainted with you for twelve or fifteen years, and having had a consid- erable knowledge of your pecuniary affairs, I asked you how you were getting on, and especial- ly whether you were managing to reduce your debts. In reply you gave me u detailed state- ment of your affairs, and concluded by saying you had had some stock offered you- which, if you bought it, would probably make you some money. You then proceeded to state the case as I have stated it above. I can not fix the time of this conversation CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 183 more definitely than to say it was certainly three, and probably four years ago. Very truly yours, B. A. Hinsdale, President of Hiram College. Hon. J. A. Gabfibld, WasMngiorit D, C, Once more: In 18T2 no man liad pene- trated more deeply into the Credit Mobilier transactions than the Hon. J. S. Black. He was McOomb's counsel, and drew the bill in equity with which the proceedings against Ames began. He investigated the subject as a lawyer, and not as a politican. Judge Black's great ability and learning, as well as his sterling moral character, are household words; and it is well known that he is a life-long Democrat, strongly and even bitter- ly opposed to the party with which General Garfield has always acted. Judge Black's letters touching this subject have been given on a preceding page, and need not be here repeated. And finally comes Judge Poland himself, author of the Report, with the following let- ter sent to the Vermont Republican State Convention : Bt. JoHNBBtTEY, Vbkmont, Juim 22, 1830. To the President of tlie Convention. SiE : I was chosen a delegate to the Conven- tion by the Republicans of this town, and hoped to be able to attend, but the unexpected pro- longation of the court in this county prevents. I greatly regret my inability to be present. I am not at all anxious to participate in the selection of a State ticket. The Republicans of Vermont can alwiays be safely trusted to nominate good men. I only desire to have an opportunity to express to the Convention and to Republicans everywhere my entire approval of the nomina- tions made at Chicago. Probably no man in Vermont knows General Garfield more intimately than myself. He was in Congress during the whole of my ten years' service, and for eight years we stood together in the House, and ever on terms of friendship and intimacy. Of his eminent ability, power in debate, and untiring devotion to the public service, I need not speak. His long service and leading position in Congress have made him known to all the people of the country who take any interest in public affairs. But our political opponents affect to question his personal integrity and purity of character, and to base their accusations upon the evidence taken before, and report of, a committee of Congress, of which I was chairman, known as the Credit Mo- bilier Committee. Now I desire to say to the Convention, and to all who may feel any interest in my opinion of General Garfield, that nothing which appeared before that Committee, or which appears in their report, or any other matter or thing which ever came to my knowledge in re- gard to him, ever led me to doubt his personal integrity. I believe him to be a thoroughly up- right and honest man, and one who would be so under all circumstances and against any tempta- tion. The use that is being made of my name, and of the report of the Committee which was drawn by me, in my opinion makes it proper for me to express my personal judgment as to the character of the man. I ask you to do me the favor to communicate this note to the Convention. Luke P. Poland. Judge McOrary, one of the members of the Poland Committee, bears this testimony : Keokuk, Iowa, July 17, 1880. To the Hon. Charles Beakdsly, Washington, D. C. Mr Deah Sik : Upon my return from St. Paul I find your favor of the 16th ult. awaiting me. In reply to your inquiry I say, without qualifica- tion, that I regard General Garfield as a man of thorough integrity. I served with him in Con- gress eight years, and came to know him very in- timately. My confidence in his purity of char- acter was strengthened by acquaintance and by familiarity with his daily life. In the Credit Mobilier investigation there appeared a conflict of testimony between General Garfield and Oakes Ames as to the character of their transactions, but the Committee were unanimously of the opinion that even upon Ames's own statement General Garfield had done no wrong, and Demo- crats and Republicans united in so reporting. The paragraph in the report which seems to decide the disputed question of fact in favor of Ames was based upon entries in his memorandum book which were offered to corroborate his recol- lection. It was at most no more than the com- mon case of difference in recollection between parties to a past transaction. Such conflicts are of daily occurrence in our courts, and are decided, as they must be, one way or the other without any reflection upon the veracity of the witness whose recollection is not sustained. "With re- spect, however, to this transaction, I must say that subsequent developments and further con- sideration of the matter long ago led me to the conclusion that the memorandum of Mr. Ames was very unreliable ; and I have for years felt 184 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. assured of the correctness of General Garfield's recollection of the facta in dispute. Very sincerely yours, Geoege W. McCrart. Hon. G. F. Hoar lias thus spoken on the same subject : I was one of the committee who investigated the Credit Mobilier, and wrote the greater part of the report of the committee known as the Wilson Committee. There was nothing in the transac- tion which in the least gave me reason to distrust General Garfield's absolute integrity. I express- ed my opinion of the absolute honor and integrity of General Garfield in this matter years ago. No man, Democrat or Republican, who ever served with Garfield does, I think, doubt that he is ab- solutely incorruptible. He has been for years on the Committees of Appropriation, and Ways and Means, controlling the expenditure of millions upon millions, and policies that make and un- make great business interests. So much for the confirmatory evidence of witnesses. But it must be pointed out that General Garfield's account of the mat- ter harmonizes perfectly with his financial status in the period 1868-"r3. The theory that Garfield bought the stock involves these points: that he bought it in the winter of 1868-69 ; that it was worth at the time twice its face, and twice the price paid ; that it soon rose in value to several times the par of the stock; and that any time from 1869 to 1873 Garfield was entitled to receive several thousand dollars on ac- count of it. In those years General Garfield was living in Hiram, in a small house not ■worth more than two thousand dollars. His family -was large and his family expenses increasing, but his style of living was plain and simple, presenting no contrast to that of his neighbors. He never kept a carriage nor even one horse, and rode to and from the railroad (four miles distant) in the hack, or walked, as the case might he. What is more, his public duties made it necessary that he should live in Washington half of the year. Tired of renting houses, early In 1869 he determined to build a house in the Capital. Accordingly he built the home that he now owns, northeast corner of Thir- teenth and I streets. He put into this prop- erty such moneys as he had saved from his income ; and for the rest bought the lot and built the house with funds borrowed from an old army friend, Major D. G. Swaim. Finished, the house was covered by mort- gages for many thousand dollars, that have been fuUy paid off only within a year. But all the time that he was building the house, borrowing money and paying interest — at the very time that all his confidential friends knew that his income was quite inadequate to his and his family's reasonable wants — some thousands of dollars that belonged to him were in Ames's hands, awaiting his call ! " Credat Juimiis Appella ! " In view of these premises alone, to say nothing about the tes- timony of witnesses, no conclusions could be sounder than those reached by " The Nation " (numbers 782 and 783) : We are satisfied that Mr. Ames's admitted fail- ure during all that period of four years, either to attempt to deliver the stock, or to pay any subse- quent dividends on it, and Mr. Garfield's admitted failure to ask for cither stock or dividends, though confessedly in great need of money, give Mr. Gar- field's version of the transaction the strongest kind of corroboration ; and, taken in connection with what is known of his life and character, would be sulficient, if he were not a Presidential candidate, to clear him in the eyes of all reasonable men of every imputation arising out of it. . . . We are therefore driven to the conclusion, either that Garfield did not understand that he owned the stock and was entitled to the dividends, or that he is so peculiarly constituted that he, being a poor man, preferred borrowing money to using his own funds. That Mr. Garfield would submit to be bribed, or that he would submit to negotiate upon such a subject ; that when innocently drawn into a questionable transaction ho would deny it or prevaricate about it ; that he would perjure himself for three hundred and twenty-nine dollars, or any other sum, are propositions that no man who knows him will consider for a moment. No better leave-taking of this subject can be had than his own summing up in the "Review" of 1873: To sum it up in a word : Out of an unimpor- tant business transaction, the loan of a trifling sum of money as a matter of personal accommo- dation, and out of an offer never accepted, has arisen tliis enormous fabric of accusation and sus- picion. CHAEGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 185 If there be a citizen of the United States who is willing to belieye that, for three hundred and twenty-nine dollars, I have bartered away my good name, and to falsehood have added perjury, these pages are not addressed to him. If there be one who thinks that any part of my public life has been gauged on so low a level as these charges would place it, I do not address him. I' address those who are willing to believe that it is possible for a man to serve the public without personal dishonor. I have endeavored in this review to point out the means by which the managers of a corporation, wearing the garb of honorable Indus- try, have robbed and defrauded a great national enterprise, and attempted, by cunning and decep- tion, for selfish ends, to enlist in its interests those who would have been the first to crush the attempt had their objects been known. If any of the scheming corporations or cor- rupt rings that have done so much to disgrace the country by their attempts to control its legis- lation, have ever found in me a conscious sup- porter or ally in any dishonorable scheme, they are at full liberty to disclose it. In the discus- sion of the many grave and difficult questions of public policy which have occupied the thoughts of the nation during the past twelve years, I have borne some part ; and I confidently appeal to the public records for a vindication of my conduct. THE SO-CALLED "SALARY GRAB." Thbeb was a time when General Garfield was more criticised on account of his relation to the increase of salaries in the spring of 1873 than on account of either Credit Mo- bilier or De Golyer. He was freely denounced in certain quarters as a "robber" and a " thief." All of this violent talk subsided long ago; the increase of salaries has nearly passed out of the public mind ; but as this old charge is occasionally renovated, it will be well to give a suooinot history of the matter here. Early in the session of 1872-'73 a bill was introduced into the House of Represen- tatives proposing to increase the salaries of certain officers, and, among others, the sala- ries of members of Congress. This bill was considered from time to time, Mr. Garfield always opposing it. Toward the close of the session, however, by a vote of eighty-one to sixty-six in the Committee of the Whole on division, and by a vote of one hundred to ninety-seven on the calling of the yeas and nays in the House, the measure was attached to the Legislative Appropriation Bill as an amendment. This bill fills twenty -seven pages of the national statute-hook ; the of- fensive clause enacting increased pay to Con- gressmen is contained in a few lines. The effect of the amendment, as made in the House, was to make a Congressman's salary six thousand five hundred dollars instead of five thousand. It was also retroactive, reaching back to the beginning of that Con- gress. The Legislative Appropriation Bill, upon which the so-called " grab " had been forced, has been thus analyzed by its author, Mr. Garfield: I had special charge of the Legislative Appro- priation Bill, upon the preparation of which my Committee had spent nearly two weeks of labor before the meeting of Congress. It was the most important of the twelve aimual bills. Its provisions reached every part of the machinery of the Government in all the States and Territo- ries of the Union. The amount appropriated by it was one seventh of the total annual expendi- tures of the Government, exclusive of the interest on the public debt. It contained all the appro- priations required by law for the Legislative De- partments of the Government; for the public printing and binding; for the President and the officers and employes at the Executive Mansion ; for the seven Executive Departments at Wash- ington, and all their bureaus and subdivisions ; for the sub-treasuries and public depositaries in fourteen cities of the Union ; for all the officers and agents employed in the assessment and col- lection of the internal revenue ; for the govern- ments of the nine Territories and of the District of Columbia ; for the mints and the assay offices ; for the land offices and the surveys of public lands; and for all the courts, judges, district attorneys, and marshals of the United States. Besides this, during its progress through the two Houses, many provisions had been added to the bill which were considered of vital importance to the public interests. A section had been added in the Senate to force the Pacific Railroad Com- panies to pay the arrears of interest on the bonds loaned to them by the United States, and to com- mence refunding the principal. An investigating committee of the House had unearthed enormous frauds committed by and 186 THE REPUBLICAN TEST-BOOK FOE THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. against these companies, and, as the result of two months' labor, had framed a bill of several sec- tions to provide for bringing suits in the courts to recover the vast gums of which the road and Government had been plundered, and to prevent further spoliation. That bill had also been made a part of the Appropriation Bill. While the bill was first passing through the House, repeated efforts were made to increase the salaries of different officers of the Government ; in every instance I resisted these efforts, and but little increase was made until forty-eight hours before the Congress expired, when the House loaded upon this bill an amendment increasing the salaries of the President, Vice-President, Judges of the Supreme Court, and members of Congress, including those of the Forty-second Congress From the House, the bill, as amended, went to the Senate. "When the Senate was through with it, there were sixty-three points of difference between the two Houses. The Senate favored the increase of salaries by majorities even more decided than those of the House. Moreover, while the House was content with six thousand five hundred dol- lars without mileage, the Senate was in favor of seven thousand five hundred dol- lars with mileage. As is usual in such cases, the bill, with its various amend- ments, was referred to a Conference Com- mittee. As Mr. Garfield himsef said at a later day, the battle against the salary clause was fought and lost before the Appropria- tion Bill went to the Conference Commit- tee. The Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate both recognized the fact in appointing their respective Com- mittees of Conference. Messrs. Morrill, Car- penter, and Bayard, Senators, were all in favor of the increase ; were Messrs. Butler and Randall, of the House Committee. Mr. Gar- field stood alone in the Committee in oppo- sition. He opposed the measure in Com- mittee, as he had done in the House, but was overborne five to one. By that major- ity the Congressional salary was fixed at seven thousand five hundred dollars per year. However, in deference to him, the Committee agreed to the following : " Pro- vided, That in settling the pay and allow- ances of members of the Forty-second Con- gress, all mileage shall be deducted, and no allowances shall be made for expenses of travel." The efifect of this provision was to save to the Treasury about four hundred thou- sand dollars. In its present shape, as an amendment to this great appropriation bUl, the question was a very different one from what it had been when the salary mea- sure stood by itself on its own merits. It was clear that it must now stand or fall with the bill itself. Without reference to his own action, it would be reported back favorably to the two Houses. The question was, "Shall I, Mr. Garfield, acquiesce with the majorities of the two Houses, or shall I continue my opposition ? " Plainly, the ma- jorities were such that he could defeat the measure, if at all, only by a factious opposi- tion that would defeat the bill itself. Only a day or two of the session remained ; three of the great appropriation bills were yet to be disposed of; and the defeat of the Legis- lative Bill would involve an extra session of Congress. The Government could not be carried on beyond the close of the fiscal year unless, in some shape, this bill should pass. After carefully considering all the facts, he concluded that it was his duty to concur with his fellow committeemen, to sign the report, and to carry it to the House of Rep- resentatives. If he did this, as Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, he would retain control of the bill; if not, it would fall into the hands of Mr. Butler or Mr. Ran- dall, neither of whom belonged to the Ap- propriations Committee, or had had any con- siderable share in perfecting the bill. In presenting the Conference Report to the House he said: "I was opposed to the in- crease in conference, as I have been opposed to it in the discussion and in my votes here ; but my associate conferees were in favor of the Senate amendment, and I was compelled to choose between signing the report and running the risk of bringing on an extra session of Congress. I have signed the re- port, and I present it as it is, and ask the House to act on it in accordance with their best judgment." Of course, his final vote was in accordance with his decision in the Committee; he could not consistently sign the report, and then vote against the thing reported. CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 187 General Garfield's action on the salary question subjected him to much criticism in his own district. September 19, 1874, he discussed the subject, in a speech delivered at Warren, in a manner so thorough, so temperate, and so honest, that it will be well to reproduce the material parts of his discussion here : Now, fellow citizens, I presume you will agree tliat you can wrong even the devil himself, and that it is not right or manly to lie even about Satan. I take it for granted that we are far enough past the passion of that period to talk plainly and coolly about the increase of salaries. . Now, in the first place, I say to-night what I have said all through this tempest, that for a Congress to increase its own pay and make it re- troactive is not theft, ia not robbery, and you do injustice to the truth when you call it so. There is ground enough in which to denounce it without straining the truth. Now, if Congress can not fix its own salary, who can ? The Constitution of your country says in unmistakable words, that "Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation to be ascertained by law and paid out of the National Treasury." Nobody makes the law but Congress. It was a very delicate business in the beginning for our fathers to make a law paying themselves money. They under- stood it so, and when they sent the Constitution out to the several States, the question was raised whether it would not be better to put a curb upon Congress in reference to their own pay, and from several of the States suggestions were sent in. When the First Congress met, James Madison offered seventeen amendments to the Constitution, and finally Congress voted to send twelve of the proposed amendments to the country. One of them was this : " No law varying the compensa- tion of the Senators and Representatives in Con- gress shall take effect until an election has inter- vened." In other words, the First Congress proposed that an amendment should be made to the new Constitution that no Congress could raise its own pay and make it retroactive. That was sent to the States for their ratification. The States adopted ten of those amendments. Two they rejected, and this was one of the two. They said it should not be in the Constitution. The reason given for its rejection by one of the wisest men of that time was this. He said : " If we adopt it, this may happen : one party will go into power in a new Congress, but, just before the old Congress expires, the defeated party may pass a law reducing the pay of Congress to ten cents a day. It will never do thus to put one Congress into the power of another ; it would be an engine of wrong and injustice." For this reason our fathers refused to put into the Constitution a clause that would prevent back pay. Now, it will not do to say that a provision that has been deliberately rejected from the Constitution is vir- tually there, and it will not do to say that it is just to call it theft and robbery for a Congress to do what it has plainly the constitutional right to do. I use the word right in its legal sense. Now, take another step. I hold in my hand here a record of all the changes of pay that have been made since this Government was founded, and in every case — I am not arguing now that it is right at all, I am only giving you a history of it — in every single instance when Congress has raised its pay, it has raised it to take effect from the first day of the session of Congress. Six times Con- gress has increased its own pay, and every time it made the pay retroactive. I say again I am not arguing that this was right and proper. I am only arguing that it was lawful and constitutional to do it. In 1856 the pay was raised, and was made retroactive for a year and four months, and the member of Congress from this district threw the casting vote that made it a law. That act raised the pay by a larger per cent, than the act of last Congress. Joshua R. Giddings was the one hundredth man that voted ay ; ninety-nine voted no. Joshua R. Giddinga's vote the other way would have turned the score against it. That vote gave back pay for a year and four months. That vote gave Congress nine months' back pay for a time when members would not have been entitled to anything whatever, because under the old law they were paid only during the session. What did this district do? Did it call him a thief and a robber ? A few weeks after that vote this district elected him to Congress for the tenth time. Have the ethics of the world changed since 1856 ? Would I be a thief and a robber in ISTS if I had done what my predecessor did in 1856 ? In 1866 the pay was raised. That time it was put in an appropriation bill, a very important appropriation bill — a bill giving bounties to sol- diers. It passed through the Senate, and came to the House. There was a disagreement about it. Senator Sherman, of Ohio, had charge of the bill in the Senate, and voted against the increase of pay every time it came up on its own merits. But he was outvoted. Finally, it went to a com- mittee of conference. The conference report be- tween the two Houses was made in favor of the bill. Mr. Sherman brought in the report, saying when he brought it in that he had been opposed 188 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. to the increase of pay, but the Senate had over- ruled him. He voted for the Conference Report, voted for the final passage of the bill. That bill gave back pay for a year and five months. Was John Sherman denounced as a thief and robber for that ? Was Benjamin F. Wade called a thief and a robber ? At that time I was not chairman of the Com- mittee, and had no other responsibility than that of an individual Representative. I voted against the increase of salary then at all stages. I voted against the Conference Report, but it pass- ed through the House on a final vote by just one majority. I do not remember that anybody ever praised me particularly for voting against that report, and I never heard anybody blame John Sherman for voting for it. Now, in 1873 the conditions were exactly the reverse. I was chairman of the Committee that had charge of the great Appropriation Bill. There was put upon that bill against my earnest pro- test a proposition to increase salaries. I take it there is no one here who will deny that I worked as earnestly as I could to prevent the putting of that increase upon the bill. I did not work against it because it was a theft or a robbery to put it on there ; I worked against it because I thought it was indecent, unbecoming, and in the highest degree unwise and injudi- cious to increase the salaries at that time : first, because they had been increased in 1866, and, in proportion to other salaries. Congressmen were paid enough — paid more in proportion than most other officials were paid ; second, the glory of the Congress had been that it was bringing down the expenditures of the Government from the highest level of war to the lowest level of peace ; and if we raised our own salary, unless the raise had been made before, it would be the keynote on which the whole tune of extravagance would be sung. I believed, too, that it would seriously injure the Republican party, and on that score I thought we ought to resist it. I did all in my power to prevent that provision being added to the bill. I voted against it eigh- teen times. I spoke against it. But by a very large vote in the House, and a still larger vote in the Senate, the salary clause was put upon the bill. I was captain of the ship, and this objec- tionable freight had been put upon my deck. I had tried to keep it off. What should I do ? Bum the ship ? Sink her ? Or, having washed my hands of the responsibility for that part of her cargo I had tried to keep off, navigate her into port, and let those who had put this freight on be responsible for it ? Using the figure, that was the course I thought it my duty to adopt. Now, on that matter I might have made an error of judgment. I believed then and now that if it had been in my power to kiU this bill, and had thus brought on an extra session — ^I be- lieve to-day, I say, had I been able to do that, I should have been the worst-blamed man in the United States. Wbj ? During the long months of the extra session which would have followed, with the evils which the country would have felt, and by having its business disturbed by Con- gress and the uncertainties of the result, you would have said : " All this has come about be- cause we did not have a man at the head of the Committee on Appropriations with nerve enough and force enough to carry his bill through by the end of the session. The next time we have a Congress we had better see if we can not get a man who will get his bills through." Suppose I had answered: "There was that salary in- crease.'' "That won't do. Ton had Shown your hand on the salary question ; you had pro- tested against it ; and you had done your duty." Then they would have said there were six or seven sections in the bill empowering the United States to bring the railroads before the courts and make them account for their extravagance. They would have said : " We have lost all that by the loss of this bill." And I would have been charged with acting in the interest of railroad corporations, and fighting to kill the bill for that reason. But be that as it may, fellow citizens, I considered the two alternatives as well as I could. I believed it would rouse a storm of in- dignation and ill-feeling throughout the country if that increase of salary passed. I beheved it would result in greater evils if the whole failed, and an extra session came on. For a little while I was tempted to do what would rather be pleas- ing than what would be best in the long run. I beheve that it required more courage to vote as I voted than it would to have voted the other way ; but I resolved to do what seemed to me right in the case, let the consequences be what they would. I may have made a mistake in judgment ; I blame no one for thinking so ; but I did what I thought was the least bad of two courses. My subsequent conduct was consistent with my action on the bill. I did not myself parade the fact, but more than a year ago the New York "World" published a list stating, in chronological order, the Senators and Representatives who covered their back pay into the Treasury. My name was first on the list. I appeal to the sense of justice of this people CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 189 whether they will tolerate this sort of political warfare. It has been proved again and again that I never drew back pay, never saw a dollar of it, and took no action in reference to it except to sign an order on the Sergeant-at-Arms to cover it into the general Treasury, and this was done before the Convention at Warren. I say more : Some of these men who have been so long pub- lishing me have known these facts for many months. During the stormy times of the salary excitement a citizen of this county wrote a letter to a prominent official in the Treasury of the United States, wanting to know whether Mr. Gar- field drew his pay or not, and received a very full and circumstantial reply, stating the facts. That letter is in this town, I suppose, to-day, but those who have had possession of it have been careful never to show it. I have a copy of it here, and if these men continue lying I will print it one of these days. [Cries of " Let us have that letter read now. General Garfield."] I will not give the name of the party — the name I have not — to whom it is addressed. [The audience here absolutely insisted on hav- ing the letter read, some demanding the name, and all positively refusing to allow the speaker to proceed without reading the letter, in justice to himself and for the information of the audience.] "Tebasury Depabtment, "Washington, t June 9, 13T8. ) " Dear Sir : Tour letter, written early in May, was forwarded to me at Youngstown, where it could not be answered for want of accurate data. When about to return to Washington, I searched for that letter, but could not find it. My recol- lection of its contents is, that you inquired as to the repayment into the Treasury by General Garfield of the additional compensation due him, as a member of the Forty-second Congress, under the provisions of the General Appropriation Act of March 3, 18Y3. "The additional compensation due General Garfield was drawn by Mr. Ordway, Sergeant-at- Arms of the House of Representatives, and by him paid into the Treasury as a miscellaneous revenue receipt. The money was drawn by Mr. Ordway on the order of General Garfield. The practice of the Sergeant-at-Arms is to take re- ceipts from members in blank, in anticipation of the dates at which they are to become due, and to pay their checks on him by drawing the money from the Treasury on those receipts. In this way he is in a measure the banker of the mem- berg. General Garfield had signed such receipts month after month at the beginning of the month, one of which was filled up by Mr. Ord- way and presented to the Treasury. At that time I believe General Garfield was out of the city, but I happened to know that as soon as the 22d day of March this written order was delivered to Mr. Ordway — if he had not drawn any money from the Treasury on his account, to close the account without drawing it; and if he had drawn it, to return it. Mr. Ordway then informed him that it was necessary for him to sign a special order on the Treasurer if he wished it drawn out and covered in; otherwise Mr. Garfield could draw it any time within two years ; whereupon Mr. Garfield drew an order for $4,548, payable to the order of Mr. Ordway, to be by him covered into the Treasury. This was presented to the Treasurer, and the money turned over from the appropriation account to the gen- eral account, so that no portion of it ever left the Treasury at all. It was simply a transfer from the appropriation account to the general funds of the Treasury. Veiy respectfully, "Robert N. Tatler." It should be added to this statement, that immediately after the adjournment of Oon- gress Mr. Garfield went to Cleveland to try a case in the United States District Court, in wbioli he had been employed as counsel some time before. On his return to "Wash- ington, he drew an order covering the money due him under the law into the Treasury. What is more, he was one of the first of all the members of Congress to do so. Besides, when the proposition to repeal the salary clause was before Congress at the next ses- sion, he gave it his earnest support. In his speech in reply to Hon. A. H. Stephens, he touched one phase of the question thus : One of the brightest and greatest of men I know in this nation, a man who, perhaps, has done as much for its intellectual life as any other, told me not many months ago that he had made it the rule of his life to abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it became commercially val- uable ; that others would utilize what he had dis- covered ; that his field of work was above the line of commercial values, and when he brought down the great truths of science from the upper heights to the level of commercial values, a thou- sand hands would be ready to take them, and make them valuable in the markets of the world. [A voice — Who was he ?] Mr. Garfield — It was Agassiz. He entered upon his great career, not for the salary it gave him, for that was meager compared with the pay 190 THE KEPUBLICAJiT TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 18S0. of those in the lower walks of life ; but he fol- lowed the promptings of his great nature, and worked for the love of truth and the instruction of mankind. Something of this spirit has per- vaded the lives of the great men who did so much to build up and maintain our republican institu- tions. And this spirit is, in my judgment, higher and worthier than that which the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Stephens] has described. To come immediately to the question before us, I join in no criminations against those who used their right to vote and act differently from myself on this subject. But when the public says to me, and to those associated with me, that we have, under constitutional law, given ourselves more pay than that public is willing to grant us, it would be indelicate and indecent in us on such a question ta resist that public opinion. The following letter explains itself: Teeasuey Depaetmbnt, "Washington, t Office of the Seceetakt, June 22, 1880. f H. DuSEY, Esq., East Des Moines, Iowa. Sir: In reply to your letter of the 17th inst., asking to be informed on what date the Hon. James A. Garfield paid into the Treasury his back pay, and how the Treasury books show this trans- action, I have to inform you it appear sfrom the records of this office that the sum of $4,548 was deposited to the credit of the Treasurer of the United Stateg, in the name of James A. Garfield, on account of " retroactive increase of salary," on the 22d day of April, 1873 ; and that this amount was covered into the Treasury by miscellaneous covering warrant No. 704, second quarter, 1873, and can not be withdrawn except by act of Con- Very respectfully, J. E. Upton, Assistant Secretary. DE GOLYER. The following article from " The Nation '' (No. 783) is so thorough and impartial in its treatment of this subject, that I can not do better than to give it entire. This journal, it should be remarked, is so perpendicular in its independence as sometimes to lean backward. That " The Nation " criticises General Garfield on the score of propriety gives its judgment additional force on the main point : The accusation regarding the Do Golyer con- tract against General Garfield is made in various ways. It includes the charge that, when Chair- man of the Committee on Appropriations of the House, and knowing that appropriations for such improvements as this De Golyer contract covered would be pressed upon the Committee, he accepted a fee of five thousand dollars, ostensibly for legal services for the purpose of procuring the contract from the Board of Public Works, but really for his influence as Chairman of the Committee ; that he thus made himself the advocate of a contract which was bad in itself, and thus also took a bribe to affect his action in his Committee in favor of this and like contracts ; or, if it was not on his part the taking of a bribe, that he must have known that the motive with which the money was paid him was to secure his influence as such chair- man in favor of the appropriations to pay for this and like contracts. Such is the substance of this accusation in its various forms and phases. In order that the public may properly judge of it, it is necessary to know the following facts, which can easily be verified by reference to the public laws, the records of the District of Colum- bia, and the testimony that has been taken by two investigating committees of Congress. February 21, 1871, Congress passed an act creating a government for the District of Colum- bia, just such a government in general as is or- ganized in the territories by Congressional action. This act provided for a Governor, in whom was vested '' executive power and authority " ; a Le- gislative Assembly, in which was vested " legisla- tive power and authority"; a Board of Public "Works, to which was given control of the streets, avenues, and sewers, and all other works that the Legislative Assembly might intrust to it. It also provided that the Board of Public Works should have " no power to make contracts to bind said District to the payment of any sums of money except in pursuance of appropriations made by law, and not until such appropriations shall have been made." This has reference wholly to ap- propriations made by the Legislative Assembly. The government having been thus created, and with this restriction on the Board of Public Works, on the 20th day of June, 1871, the Board submit- ted to the Legislative Assembly a plan for the improvement of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, and the roads outside these cities, embracing nearly all the streets and avenues and roads, and in the submission of this plan estimated the entire cost to be $4,358,598, recommended the adoption of this plan, and submitted to the Legislative Assembly a bill to provide " the necessary means for the execution of the work." On the 10th day of July, 1871, the Legislative CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 1^91 , Assembly passed this act, appropriating $4,000,- 000 to do the work referred to in the plan, or, to use the language of the act, "to be used and expended, ... as fully as may be practica- ble and consistent with the public interest, in conformity with the plan of improvement sub- mitted to the said Legislature by the Board of Public Works of said District in its communica- tion bearing date June 20, 1871 " ; and in order to procure the money thus appropriated, it was pro- vided in this act that bonds of the District to the amount of $4,000,000 should be issued, and also provided for levying a tax on the property in the District to pay the interest on these bonds, and to provide for the gradual reduction of the principal. It was farther provided that the Board should " in no case enter into a contract for any work or improvement the cost of which shall exceed the amount estimated therefor in its aforesaid plan, less twenty per cent, of said estimates." May 8, 1872, Congress approved the act of the Legisla- tive Assembly above alluded to, and in connection with it enacted that the debt of the District, in- cluding the debts of the late corporations of Washington and Georgetown, " shall at no time exceed the sum of $10,000,000, unless an increase over the said amount shall have been previously authorized by Act of Congress.'" At the time the new government came into existence the debt of the District, including the corporations of Wash- ington and Georgetown, was in the aggregate $5,- 520,626.02, so that the $4,000,000 loan brought the amount of indebtedness up to within $479,- 373.98 of the limit that was fixed by the Act of Congress above alluded to. From the foregoing the following facts will be observed : Ist. That Congress had turned over the con- trol of the streets, avenues, and roads to the gov- ernment of the District of Columbia. 2d. That that government adopted a plan of improvements. 3d. That that government provided the money wich which to pay for those improvements. 4th. That the Board of Public Works was prohibited by Congress from making contracts before appropriations were made, and prohibited from contracting in excess of appropriations. 5th. That the Legislative Assembly restricted the Board in making contracts to 80 per cent, of the $4,000,000 loan. 6th. That Congress had fixed a limit to the entire indebtedness, which limit the $4,000,000 almost reached. 7th. That the money to pay for this work was not to come through appropriations by Congress, 1.^ but was to be derived by taxation of the property in the District imposed by the Le^slative Assem- bly. In September, 1871, the Board of Public Works, instead of adopting the policy of letting contracts to do the contemplated work to the low- est bidder, fixed a scale of prices that would be paid for various kinds of work, that is to say : n, specific price for grading per cubic yard, a, speci- fic price per square yard for concrete pavement, for wood pavement, for stone pavement, an^ so on ; so that when they determined to lay a partic- ular kind of pavement on a certain street or av- enue, whether of wood, stone, or concrete, the price was already fixed, and the open question was which kind of wood or stone or concrete should be laid ; and hence there was a struggle before the Board by the owners of the various patents for pavements to have their respective patents adopted for use, and this brought in ques- tion the merits of the respective patents. It made no difference whatever as to the cost, whether one patent was used or another of the class of wooden or concrete pavements ; the price was precisely the same. De Golyer and McClellan had a patented wooden pavement. Others had patents for wooden pavements, and between these there were con- tests as to merit. There was also the question of merit as between wooden and concrete pave- ments. De Golyer and McClellan employed Mr. Parsons as their attorney to procure the adoption of their pavement, by showing to the Board its superiority over others. This was the only ques- tion to be considered — the question of price hav- ing been settled months before, by the adoption of a schedule of prices. The hearing before the Board as to the merits of these various patents was about to be had, and Mr. Parsons was called away from Washington. He asked General Gar- field to take his place as attorney to argue the merits of the De Golyer patent. As above shown, there was nothing else to argue. General Garfield appears never to have seen De Golyer or McClel- lan or anybody else in relation to this employment, excepting Mr. Parsons, and at the latter's solicita- tion he examined the various patents and made his presentation of the case to the Board, was paid a fee for it, and there his relations to the subject entirely ended. He had nothing whatever to do with making or shaping the contract under which the pavement was laid. Now, the money having already been provided to pay for all the improvements that the Board was authorized to make, it seems impossible that it could have been contemplated by General Garfield or any one else 192 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. that appropriations would be asked from Con- gress with which to pay for any portion of them. In order to malte good the accusation against General Garfield the following must be assmned : 1. That the Board contemplated at that early period of its career yiolating the law prohibiting the making of contracts In excess of and prior to appropriations. 2. That it then contemplated violating the law restricting it to eighty per cent, of the four million dollars loan. 3. That it then contemplated the violation of the law limiting the indebtedness of the District to ten millions of dollars. 4. That General Garfield had knowl- edge that the Board so contemplated. In the absence'of these assumptions the case is in brief this : The money had, long before Gen- eral Garfield's employment, been provided by the District government to pay for the improvements ; the prices to be paid had been established ; no appropriation by Congress could have been in contemplation ; the question, and the only ques- tion, was whether this or that kind of pavement should be used, and General Garfield as an at- torney argued in favor of the De Golyer patent. The impression has entered the public mind that the De Golyer patent is worthless, but this is wholly erroneous. No one familiar with the sub- ject has questioned that it was at least as good as any other process of laying wooden pavements, and no question of that kind has ever been made before the Committee or elsewhere. The impres- sion, too, possibly prevails that there was some- thing fraudulent in the contract as to prices, etc. But this is wholly without foundation. The Board having adopted a schedule of prices long before, when the decision was made to lay this pavement to any extent, it was at the price already fixed. If any other pavement of wood had been adopted in preference to this, the price would have been the same ; so that the use of this pavement involved no more expenditure than if any other had been adopted. It may be asked. Why, then, all the criticism that has appeared in regard to this De Golyer and JlcClellan contract ? The answer is this : It is maintained by those who were assailing the Board of Public Works that the prices paid for work were unreasonable and excessive, and to show this the proof was presented to the Committee that, for a quantity of work which would amount to about seven hundred thousand dollars, the parties were willing to pay and agreed to pay nincty-sev- en thousand dollars in commissions and attorneys' fees ; consequently, it was argued, the Board in fixing the schedule of prices had fixed them too high, and thereby had violated their duty. But these prices would have been paid if any other wooden pavement had been used, and were paid to every other contractor where wooden pavement was used ; and every other contract for wooden pavement was and is amenable to precisely the same criticism. The De Golyer contract is no more fraudulent than every other that was made to lay wooden pavements. To establish the same fact — ^viz., that the Board bad fixed its schedule of prices too high, and thereby had unnecessarily burdened the taxpayers — proof was adduced that it was quite common to let a contract to lay a pavement, and the contractor would at once sub- let at a rate twenty-five cents less per square yard, giving a profit or bonus of twenty-five cents per square yard for doing nothing. The De Golyer and McClellan contract differed in no respect from all others, and it only became conspicuous be- cause it showed the amount that the Board was paying by its schedule of prices in excess of what should have been paid. The sum and substance of the whole matter, as regards General Garfield, then, is, that at the request of a, friend of his, the attorney for the De Golyer and McClellan Paving Company, he ex- amined the evidence in favor of some forty kinds of pavement, prepared the required brief, which was intended for the Board of Public Works, made known to Mr. Shepherd, then President of the Board, his favorable opinions, and expressed the hope that he would give these Western men a chance. No price was agreed upon for the service, but Mr. Parsons paid him five thousand dollars, saying that he had received a large fee and would share it with him. The disproportion of the fee to the work performed may be attrib- uted to the large interests involved and to the friendly intervention of Mr. Parsons. But the case, nevertheless, exemplifies one of the gross abuses prevalent in public life which the friends of good government can have no difficulty in con- demning. We refer to the practice of seeking and giving weight to the opinions of public men on subjects of which they know no more than any one else, and in legal cases paying fees in proportion to their influence. We should have liked it much better if General Garfield had told his friend that there were scores of people much better qualified to form a reliable opinion of pave- ments ; that his official position would give a fac- titious importance to his opinion which he did not wish it to have ; and that the services of the best experts should be sought for rather than his own. We do not think, therefore, that the motives of Mr. Parsons and his clients in employing Mr. Gar- field are above suspicion. It is not improbable CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL GARFIELD STATED AND EXAMINED. 193 that they sought in so doing something more than Mb services as counsel, but we can discover no trace of anything worse on his part than indis- cretion. With this we think he may be fairly charged, and although the character of the Board of Public Works was not as well known then as it was afterward, there must have been enough known about it to suggest to a prudent public man the impropriety of taking a hand in influ- encing it in any matter, and especially in a mat- ter in which he had no claim to be considered an expert. General Garfield has been severely as- sailed, too, because ho made no formal argument before the Board as a whole, and the inference has been drawn from this that he knew he did not render full service for his fee. But an oral argu- ment would hardly have added anything to the value of his brief ; and having made the brief, we think he was fully justified by forensic custom in thinking that he had done enough. Let us say finally that in judging him on the charge of indis- cretion, it is not fair to judge his conduct in IS*?! with the light of 1880. There is not one of us whose views about discretion touching the rela- tions between politics and money have not been greatly clarified by the events of the past nine years. It should 1)6 added to this exposition of the subject, that District-of-Columbia affairs were several times overhauled by investigat- ing committees. One of these committees had for its chairman Hon. A. G. Thurman, Democratic Senator from Ohio. No one of these committees ever found anything against James A. Garfield. Hon. J. M. Wil- son of Indiana, long a member of the House of Representatives, himself a member of a District Investigating Committee, as long ago as 1874 bore the following testimony to General Garfield's entire freedom from cen- sure in the premises : CoMKEBSviLLE, Ind., Augmt 1, 1974. T7ie Bon. Ocorge W. Sleek. Deab Sir : To the request for information as to whether or not the action of General Gar- field, in connection with the affairs of the Dis- trict of Columbia, was the subject of condem- nation by the Committee that recently had those affairs under consideration, I answer that it was not ; nor was there, in my opinion, any evi- dence that would have warranted any unfavor- able criticism upon his conduct. The facts dis- closed by the evidence, so far as he is concerned, are briefly these: The Board of Public Works was considering the question as to the kind of pavements that should be laid. There was a con- test as to the respective merits of various wooden pavements. Mr. Parsons represented, as attor- ney, the De Golyer and McClellan patent, and, being called away from Washington about the time the hearing was to be had before the Board of Public Works on this subject, procured Gen- eral Garfield to appear before the Board in his stead and argue the merits of this patent. This he did, and this was the whole of his connection in the matter. It was not a question as to the kind of contract that should be made, but as to whether this particular kind of pavement should be laid. The criticism of the Committee was not upon the pavement in f.ivor of which General Garfield argued, but was upon the contract made with reference to it ; and there was no evi(Jence which would warrant the conclusion that he had anything to do with the latter. Very respectfully, etc., J. M. Wilson. APPEITDIX. REPUBLICAK AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS FROM 1856 TO 1880 INCLUSIVE. KEPUBLICAN, PHILADELPHIA, JUNE, 1S66. This ConTention of Delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who arc opposed to the repeal of the, Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present Administration, to the extension of slavery into free territory, in favor of admitting Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, and who purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, do resolve as fol- lows: 1. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is es- sential to the preservation of our republican in- stitutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, shall be preserved ; that, with our republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that, as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery In all our national territory, or- dained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of estabhshing slavery in the United States by positive legislation prohibiting its existence or extension therein ; that we deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legis- lature, of any individual or association of individ- uals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Ter- ritory of the United States while the present Con- stitution shall be maintained. 2. That the Constitution confers upon Con- gress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery. 3. That, while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people "in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty," and contains ample provisions for the protection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them ; their territory has been invaded by an armed force ; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the Government, tyraimical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced ; the right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed; test-oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office ; the right of an ac- cused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied ; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, pa- pers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been violated ; they have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due KEPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 195 process of law ; that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect ; murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanc- tion, and procurement of the present Administra- tion, and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity, we arraign the Administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and accessories either before or afia- the fact, before the country and before the world ; and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages and their accomplices to a sure and condign punishment hereafter. 4. That Kansas should be immediately ad- mitted as a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they arc enti- tled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory. 6. That the highwayman's plea that " might makes right," embodied in the Ostend Circular, was in every respect unworthy of American di- plomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any Government or people that gave it their sanction. 6. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean by the moat central and practicable route is imperative- ly demanded by the interests of the whole coun- try, and that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its con- struction ; and, as an auxiliary thereto, to the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad. 7. That appropriations by Congre.=;3 for the improvement of rivers and harbors of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution and justified by the obliga- tion of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 8. That we invite the affiliation and coopera- tion of freemen of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in support of the prin- ciples herein declared ; and, believing that the spirit of our institutions, as well as the ' Consti- tution of our country, guarantees liberty of eon- science and equality of rights among citizens, wc oppose all legislation impairing their security. DEMOCRATIC, CINCINNATI, JUNE, 1866. The platform reiterates in detail the resolu- tions adopted in 1852, down to and including the eighth resolution, and adds the following : And whereas, sinoo the foregoing declaration was unifoitoly adopted by our predecessors in national conventions, an adverse political and reli- gious test has been secretly organized by a party claiming to be exclusively American, it is proper that the American Democracy should clearly de- fine its relation thereto, and declare its determined opposition to all secret political societies, by what- ever name they may be called. Resolved, That the foundation of this Union of States having been laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and preeminent example in free gov- ernment built upon, entire freedom in matters of religious concernment, and no respect of person in regard to rank or place of birth, no party can justly be deemed national, constitutional, or in accordance with American principles, which bases its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental birthplace. And hence a politi- cal crusade in the nineteenth century, and in the United States of America, against Catholic and foreign-born, is neither justified by the past his- tory or the future prospects of the country, nor in unison with the spirit of toleration and en- larged freedom which peculiarly distinguishes the American system of popular government. And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a sectional party, subsisting ex- clusively on slavery agitation, now relies to test the fidelity of the people. North and South, to the Constitution and the Union : 1. Resolved, That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the cooperation of, all who regard the presoi-vation of the Union under the Consti- tution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sectional parties and platforms concerning do- mestic slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Territories, and whose avowed pur- pose, if consummated, must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and Ne- braska, as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the " slavery question," upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservatism of the Union — non-interference bt Congress WITH SLAVERY IN StATE AND TERRITORY, OR IN THE District of Columbia. 2. That this was the basis of the compromises 196 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. of 1850, eonfirmed by both the Democratic and Whig parties in national conventions, ratified by the people in the election of 1852, and rightly applied to the organization of Territories in 1854. 3. That by the uniform application of this democratic principle to the organization of Ter- ritories, and to the admission of new States, with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect, the equal rights of all the States will be pre- served intact, the original compacts of the Con- stitution maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and expansion of this Union insured to its ut- most capacity of embracing, in peace and har- mony, every future American State that may be constituted or annexed with a republican form of government. Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual resi- dents, and whenever the number of their inhabit- ants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States. Resolved, finally. That in view of the con- dition of popular institutions in the Old World (and the dangerous tendencies of sectional agi- tation, combined with the attempt to enforce civil and religious disabilities against the rights of acquiring and enjoying citizenship in our own laud), a high and sacred duty is devolved with increased responsibility upon the Democratic 'party of this country, as the party of the Union, to uphold and maintain the rights of every State, and thereby the Union of the States ; and to sus- tain and advance among us constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all monopolies and exclu- sive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and by a vigilant and con- stant adherence to those principles and compro- mises of the Constitution, which are broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it was, the Union as it is, and the Union as it shall be, in the full expansion of the energies and capacity of this great and progres- sive people. 1. Resolved, That there are questions con- nected with the foreign policy of this country, which are inferior to no domestic question what- ever. The time has come for the people of the United States to declare themselves in favor of free seas and progressive free trade throughout the world, by solemn manifestations, to place their moral influence at the side of their success- ful example. 2. Resolved, That our geographical and polit- ical position with reference to the other States of this continent, no less than the interest of our commerce and the development of our growing power, requires that we should hold as sacred the principles involved in the Monroe doctrine ; their bearing and import admit of no misconstruction ; they should be applied with unbending rigidity. 3. Resolved, That the great highway which nature, as well as the assent of the States most immediately interested in its maintenance, has marked out for a free communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, constitutes one of the most important achievements realized by the spirit of modern times and the uncon- querable energy of our people. That result should bo secured by a timely and efficient ex- ertion of the control which we have the right to claim over it, and no power on earth should be suffered to impede or clog its progress by any interference with the relations it may suit our policy to establish between our Government and the governments of the States within whose do- minions it lies. We can, under no circumstances, surrender our preponderance in the adjustment of all questions arising out of it. 4. Resolved, That, in view of so commanding an interest, the people of the United States can not but sympathize with the efforts which are being made by the people of Central America to regenerate that portion of the continent which covers the passage across the interoceanic isth- mus. 5. Resolved, That the Democratic party will expect of the next administration that every proper effort be made to insure our ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico, and to maintain a perma- nent protection to the great outlets through which are emptied into its waters the products raised out of the soil and the commodities created by the industry of the people of our Western val- leys and of the Union at large. Resolved, That the Democratic party recog- nizes the great importance, in a political and commercial point of view, of a safe and speedy communication through our own territory between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Union, and that it is the duty of the Federal Government to exercise all its constitutional power to the attain- ment of that object, thereby binding the Union of these States in indissoluble bonds, and open- ing to the rich commerce of Asia an overland transit from the Pacific to the Mississippi River, and the great lakes of the North. EEPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 197 REPUBLICAN, CHICAGO, MAY, 1860. Resolved, That we, the delegated representa- tivca of the Eepublican electors of the United States, in. Convention assembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations : 1. That the history of the nation, during thfe last four years, has fully established the propri- ety and necessity of the organization and per- petuation of the Eepublican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are perma- nent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. " 2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, " That all men arc created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights govern- ments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the prcseiTation of our republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the States, must and shall be preserved. 3. That to the Union of the States this nation owes its unprecedented increase in population, its surprising development of material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness at home, and its honor abroad ; and we hold in ab- horrence all schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may ; and we congratulate the country that no Republican member of Con- gress has uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often made by Democratic members, without rebuke and with applause from their political associates; and we denounce those threats of disunion, in case of a popular over- throw of their ascendancy, as denying the vital principles of a free government, and as an avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the impera^ tive duty of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and for ever silence. 4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclu- sively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our polit- ical fabric depends ; and we denounce the law- less invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 5. That the present Democratic Administra- tion has far exceeded our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its desperate exertions to force the infamous Le- compton Constitution upon the protesting people of Kansas ; in construing the personal relation between master and servant to involve an unqual- ified property in persons ; in its attempted en- forcement everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of the Federal courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest ; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people. 6. That the people justly view with alann the reckless extravagance which pervades every de- partment of the Federal Government ; that a re- turn to rigid economy and accountability is indis- pensable to aiTest the systematic plunder of the public treasury by favored partisans, while the recent startling developments of frauds and cor- ruptions at the Federal metropolis show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded. 1. That the new dogma, that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States, is a dan- gerous political heresy,- at variance with the ex- plicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial prepedent ; is revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the- peace and har- mony of the country. 8. That the normal condition of all the terri- tory of the United States is that of freedom; that as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that " no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law," it becomes our duty, by legislation, when- ever sueh legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all at- tempts to violate it ; and we deny the authority ' of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States. 9. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave-trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, as a crime against humanity and a burn- ing shame to our country and age ; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient mea- sures for the total and final suppression of that execrable traffic. 10. That in the recent vetoes, b-v their Fede- 198 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. ral gorernors, of the acts of the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted Democratic principle of non-in- tervention and popular sovereignty, embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and a demonstration of the deception and fraud involved therein. 11. That Kansas should of right be immedi- ately admitted as a State under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by her people and accepted by the House of Representatives. 12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an ad- justment of these Imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country ; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the working- men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an ade- quate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and in- dependence. 13. That we protest against any sale or al- ienation to others of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the free homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or suppliants for public bounty ; and we demand the passage by Congress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has already passed the House. 14. That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws, or any State legislation, by which the rights of citizen- ship hitherto accorded to immigrants from for- eign lands shall be abridged or impaired ; and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether na- tive or naturalized, both at home and abroad. 1 5 That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor improvements of a national charac- ter, required for the accommodation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction ; ' and that, as preliminary there- to, a daily overland mail should be promptly established. 17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinc- tive principles and views, we invite the coopera- tion of all citizens, however differing on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirmance and support. DEIIOCRATIC (DOUGLAS) PLATFORM, CHARLESTON AND BALTIMORE, JUNE, 1860. 1. Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in convention assembled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted and declared as a platform of principles by the Democratic Convention in Cincinnati, in the year 1856, believing that Democratic princi- ples are unchangeable in their nature, when ap- plied to the same subject-matters ; and we recommend, as the only further resolutions, the following : 2. Resolved, That it is the duty of the United States to afford ample and complete protection to all its citizens, whether at home or abroad, and whether native or foreign, 3. Resolved, That one of the necessities of the age, in a military, commercial, and postal point of view, is speedy communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States ; and the Demo- cratic party pledge such constitutional Govern- ment aid as will insure the construction of a railroad to the Pacific coast at the earliest prac- ticable period. 4. Resolved, That the Democratic party arc in favor of the acquisition of the Island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable to ourselves and just to Spain. 6. Resolved, That the enactments of State legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave law are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect. 6. Resolved, That it is in accordance with the true interpretation of the Cincinnati platform that, during the existence of the Territorial gov- ernments, the measure of restriction, whatever it may be, imposed by the Federal Constitution on the power of the Territorial Legislature over the subject of the domestic relations, as the same has been, or shall hereafter be, finally determined by the Supreme Court of the United States, should be respected by all good citizens, and en- forced with promptness and fidelity by every branch of the General Government. REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 199 DEMOCRATIC (BRECKINRIDGE) PLAT- FORM, ADOPTED AT CHARLESTON AND BALTIMORE, JUNE, 1860. Rcsohed, That the platform adopted by the Democratic party at Cincinnati be affirmed, with the following explanatory resolutions : ■ 1. That the government of a Territory organ- ized by an act of Congress is provisional and tem- porary, and during its existence all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Territory, without their rights, either of person or property, being de- stroyed or impaired by Congressional or Territorial legislation. 2. That it is the duty of the Federal Govern- ment, in all. its departments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and property in the.Territories, and wherever else its constitution- al authority extends. 3. That when the settlers in a Territory, hav- ing an adequate population, form a State con- stitution, the right of sovereignty commences, and, being consummated by admission into the Union, they stand on an equal footing with the people of other States ; and the State thus organ- ized ought to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its constitution prohibits or recognizes the institution of slavery. 4. That the Democratic party are in favor of the acquisition of the Island of Cuba, on such terms as shall bo honorable to ourselves and just to Spain, at the earliest practicable moment. 6. That the enactments of State legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave law arc hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect. 6. That the Democracy of the United States recognize it as the imperative duty of this Govern- ment to protect the naturalized citizen in all his rights, whether at home or in foreign lands, to the same extent as its native-born citizens. Whereas, one of the greatest necessities of the age, in a political, commercial, postal, and mili- tary point of view, is a speedy communication between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts; there- fore, be it Resolved, That the National Democratic party do hereby pledge themselves to use every means in their power to secure the passage of some bill, to the extent of the constitutional au- thority of Congress, for the construction of a Pacific Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable moment. REPUBLICAN, AT BALTIMORE, JUNE, 1864. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the par- amount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States ; and that, laying aside all dif- ferences of political opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a common sentiment, and aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the Government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. 2. That we approve the determination of the Government of the United States not to compro- mise with rebels, or to offer them any terms of peace, except such as may be based upon an un- conditional surrender of their hostility and a re- turn to their just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States ; and that we call upon the Government to maintain this position and to prosecute the war with the utmost pos- sible vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the American people to the country and its free institutions. 3. That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to ' the principles of republican government, justice and the national safety demand its utter and com- plete extirpation from the soil of the republic ; and that while we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its pro- visions, as shall terminate and for ever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States. 4. That the thanks of the American people are due to the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy, who have periled their lives in de- fense of their country and in vindication of the honor of its flag ; that the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent pro- vision for those of their survivors who have re- ceived disabling and honorable wounds in the service of the country ; and that the memories of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. 200 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOB THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 5. That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the unselfish patriotism, and the un- swerving fidelity to the Constitution and the prin- ciples of American liberty with which Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, the great duties and re- sponsibilities of the Presidential office ; that we approve and endorse, as demanded by the emer- gency and essential to the preservation of the nation, and as within the provisions of the Con- stitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend the nation against its open and secret foes ; that we approve especially the Proclamation of Emancipation and the employ- ment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held in slavery ; and that wo have full confidence in his determination to carry these and all other constitutional measures essential to the salvation of the country into full and complete effect. 6. That we deem it essential to the general welfare that harmony should prevail in the na- tional councUs, and we regard as worthy of pub- lic confidence and official trust those only who cordially endorse the principles proolaimed in these resolutions, and which should characterize the administration of the Government. I. That the Government owes to all men em- ployed in its armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protection of the laws of war ; and that any violation of these laws, or of the usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now in arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. 8. That foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of power of the nation — the asylum of the oppressed of all nations — should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. 9. That we are in favor of the speedy con- struction of the railroad to the Pacific coast. 10. That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of the public debt, must be kept in- violate, and that for this purpose we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public expenditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation ; and that it is the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit and promote the use of the national currency. II. That we approve the position taken by the Government that the pecfple of the United States can never regard with indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force, or to supplant by faud, the institutions of any republican government on the western continent ; and that they will view with extreme jealousy, as menacing to the peace and inde- pendence of their own country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for monar- cliical governments, sustained by foreign military force, in near proximity to the United States. DEMOCRATIC, CHICAGO, 1864. Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will adhere, with unswerving fidelity, to the Union under the Constitution as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, and hap- piness as a people, and as a framework of gov- ernment equally conducive to the welfare and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern. Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a militaiy necessity or war- power higher than the Constitution, the Consti- tution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trod- den down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that im- mediate efforts be made for a cessation of hos- tilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Fede- ral Union of the States. Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authorities of the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware was a shameful violation of the Constitution; and a repetition of such acts in the approaching election will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means and power under our control. Resolved, That the aim and object of the Dem- ocratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired, and they hereby declare that they consider that the ad- ministrative _usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the Constitu- tion — the subversion of the civil by military law in States not in insurrection ; the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where civil law exists in full force ; the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press ; the denial of the right of asylum ; the open and avowed disre- gard of State rights ; the employment of un- EEPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 201 usual test-oaths ; and the interference with and denial of the right of the people to bear arms in their defense — are calculated to prevent a restora- tion of the Union and the perpetuation of a Gov- ernment deriving its just powers from the con- sent of the governed. Resohed, That the shameful disregard of the Administration to its duty in respect to our fellow citizens who now are and long have been prisoners of war in a suffering condition de- serves the severest reprobation on the score alike of public policy and common humanity. Resolved, That' the sympathy of the Democratic party is heartily and earnestly extended to the soldiers of our army and sailors of our navy, who are and have been in the field and on the sea under the flag of our country ; and, in the event of its attaining power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard that the brave sol- diers and sailors of the republic so nobly earned. EEPUBLICAN, CHICAGO, 1868. The National Republican party of the United States, assembled in National Convention, in the city of Chicago, on the 21st day of May, 1868, make the following declaration of principles : 1. "We congratulate the country on the assured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the majority of the States lately in rebellion, of constitutions securing equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the Government to sustain those institutions, and to prevent the people of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. 2. The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of grati- tude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States. 3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime ; and / the national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according to the letter, but the spirit, of the laws under which it was contracted. 4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be equalized, and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 6. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preservation of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair period for redemption ; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of interest thereon, whenever it can be honestly done. 6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to so improve our credit that capital- ists will seek to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected. 7. The Government of the United States should be administered with the strictest economy ; and the corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform. 8. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and judicial functions ; who has refused to execute the laws ; who has used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws ; who has employed his executive powers to ren- der insecure the property, the peace, liberty, and life of the citizen ; who has abused the pardon- ing power ; who has denounced the National Legislature as unconstitutional ; who has persis- tently and corruptly resisted, by every means in his power, every proper attempt at the recon- struction of the States lately in rebellion ; who has perverted the public patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption ; and who has been justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pronounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators. 9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, that because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at every hazard by the United States as a relic of feudal times, not authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled to protection in all their rights of citizenship, as though they were native-born ; and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be hable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country ; and, if so ar- rested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the Gov- ernment to interfere in his behalf. 10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were none entitled to more es- pecial honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and imperiled their lives in the service,of the country ; the bounties and pensions provided 202 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880; by the laws for these braTC defenders of the na- tion are obligations never to be forgotten ; the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people — a sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation's protecting care. 11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth, development of the resources, and increase of power of this repub- lic, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. 12. This Convention declares itself in sym- pathy with all oppressed people struggling for their rights. 13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with which men who have served in the rebellion, but who now frankly and honestly cooperate with us in restor- ing the peace of the country and reconstructing the Southern State governments upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, arc received back into the communion of the loyal people ; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the late rebels in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people. 14. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal Declaration of Indepen- dence, as the true foundation of democratic gov- ernment ; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil. DEMOCRATIC, NEW YORK, 1868. The Democratic party, in National Convention assembled, reposing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice of the peo- ple, standing upon the Constitution as the foun- da,tion and limitation of the powers of the Gov- ernment, and the guarantee of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by the war or the voluntary action of the Southern States in constitutional conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or reagitated, do, with the return of peace, de- mand: First. Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union under the Constitu- tion, and of civil government to the American people. Second. Amnesty for all past political of- fenses, and the regulation of the elective fran- chise in the States by their citizens. TIdrd. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, ex- cept so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government, economically administered, being honestly applied to such payment; and, where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States. Fourth. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real value, including Government bonds and other public seciirities. ' Fifth. One currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and the officeholder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder. Sixth. Economy in the administration of the Government ; the reduction of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedman's Bu- reau, and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy ; simplification of the system, and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue, so that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened ; the credit of the Government and the currency made good ; the repeal of all enact- ments for enrolling the State militia into national forces in time of peace ; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures, and as will, without impairing the revenue, im- pose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country. Seventh, Reform of abuses in the administra- tion, the expulsion of con-upt men from office, the abrogation of useless offices, the restoration of rightful authority to, and the independence of, the executive and judicial departments of the Government, the subordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease. Eigluh. Equal rights and protection for natu- ralized and native-born citizens at home and abroad, the assertion of American nationality which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example and encourage- ment to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights, and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citi- zens against the absolute doctrine of immutable REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 203 legiance, and tte claima of foreign powers to inish them for alleged crime committed beyond eir juriadiction. In demanding these measures and reforms, we raign the Radical party for its disregard of ;ht, and the unparalleled oppression and tyran- ■ which hare marked its career. After the most solemn and unanimous pledge both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war clusiyely for the maintenance of the Govem- ent and the preservation of the Union under e Constitution, it has repeatedly violated that ost sacred pledge under which alone was rallied at noble volunteer army which carried our flag victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it 18, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and sub- Bted ten States, in time of profound peace, to ilitary despotism and negro supremacy. It has lUified there the right of trial by jury ; it has lolished the lidbeas corpus, that most sacred writ liberty; it has overthrown the freedom of eech and the press ; it has substituted arbitra- seizures and arrests and military trials and oret star-chamber inquisitions for the constitu- mal tribunals; it has disregarded in time of ace the right of the people to be free from arches and seizures ; it has entered the post id telegraph offices, and even the private rooms individuals, and seized their private papers id letters without any specific charge or notice affidavit, as required by the organic law; it 13 converted the American Capitol into a Bas- e ; it has established a system of spies and offi- il espionage to which no constitutional mon- chy of Europe would now dare to resort ; it has )olished the right of appeal on important con- itutional questions to the supreme judicial tri- mal, and threatens to curtail or destroy its iginal jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested rfte Constitution, while the learned Chief Jus- 3e has been subjected to the most atrocious cal- nnies, merely because he would not prostitute 3 high office to the support of the false and irtisM charges preferred against the President. s corruption and extravagance have exceeded lything known in history, and, by its frauds id monopolies, it has nearly doubled the burden ' the debt created by the war. It has stripped ie President of his constitutional power of ap- jintment, even of his own Cabinet. Under its ipeated assaults, the pillars of the Government rocking on their base ; and should it succeed November next and inaugurate its President, will meet as a subjected and conquered peo- amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered ■ ' ments of the Constitution. And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British Crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the political power of each State respectively, and that any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or interfere with its exer- cise, is a flagrant usurpation of power which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and, if sanc- tioned by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can only end in a single central- ized and consolidated government, in which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and an unqualified despotism be es- tablished in place of a Federal union of co-equal States. And that we regard the reconstruction acts (so called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void. That our soldiers and sailors, who carried the flag of our country to victory against a most gal- lant and determined foe, must ever be gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor must be faithfully carried into execution. That the public lands should be distributed as widely as possible among the people, and should be disposed of either under the preemption of homestead lands or sold in reasonable quantities, and to none but actual occupants, at the mini- mum price established by the Government. When grants of the public lands may be allowed, necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so applied. That the President of the United States, An- drew Johnson, in exercising the power of his high oflice in resisting the aggressions of Con- gress upon the constitutional rights of the States and the people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, and in behalf of the Democratic party wc tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard. Upon this platform the Democratic party ap- peal to every patriot, including all the conserva- tive elements and all who desire to support the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for the liberties of the people ; and that to all such, to whatever party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and hail all such cooperating with us as friends and brethren. Jiesohcd, That this Convention sympathizes 204 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. cordially witli the workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the rights and interests of the laboring classes of the country. Mesolved, That the thanks of the Convention are tendered to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, for the justice, dignity, and impartiality with ■which he presided over the court of impeachment on the trial of President Andrew Johnson. EEPUBLIOAN, PHILADELPHIA, 1872. The Republican party of the United States, assembled in National Convention in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th and 6th days of June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its his- tory, and announces its position upon the ques- tions before the country. Mrst. During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted with grand courage the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic rebellion, , emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, and established imiversal suffrage. Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for political offenses, and warmly welcomed all who proved their loy- alty by obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neighbors. It has steadily decreased, with a firm hand, the resultant disorders of a great war, and initiated n wise policy toward the In- dians. The Pacific Railroad and similar vast en- terprises have been generously aided and success- fully conducted ; the public lands freely given to actual settlers; immigration protected and en- couraged, and a full acknowledgment of the nat- uralized citizens' rights secured from European powers. A uniform national currency has been provided ; repudiation frowned down ; the nation- al credit sustained under most extraordinary bur- dens, and new bonds negotiated at lower rates ; the revenues have been carefully collected and honestly applied. Despite the annual large re- ductions of rates of taxation, the public debt has been reduced during General Grant's Presidency at the rate of §100,000,000 a year. A great finan- cial crisis has been avoided, and peace and plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficulties have been peacefully and honorably compromised, and the honor and the power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world. This glorious record of the past is the party's best pledge for the future. We believe the people will not intrust the Government to any party or com- bination of men composed chiefly of those who have resisted every step of this beneficial progress. Second. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil, political, and public rights should be established, and effectually main- tained throughout the Union, by efficient and ap- propriate State and Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit of any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of ser- vitude. Third. The recent amendments to the Natign- al Constitution should be cordially sustained/ be- cause they are right, not merely tolerated because they are law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate legislation, the en- forcement of which can be safely trusted only to the party that secured those amendments. Fourth. The National Government should seek to maintain an honorable peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sympa- thizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty. Fifth. Any system of the civil service under which the subordinate positions of the Govern- ment are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing ; and we, therefore, favor a reform of the system by laws which shall abol- ish the evils of patronage, and make honesty, efficiency, and fidelity the essential qualifications for public position, without practically creating a life-tenure of office. Sixth. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain be set apart for free homes for the people. Seventh. The annual revenues, after paying the current debts, should furnish a moderate bal- ance for the reduction of the principal, and the revenue, except so much as may be derived from a tax on tobacco and liquors, be raised by duties upon importations, the duties of which should be so adjusted as to aid in securing remunerative wages to labor, and promote the industries, growth, and prosperity of the whole country. FiffJiih. We hold in undying honor the sol- diers and sailors whose valor saved the Union ; their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for their country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of the Government to all our soldiers and sailors who were honorably discharged, and who in the line of duty became disabled, without regard to the length of service or the cause of such dis- charge. Kintli. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers concerning allegiance — REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 205 "Once a subject always a subject" — having at last, through the efforts of the Republican party, been abandoned, and the American idea of the individual's right to transfer his allegiance having been accepted by European nations, it is the duty of our Government to guard with jealous care the rights of adopted citizens against the assumption of unauthorized claims by their former govern- ment ; and we urge the continual and careful en- couragement and protection of voluntary immi- gration. Tenth. The franking privilege ought to be abolished, and the way prepared for a speedy re- duction in the rate of postage. Eleventh. Among the questions which press for attention is that which concerns the relations of capital and labor, and the Republican party recognize the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator of capital,' the largest opportunities and a just share of the mu- tual profits of these two great servants of civili- zation. Twelfth. We hold that Congress and the Pres- ident have only fulfilled an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebel- lious regions, and for the protection of the ballot- box, and therefore they are entitled to the thanks of the nation. Tliirteentli. We denounce repudiation of the public debt in any form or disguise as a national crime. Wo witness with pride the reduction of the principal of the debt and of the rates of in- terest upon the balance, and confidently expect that our excellent national currency will be per- fected by a speedy resumption of specie pay- ments. Fourteenth. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America, for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom. Their admission to wider fields of usefulness is received with satisfaction, and .the honest de- mands of any class of citizens for additional rights should be treated with respectful considera- tion. Fifteenth. Wo heartily approve the action of Congress' in extending amnesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of peace and fraternal feeling throughout the land. Sixteenth. The Republican party propose to respect the rights reserved by the people to them- selves as carefully as the powers delegated by them to the State and to the Federal Government. It disapproves of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils by inter- ference with rights not suri-cndered by the people to either the State or National Government. Seventeenth. It is the duty of the General Gov- ernment to adopt such measures as will tend to encourage American commerce and shipbuilding. Eighteenth. Wc believe that the modest pa- triotism, the earnest purpose, the sound judg- ment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible in- tegrity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him to the heart of the American people ; and with him at our head wo start to-day upon a new march to victory. LIBERAL-REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, 1872. [Adopted by the Liberal-Republican Convention at Cincinnati in June, and by the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore in July.] First. Wo recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of Government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of what- ever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political. Second. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States, emancipation, and enfran- chisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. TJdrd. We demand the immediate and abso- lute removal of all disabilities imposed on ac- count of the rebellion, which was finally subdued seven years ago, believing that universal amnesty will result in complete pacification in all sections of the country. Fourth. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power. The public welfare requires the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and freedom of persons under the protection of habeas corpus. We de- mand for the individual the largest liberty con- sistent with public order ; for the State, self -gov- ernment; and for the nation, a return to the methods of peace and the constitutional limita- tions of power. Fifth. The civil service of the Government has become a mere instrument of partisan tyran- ny and personal ambition, and an object of selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions, and breeds a demoraUzation danger- ous to the perpetuity of republican government. We, therefore, regard such thorough reforms of the civil service as one of the most pressing ne- 206 THE EEPTJBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. cessities of the hour ; that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claim to public employment ; that the offices of the Government cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage ; that the public station become again the post of honor. To this end it is imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for reelection. Sixth. We demand a system of Federal taxa- tion which shall not unnecessarily interfere with the industry of the people, and which shall provide the means necessary to pay the expenses of the Government economically administered, the pen- sions, the interest on the public debt, and a mod- erate reduction annually of the principal thereof ; and, recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with re- gard to the respective systems of Protection and Free Trade, we remit the discussion of the sub- ject to the people in their Congress districts, and to the decision of the Congress thereon, wholly free of Executive interference or dictation. Seventh. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we denounce repudiation in every form and guise. Eighth. A speedy return to specie payment is demanded alike by the highest considerations of commercial morality and honest government. Ninth. We remember with gratitude the he- roism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and no act of ours shall ever detract from their justly earned fame for the full reward of their patriotism. Tenth. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other corporations. The public domain should bo held sacred to actual settlers. Eleventh. We hold that it is the duty of the Government, in its intercourse with foreign na- tions, to cultivate the friendship of peace, by treating with all on fair and equal terms, regard- ing it alike dishonorable either to demand what is not right, or to submit to what is wrong. Twelfth. For the promotion and success of these vital principles, and the support of the candidates nominated by this Convention, we in- vite and cordially welcome the cooperation of all patriotic citizens, without regard to previous af- filiations. REPUBLICAN, CINCINNATI, 1876. When, in the economy of Providence, this land was to be purged of human slavery, and when the strength of government of the people by the people and for the people was to bo demon- strated, the Republican party came into power. Its deeds have passed into history, and we look back to them with pride. Incited by their mem- ories to high aims for the good of our country and mankind, and looking to the future with unfalter- ing courage, hope, and purpose, we, the repre- sentatives of the party in National Convention assembled, make the following declaration of principles : 1. The United States of America is a Nation, not a league. By the combined workings of the National and State Grovemments, under their re- spective constitutions, the rights of every citizen are secured at home and abroad, and the com- mon welfare promoted. 2. The Republican party has preserved these Governments to the hundredth anniversary of the Nation's birth, and they are now embodi- ments of the great truths spoken at its cradle — "that all men are crpated equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that for the attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Until these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously en- forced, the work of the Republican party is un- finished. 3. The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union, and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their rights, is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles embodied in the recent constitutional amendments is vested by those amendments in the Congress of the United States ; and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive de- partments of the Government to put into imme- diate and vigorous exercise all their constitu- tional powers for removing any just causes of dis- content on the part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, and public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not fal- ter until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall. 4. In the first act of Congress signed by Presi- dent Grant, the National Government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and " solemnly pledged its faith to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemption REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 2or of the United States notes in coin." Commercial I? prosperity, public morals, and national credit de- mand that this promise be fulfilled by a continu- ' ' 0U3 and steady progress to specie payment. B. Under the Constitution, the President and heads of departments are to make nominations ; for office ; the Senate is to advise and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be respected ; that Senators and I Representatives who may bo judges and accusers should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in appointments should haye ref- erence to the honesty, fidelity, and capacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of administra- tion require its policy to be represented, but per- mitting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to the country. 6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people concerning political affairs, and will hold all public officers to a rigid responsibility, ^nd engage that the prosecution and punishment of all who betray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, and unsparing. 7. The public school system of the several States is the bulwark of the American republic, and with a view to its security and permanence we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbidding the application of any public funds or property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sectarian control. 8. The revenue necessary for current expen- ditures and the obligations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon im- portations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to promote the interests of American labor and advance the prosperity of the whole country. 9. We reaffirm our opposition to further grants of the public lands to corporations and monopo- lies, and demand that the national domain be devoted to free homes for the people. 10. It is the imperative duty of the Govern- ment so to modify existing treaties with Euro- pean governments, that the same protection shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is given to the native-born ; and that all neces- sary laws should be passed to protect emigrants in the absence of power in the States for that purpose. 14 . 11. It is the immediate duty of Congress to fully investigate the effect of the immigration and importation of Mongolians upon the( moral and material interests of the country. 12. The Republican party recogni^s with ap- proval the substantial advances recently made toward the establishment of equal rights for women by the many important amendments ef- fected by Republican Legislatures in the laws which concern the personal and property rela- tions of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the appointment and election of women to the super- intendence of education, charities, and other pub- lie trusts. The honest demands of this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges, and im- munities should be treated with respcctfur con- sideration. 13. The Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and in the exercise of this power it is the right and duty of Congress to prohibit and extirpate in the Territories that relic of barbarism — polygamy; and we demand such legislation aa shall secure this end, and the supremacy of American institutions in all the Territories. 14. The pledges which the Nation has given to her soldiers and sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold those who im- periled their lives for the country's preservation in the kindest remembrance. IB. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feel- ing and tendencies. We therefore note with deep solicitude that the Democratic party counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the electoral vote of a united South, secured through the ef- forts of those who were recently arrayed against the Nation ; and we invoke the earnest attention of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and human rights. 16. We charge the Democratic party with be- ing the same in character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason ; with making its con- trol of the House of Representatives the triumph and opportunity of the Nation's recent foes ; with reasserting and applauding in the National Capi- tol the sentiments of unrepentant rebellion ; with sending Union soldiers to the rear, and promot- ing Confederate soldiers to the front ; with delib- erately proposing to repudiate the plighted faith of the Government ; with being equally false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial ques- tions ; with thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement and obstruction of in- vestigations ; with proving itself, through the 208 THE KEPUBLICjVN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. period of its ascendancy in the lower House of Congress, utterly incompetent to administer the Government; and we warn the country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant, and incapable. 17. The National Administration merits com- mendation for its honorable work in the manage- ment of domestic and foreign affairs, and Presi- dent Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the American people for his patriotism and his eminent services, in war and in peace. DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, ST. LOUIS, 1816. We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States, in National Convention as- sembled, do hereby declare the administration of the Federal Government to be in urgent need of immediate reform; do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this Convention, and of the Demo- cratic party in each State, a zealous effort and cooperation to this end ; and do hereby appeal to our fellow citizens of every former political connection to undertake with us this first and most pressing patriotic duty. For the Democracy of the whole country, we do here reaifirm our faith in the permanence of the Federal Union, our devotion to the Constitu- tion of the United States, with its amendments universally accepted as a final settlement of the controversies that engendered civil war, and do here record our steadfast confidence in the per- petuity of republican self-government. In absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority — the vital principle of republics ; in the supremacy of the civil over the military author- ity ; in the total separation of Church and State for the sake alike of civil and religious freedom ; in the equality of all citizens before just laws of their own enactment ; in the liberty of individual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary laws ; in the faithful education of the rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy, and transmit these best conditions of human happiness and hope, we behold the noblest products of a hundred years of changeful history ; but while upholding the boiTd of our Union and great charter of these our rights, it behooves a free people to practice also that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty. Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the hearts of the whole people the- Union, eleven years ago happily rescued from the danger of a secession of States ; but now to bo saved from a corrupt centralism, which, after inflicting upon ten States the rapacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed the offices of the Federal Gov- ernment itself with incapacity, waste, and fraud, infected States and municipalities with the con- ta^on of misrule, and looked fast the prosperity of an industrious people in the paralysis of " hard times." Reform is necessary to establish a sound cur- rency, restore the public credit, and maintain the national honor. We denounce the failure, for all these eleven years of peace, to make good the promise of the legal-tender notes, which are a changing stand- ard of value in the hands of the people, and the non-payment of which is a disregard of the plighted faith of the nation. We denounce the improvidence which, in eleven years of peace, has taken from the people in Federal taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal-tender notes, and squandered four times their sum in useless expense, without accu- mulating any reserve for their redemption. We denounce the financial imbecility and im- morality of that party, which, during eleven years of peace, has made no advance toward resump- tion, no preparation for resumption, but instead has obstructed resumption by wasting our re- sources and exhausting all our surplus income, and, while annually professing to intend a speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hindrances thereto. As such a hindrance we denounce the resumption clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal. We demand a judicious system of prepara tion by public economies, by official retrench- ments, and by wise finance, which shall enable the nation soon to assure the whole world of its perfect ability and its perfect readiness to meet any of its promises at the call of the creditor en- titled to payment. Wc believe such a system, well devised, and, above all, intrusted to competent hands for exe- cution, creating at no time an artificial scarcity of currency, and at no time alarming the public mind into a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of credit by which ninety-five per cent, of all business transactions are performed — a system open, public, and inspiring general confidence — would from the day of its adoption bring heal- ing on its wings to all our harassed industries, set in motion the wheels of commerce, manu- factures, and the mechanic arts, restore employ- ment to labor, and renew in all its natural sources the prosperity of the people. Reform is necessary in the sum and mode of Federal taxation, to the end that capital may be set free from distrust, and labor lightly burdened. REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 209 We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly 4,000 articles, as a masterpiece of injus- tice, inequality, and false pretense. It yields a dwindling, not a yearly rising revenue. It has impoverished ipany industries to subsidize a few. It prohibits imports that might purchase the products of American labor. It has degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior rank on the high seas. It has cut down the sales of American manufactures at home and abroad, and depleted the returns of American agriculture — an industry followed by half our people. It costs the people five times more than it produces to the Treasury, obstructs the pro- cesses of production, and wastes the fruits of labor. It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, en- riches dishonest officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all Custom-House taxation shall bo only for revenue. Reform is necessary in the scale of public ex- penses — Federal, State, and municipal. Our Fed- eral taxation has swollen from sixty millions, gold, in 1860, to four hundred and fifty millions, currency, in ISYO ; our aggregate taxation from one hundred and fifty-four millions, gold, in 1860, to seven hundred and thirty millions, currency, in 1870; or, in one decade, from less than five dol- lars per head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace, the people have paid to their tax-gatherers more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and more than twice that sum for the Federal Government alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in every department and from every officer of the Government. Reform is necessary to put a stop to the prof- ligate waste of public lands, and their diversion from actual settlers by the party in power, which has squandered 200,000,000 of acres upon rail- roads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has disposed of less than a sixth di- rectly to tillers of the soil. 1 Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican Congress, and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy, which have stripped our fellow citizens of foreign birth and kindred race, rccrossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and in fact now by law denied citizenship through naturalization, as being neither accus- tomed to the traditions of a progressive civiliza- tion nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy which thus discards the liberty-loving German and tolerates a revival of the coolie trade in Mongolian women imported for immoral purposes, and Mongolian men held to perform servile labor contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race. ' Reform is necessary, and can never be effect- ed but by making it the controlling issue of the elections, and lifting it above the two false issues' with which the office-holding class and the party in power seek to smother it : 1. The false issue with which they would en- kindle sectarian strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation, and is resolved to maintain without prejudice or preferences for any class, sect, or creed, and without largesses from the treasury to any. 2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the dying embers of sectional hate between kindred peoples once estranged, but now reunited in one indivisible republic and a common destiny. Reform is necessary in the civil service. Ex- perience proves that efficient, economical conduct of the governmental business is not possible if its civil service be subject to change at every elec- tion, be a prize fought for at the ballot-box, bo a brief reward of party zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned for proved competency, and held for fidelity in the public employ ; that the dis- pensing of patronage should neither be a tax upon the time of all our public men, nor the in- strument of their ambition. Hero, again, prom- ises, falsified in the performance, attest that the party in power can work out no practical or salu- tary reform. Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the public service. President, Vice- President, Judges, Senators, Representatives, Cabinet officers, those and all others in authority are the people's servants. Their offices are not a private perquisite ; they are a public trust. When the annals of this republic show the disgrace and censure of a Tico-President ; a late Speaker of the House of Reprosentfitives market- ing his rulings as a presiding officer ; three Sena- tors profiting secretly by their votes as law-mak- ers ; five chairmen of the leading committees of the late House of Representatives exposed in job- bery; a late Secretary of the Treasury forcing balances in the public accounts ; a late Attorney- General misappropriating public funds ; a Secre- tary of the Navy enriched or enriching friends by percentages levied off the profits of contractors 210 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 18S0. with his department ; an ambassador to England censured in a dishonorable speculation ; the Presi- dent's private secretary barely escaping conviction upon trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the revenue ; a Secretary of War impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors — the demonstration is complete that the first step in reform must be the people's choice of honest men from another party, lest the disease of one political organization in- fect the body politic, and lest by making no change of men or parties we get no change of measures and no real reform. All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes, the pro- duct of sixteen years' ascendancy of the Eepubli- can party, create a necessity for reform confessed by Republicans themselves ; but their reformers are voted down in conventions and displaced from the Cabinet. The party's mass of honest voters is powerless to resist the eighty thousand office- holders, its leaders and guides. Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. We demand a change of system, a change of administration, a change of parties, that we may have a change of measures and of men. Resolved, That this Convention, representing the Democratic party of the United States, do cordially endorse the action of the present House of Representatives in reducing and curtailing the expenses of the Federal Government, in cutting down salaries, extravagant appropriations, and in abolishing useless offices and places not required by the public necessities ; and we shall trust to the firmness of the Democratic members of the House that no committee of conference and no misinter- pretation of tie rules will be allowed to defeat these wholesome measures of economy demanded by the country. Resolved, That the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and the widows and orphans of those who have fallen in battle, have a just claim upon the care, protection, and gratitude of their fellow citizens. REPUBLICAN, CHICAGO, 1880. The Republican party, in National Convention assembled, at the end of twenty years since the Federal Government was first committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United States this brief report of its administration. It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the national authority. It reconstructed the Union of the States, with freedom instead of slavery as its cor- ner-stone. It transformed four million human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infa- mous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged it to see that slavery does not exist. It has raised the value of our paper currency from thirty-eight per cent, to the par of gold. It has restored upon a solid basis payment in coin for all the national obligations, and has given us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country. It has lifted the credit of the Nation from the point where six per cent, bonds sold at eighty-six to that where four per cent, bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. Under its administration railways have in- creased from 31,000 miles, in 1860, to more than 82,000 miles, in 1879. Our foreign trade has in- creased from $700,000,000 to $1,500,000,000 in the same time, and our exports, which were |20,- 000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were $264,- 000,000 more than our imports in 1879. Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of Government, besides the accruing interest on the public debt, and has annually disbursed more than $30,000,000 for soldiers' pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the public debt, and by refunding the balance at lower rates has reduced the an- nual interest charge from nearly $151,000,000 to less than $89,000,000. All the industries of the country have revived ; labor is in demand ; wages have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Republican party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people, and this Convention submits for their ap- proval the following statement of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and in- spire its efforts : I. We affirm that the work of the last twenty- one years has been such as to commend itself to the favor of the Nation, and that the fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved ; that the peace regained should be cherished; that the dissevered Union, now happily restored, should be perpetuated ; and that the liberties secured to this generation should be transmitted undimin- ished to future generations ; that the order estab- lished and the credit acquired should never be im- paired ; that the pensions promised should be ex- tinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof ; that the reviving industries should be fur- ther promoted, and that the commerce already so great should be steadily encouraged. II. The Constitution of the United States is a REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 211 supreme law, and not a mere contract. Out of confederated States it made a sovereign nation. Some powers are denied to the Nation, while oth- ers are denied to the States ; but the boundary between the powers delegated and those roserred is to be determined by the National, and not by the State, tribunals. III. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, but it is the , duty of the National Government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional power. The intelligence of the Nation is but the aggre- gate of the intelligence in the several States, and the destiny of the Nation must not be guided by the genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. IV. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that the Nation can be protected against the influence of sectari- anism while each State is exposed to its domina- tion. AVe, therefore, recommend that the Con- stitution be so amended as to lay the same pro- hibition upon the Legislature of each State, and to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. v. We aEBrm the belief, avowed in 1816, that the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor American labor ; that no further grant of the public do- main should be made to any railway or other cor- poration; that slavery having perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy, must die in the Territories ; that everywhere the protection accorded to citizens of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption ; and that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our watercourses and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private persons or corporations must cease. That the obligations of the Republic to the men who preserved its integ- rity in the hour of battle are undiminished by the lapse of the fifteen years since their final vic- tory. To do them perpetual honof is, and shall for ever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people. VI. Since the authority to regulate immigra- tion and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with Congress, or with the United States and its treaty-making power, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invokes the exercise of those powers to restrain and limit that immigration by the en- actment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will produce that result. VII. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the earlier career of Rutherford B. Hayes, in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to him for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief Executive, and that history will accord to his administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his interpositions between the people and proposed partisan laws. VIII. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a. supreme and insatiable lust of office and pat- ronage; that to obtain possession of the National and State Governments, and the control of place and position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage, and have devised fraudulent certifi- cations and returns ; have labored to unseat law- fully elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazards the vote of a majority of the States in the House of Representatives ; have endeavored to occupy, by force and fraud, the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine, and res- cued by the courageous action of Maine's pa- triotic sons ; have, by methods vicious in princi- ple and tyrannical in practice, attached partisan legislation to appropriation bills, upon whose passage the very movement of the Government depends ; have crushed the rights of indivicjuals ; have advocated the principles and sought the fa- vor of rebellion against the Nation, and have en- deavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its inestimably valua- ble results of nationality, personal freedom, and individual equality. The Republican party, adhering to the princi- ples affirmed by its last National Convention, of respect for the constitutional rules governing ap- pointment to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform in the civil ser- vice shall bo thorough, radical, and complete. To that end it demands the cooperation of the Leg- islative with the Executive Departments of the Government, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service ; that the tenure of administrative offices (except those through which the distinctive policy of the party in power shall be carried out), shall be made permanent during good behavior, and that the power of re- moval for cause, with due responsibility for the good conduct of subordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment. The equal, steady, and complete enforcement 212 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. of laws, and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first du- ties of the Nation. ■ The dangers of a solid South can only be averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen. "The execution of the laws and the pun- ishment of all those who violate them are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured, and genuine prosperity estab- lished throughout the South. Whatever prom- ises the Nation makes the Nation must perform, and the Nation can not with safety relegate this duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find free expression, and to this end the honest voter must be protect- ed against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use every legitimate means to restore all the States of this Union to the most perfect harmony that may be practicable ; and we submit it to the practical, sensible people of the United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interest of our coun- try at this time to surrender the administration of the National Government to the party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy, under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring dis- trust and confusion where there are now order, confidence, and hope. DEMOCRATIC PLATFOEM, CINCIN- NATI, 1880. The Democrats of the United States in Con- vention assembled declare Mrst. We pledge ourselves anew to the con- stitutional doctrines and traditions of the Demo- cratic party, as illustrated by the teachings and example of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots and embodied in the platform of the last National Convention. Second. Opposition to centralization and to that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends to consolidate in one and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despot- ism ; no sumptuary laws ; separation of Church and State for the good of each ; common schools fostered and protected. Third. Home rule, honest money, the strict maintenance of the public faith, consisting of gold and silver and paper convertible into coin on demand, the strict maintenance of the public faith. State and National, and a tariff for revenue only. Fourth. The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a genuine and thorough re- form of the civil service. Fifth. The right to a free ballot is a right preservative of all right, and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States. Sixth. The existing administration is the re- sult of conspiracy only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-box with troops and deputy marshals to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insults the people and imperils their institutions. Seventh. We execrate the course of this ad- ministration in making places in the civil service a reward for political crime, and demand a re- form by statute, which shall make it for ever im- possible for a defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people. Eighth. The great fraud of lS76-'77, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be President, and, for the first time in the American history, the will of the peo- ple was set aside under a threat of military vio- lence, struck a deadly blow at our system of re- presentative government. The Democratic party, to preserve the country from the horrors of a civil war, submitted for the time in the firm and patriotic belief that the people would punish this crime in 1880. This duty precedes and dwarfs every other. It imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever addressed the consciences of a nation of freemen. Ninth. The resolution of S. J. Tilden not again to be a candidate for the exalted place to which ho was elected by a majority of his country- men, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States with deep sensibility ; and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriotism, and integrity unshaken by the assaults of the common enemy, and they assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow citizens, who regard him as one who, by elevating the standard of the public morality, and adorning and purifying the public service, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and his party. Free ships and a living chance for American ships upon the seas ; on the land, no discrimina- COMMENTARY ON DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS. 213 tion in favor of transportation lines, corporations, or monopolies. Tenth. Amendment of the Burlingame treaty. No more Chinese emigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded. Eleventh. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and public lands for ac- tual settlers. Twelfth. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorantg and commune. Thirteenth. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditure $40,- 000,000 a year; upon the continuation of pros- perity at home, and the national honor abroad ; and, above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the Government as to insure us a genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service. n. COMMENTARY 01 DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS BY "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE." The Democratic party has been tating lessons of the Republican party for twenty-five years. Each successive Democratic platform in that period marks the adoption of some Republican principle, and the abandonment of some former Democratic doctrine. The Democracy has shown neither a just conception of what a principle is, nor a firm adherence to any consistent policy, right or wrong. It has affirmed and denied, adopted and rejected, all the political heresies of the time. It has combated, denounced, and finally agreed to and applauded every one of the great reforms wrought out by the Republican party. On questions of currency, taxation, and the public lands, as well as on the numerous issues of the war, reconstruction, and the payment of the public debt, it has occupied a variety of irrecon- cilable propositions pro and con. It has traveled completely around the circle of political apostasy. It has originated no new policy of the slightest value, and suggested none, but has been a con- stant drag and obstruction to the beneficent measures introduced by its opponents. It has trimmed its sails to catch every gust of popular passion or prejudice, while it has sought neither to guide nor to correct public opinion. It has never ascertained the will of the people until that will was ready to find some new mode of expression. Hence the Democracy has been continually behind the times. With the exception that it sticks to " State Sovereignty," it has been, in fact, an un- principled camp-follower of the Republican party, snatching up eagerly the cast-off garments of the great army, and skulking in the rear to avoid hardship and danger. In all this period the Democracy has been actuated by no high motives. It has been either wholly selfish, as when it espoused the cause of the slaveholder in 1856, or distinctly treasonable, as when it pronounced the war " a failure " in 1864, or blindly revengeful, as when it favored the payment of the bonds in irredeemable scrip in 1868. The one controlling idea, which has dominated it unwaveringly for a quarter of a cen- tury, has been to get into office. All else that has been called Democracy has changed ; but this idea has never changed. An examination of the official utterances of the party, made by National Conventions from 1856 to 1880, will justify the estimate of the character, aims, and acts of the Democracy which has been here given. 1856. — The Democratic Convention at Cincin- nati, June 2, declared against internal improve- ments by the Goverimient ; resolved that Congress had no power to interfere with slavery in the States ; approved the Fugitive Slave Law ; adopt- ed the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill — that is, the non-interference of the General Gov- ernment with slavery in the Territories or the District of Columbia ; recognized the right of new States to regulate their domestic institutions with or without slavery, as they pleased ; upheld the prin- ciples of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 and 1799 (supposed to be a justification of the right of secession). 1860. — Both the Douglas and Breckinridge 214 THE KEPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. Conventions readopted the Democratic pro-sla- Tery platform of 1856. 1864. — The Democratic Convention at Chi- cago, August 29, 1864, adopted the following : " Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that, after four years of failure to restore tJie Union, by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military necessity or a war power higher than the Constitution, the Con- stitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities.^' 1868. — The Democratic Convention at New York, July 4, 1868, in which Winfield Scott Han- cock received 144J votes, demanded the immedi- ate restoration of all the rebel States to their " rigliis " in the Union ; amnesty for all past po- litical offenses ; taxation of Govormnent bonds ; incidental protection to domestic manufactwes ; and adopted the following : "Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable, and, when the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States " [meaning irredeemable notes]. Against Negro Suffrage. — '' And we do declare and resolve that, ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British crown, the pi-ivilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the seiicral States ; and that any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power, which can find no warrant in the Consti- tution, and, if sanctioned by the people, will sub- vert our form of government, and can only end in a single centralized and consolidated Govern- ment, in which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and an unquali- fied despotism be established in place of a Fed- eral Union of coequal States. And that we re- gard the Eeconstruction Acts (so called) of Con- gress as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolu- tionary, and void." 1872. — The National Democratic Convention at Baltimpre, July, 1872, completely stultified the record of the party four years previously, as embodied in the above resolutions, by adopting the following : " We hold that it is the duty of Government, in its dealings with the people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political. " We pledge ourselves to maintain the Union of these States, and to oppose any reopening of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Four- teenth, and Fifteenth Amendments [which the Convention of 1868 pronounced " imeonstitutioii- al, revolutionary, and void "]. "The public credit must be sacredly main- tained, and we denounce repudiation in every form and guise. [In 1868 the party demanded the pay- ment of the bonds in greenbacks.] Recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irrecon- cilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their Congressional districts, and to the deci- sion of the Congress thereon, wholly free of Ex- ecutive interference or dictation." In 1856, 1860, and 1864 the party clamored for " free ships and free trade " ; in 1868 for in- cidental protection ; and now for the decision of the question by Congressional districts. The platform of 1868 allowed that donations of public lands might be deemed necessary for "the encouragement of important public im- provements." The platform of 1872 opposed the granting of lands for any improvements what- ever. 1876. — The Democratic Convention at St. Louis, June 28, 1876, denounced the financial imbecility of the Republican party for making no progress toward resumptiouj and " denounced the resumption clause of the act of 1875 as a hin- drance to resumption."! Beyond "denouncing" the acts of the Republican party, it set forth no ■ affirmative principles of its own, having learned wisdom by experience. 1880. — The late Convention at Cincinnati " pledged itself anew " to the doctrines and tra- ditions of the party (including, it is presumed, the payment of the bonds in greenbacks, the opposition to negro suffrage, and the declaration that the war was a failure) ; demanded honest money (but did not pronounce the Resumption act a " hindrance to resumption ") ; execrated the " fraud of 1876-'77 " (biit did not deny the equal and free participation of the Democratic House in the Electoral Commission) ; demanded a free ballot (but did not ask the enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment in the South) ; favored a tariff for revenue (and explained not why a Pennsylvania Protectionist sat in the Chair and made up the Committees of a Democratic House) ; GENERAL HANCOCK'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 215 declared " unshaken confidence in Samuel J. Til- den " — and refused to nominate him. Epitomizing the action of the Democratic party since 1856 on the great public questions of the day, it appears : 1. The Tariff.— That the party, since 1856, has favored absolute free trade, a revenue tariff, " in- cidental protection," and the remission of the ques- tion to the Congressional districts ; and, at the present moment, has named as its candidate for the Presidency a Pennsylvania Protectionist. 2. The Currency. — In 1868 the party favored the payment of the bonds in greenbacks, and in 1876 it denounced the Resumption Act as "a hin- drance to resumption," but now favors " honest money." 3. Reconstruction.— The constitutional amend- ments were declared " revolutionary and void " in 1868; their rigid enforcement demanded in 18'72 ; accepted in form in 1876 ; and broken in letter and spirit by the Southern Democrats from the day they were adopted till now. 4. The war was pronounced a failure in 1864 ; its results partially agreed to in 1868; and the soldiers and sailors have been thanked in every Democratic platform since. 5. The Democratic party has wholly abandoned the ante-war theory of the party in regard to pub- lic improvements, and has adopted the Republican theory ; the Southern States lately in rebellion be- ing now the most clamorous for appropriations from the public treasury, 6. The Democratic party now comes before the country without a single afiSrmative principle, ex- cept such as it has stolen froni the Republican party, and the one original issue of State suprem- acy in national elections, which is a lingering relic of the exploded doctrine of State Rights. 7. With emancipation and negro suffrage dis- appeared the one cohesive principle of the original Democracy, that is, slavery. Since that time it has shifted its ground in every 'campaign, and resem- bles the old party whoso name it bears only in its total lack of all principle, its hostility to the idea of Federal unity and supremacy, and its greedi- ness for the spoils of office. III. GENERAL HANCOCK'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Goveekob's Island, New York City, ) Juhj 29, 1880. 1 Gentlemen : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of June 13, 1880, ap- prising me formally of my nomination to the office of President of the United States by the National Democratic Convention, lately assembled in Cincinnati. I accept the nomination with grateful appreciation of the confidence reposed in me. The' principles enumerated by the Convention are those I have cherished in the past, and ^hall endeavor to maintain in the future. The Thir- teenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, embodying the results of the war for the Union, arc invio- lable. If called to the Presidency, I should deem it my duty to resist with all of my power any at- tempt to impair or evade the full force and effect of the Constitution, which, in every article, sec- tion, and amendment, is the supreme law of the land. The Constitution forms the basis of the Government of the United States. The powers granted by it to the legislative, executive, and judicial departments, define and limit the author- ity of the General Government ; powers not dele- gated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, belong to the States respectively, or to the people. The Gener- al and State governments, each acting in its own sphere, without trenching upon the lawful juris- diction of the other, constitute the Union. This Union, comprising a General Government with general powers, and State governments with State powers for purposes local to the States, is a polity, the foundations of which were laid in the pro- foundest wisdom. This is the Union our fathers made, and which has been so respected abroad and so beneficent at home. Tried by blood and fire, it stands to- day a model form of free popular government ; a political system which, rightly administered, has been, and will continue to be, the admiration of the world. May we not say nearly in the words of Washington : The unity of government, which constitutes us one people, is justly dear to us ; it is the main pillar in the edifice of our real independence, the support of our peace, safety, 216 THE REPUBLICAN TEXT-BOOK FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. and prosperity, and of that liberty we so highly prize, and intend at every hazard to preserve. But no form of government, however care- fully devised, no principles, however sound, will protect the rights of the people unless administra- tion is faithful and efficient. It is a vital principle in our system, that neither fraud nor force must be allowed to subvert the rights of the people. When fraud, violence, or incompetence controls, the noblest constitutions and wisest laws are use- less. The bayonet is not a fit instrument for col- lecting the votes of freemen. It is only by a full vote, free ballot, and fair count that the people can rule in fact, as required by the theory of our government. Take this foundation away, and the whole structure falls. Public office is a trust, not a bounty bestowed upon the holder; no incompetent or dishonest persons should ever be intrusted with it, or if appointed, they should be promptly ejected. The basis of a substantial, practical civil ser- vice ^reform must first be established by the peo- ple in filling the elective offices ; if they fix a high standard of qualification for office, and sternly reject the corrupt and incompetent, the result will be decisive in governing the action of the servants whom they trust with appointing power. The War for the Union was successfully closed more than fifteen years ago. All classes of our people must share alike in the blessings of the Union, and are equally concerned in its per- petuity, and in the proper administration of pub- lic affairs. We are in a state of profound peace. Henceforth let it bo our purpose to cultivate sen- timents of friendship and not of animosity among our fellow citizens. Our material interests, varied and progressive, demand our constant and united efforts. A sedu- lous and scrupulous care of the public credit, to- gether with a wise and economical management of our governmental expenditures, should be main- tained in order that labor may be lightly bur- dened, and that all persons may be protected in their rights to the fruits of their own industry. The time has come to enjoy the substantial bene- fits of reconciliation. As one peopls^we have common interests. Let us encourage the 'har- mony and generous rivalry among our own indus- tries which will revive our languishing merchant marine, extend our commerce with foreign na- tions, assist our merchants, manufacturers, and producers to develop our vast natural resources, and increase the prosperity and happiness of our people. If elected, I shall, with the Divine favor, la- bor with what ability I possess to discharge my duties with fidelity, according to my convictions, and shall take care to protect and defend the Union, and to see that the laws are faithfully and equally executed in all parts of the counti-y alike. I will assume the responsibility, fully sensible of the fact that to administer rightly the functions ' of government is to discharge the most sacred duty that can devolve upon an American citi- zen. I am, very respectfully, yours, WiNiiELD S. Hancock. To the Hon. John W. Btetekson, President of the Con- vention^ the Ron, John P. Stockton, Chairman, and others of the Committee of the National Democratia Conicention. THE END. NE^V BOOKS. A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wick- edness. Collected and translated by J. de Finod. One yoI, 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. Thia work conslstB of a collection or wise and trilliant Eayings from Frencli writers maliing a rich and piquant booli of fresh quotations. Two Russian Idyls. Appletons' ." New Handy-Volume Series." Paper, 30 cents. The two stories, in one volume, " Marcella " and " Esflra," are fresh and charming productions, giving some very agreeable pictures of Eossian life, and delightful portraits of characters. Strange Stories. By Erckmann-Chatrian. " New Handy-Volume Series." Paper, 80 cents. A collection of weird stories, embodying remarkable psychological experiences, of a character to recall the stories of Edgar A, Poo. Memories of my Exile. By Louis Kosscth. Translated from the Original Hungarian by Ferenoz Jaksz. One vol., crown 8vo. Cloth. Price, $2.00. Thia important work relates to the period when the Italian Kingdom was being established, and gives the Secret Treaties and details of the understanding between England, the Emperor Kapoleon, and Count Cavour. An Outline of the Public Life and Services of Thomas F. Bayard, Senator of the United States from the State of Delaware, 1869-1880. AVith Ex- tracts from his Speeches and the Debates of Congress. By Edward Spencer. One vol., 12mo. Price, in cloth, $1-00; in paper cover, 50 cents. The Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews. Translated and critically examined by Michael Heilprin. Vol. II. Crown 8vo. Cloth. Price, $2.00. " The notion has somehow got abroad that the scientific study of the Bible is inconsistent with the most tender reverence for its contents, or with their persistent fascination. But the reverence of Mr. Heilprin for the subject-matter of hia criticism could hardly be surpassed; and, that it has not lost its power to interest and charm, hia book itself is ample evidence, which will be reen- forced by the experience of every intelligent reader of its too brief contents."— -Vew York MiUon., July 24, 1879. For sale by all booksellers ; or any work sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price. Z>. APPLETON iV CO., Publishers, I, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York. Historical and Biograpliical Works. The Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkev in 1877-78. By F. V. Geeene, First Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, and lately Military Attache to the U. S. Legation at St. Petersburg. 1 vol., 8vo. Cloth. With Atlas containing 26 Plates of Maps, Plans, etc., printed (with a few excep- tions) in colors. Price, $6.00. The Life of the Prince Consort. By Theodore Maktin. With Portraits. Vols. L, II., III., IV., V. 12mo. Cloth, $2.00 each volumts. The English Reformation! How it came about, and why we should uphold it. By Cunningham Geikie, D. D., author of " The Life and Words of Christ." With a Preface by the author for the American edition. 1 vol., 12mo. Cloth, price, $2.00. A History of England in the Eighteenth Century. By William E. H. Leokt. 2 vols., 8vo. Cloth, $6.00. The French Revolutionary Epoch. Being a History of France from the Beginning of the First French Revolution to the End of the Second Empire. By Henri Van Laun, author of " History of French Literature," etc. 2 vols., 12mo. Cloth, $3.50. The Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews. Translated and critically examined by Michael Heilpkin. Vol. I. Crown 8to. Cloth, price, $2.00. History of New York During the Eevolutionary War, and of the Leading Events in the other Colonies at that Period. By Thomas Jones, Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province. Edited by Edward Floyd de Lancet. With Notes, Contemporary Documents, Maps, and Portraits. In two vols., 8vo, HS pages, 713 pages. Cloth, gilt top, price, $15.00. Printed for the New York Historical Society, in "The John D. Jones Fund Series of Histories and Memoirs." The Last Years of Daniel Webster. A Monograph. By George Tioksor Curtis. 8vo. Paper, 60 cents. For sale by all booksellers. Any volume mailed, post-paid, to any address iu the United States, on receipt of price. D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York. Recent American History and Biography. Destruction and Reconstruction. Personal Experiences of the Late War. By Richaed Taylor, Lieutenant-General in the Confederate Army. 1 vol., 8vo. Cloth, price, $2.00. Four Years with General Lee: Being a Summary of the more Important Events touching the Career of General Kobert E. Lee, in the War between the States ; together with an Authoritative Statement of the Strength of the Army which he commanded in the Field. By William H. Taylor, of his Staff, and late Adjutant-General of the Army of North- ern Virginia. 8vo. Cloth, $2.00. Military Operations of Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations directed during the Late War between the States. By Joseph E. Johnston, General C. S. A. Illustrated by Steel Plates and Maps. 1 vol., 8vo. Cloth, $5.00 ; sheep, $6.00 ; half morocco, $7.60. The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston. By his Son, Colonel William Pheston Johnston. One large octavo volume, lli pages. With Maps, a fine Portrait on Steel, and Eight full-page Illustrations. . Cloth, $6.00; sheep, $6.00; half turkey, $7.00. The Autobiography of William H. Seward 0801-1834). With a later Memoir by his Son, Frederick W. Seward, late Assistant Secretary of State. Per volume, over 800 pages, cloth, $4.25 ; sheep, $5.25 ; half turkey, $6.26 ; full turkey, $8.25. Military History of General U. S. Grant. From April, 1861, to April, 1865. By Adam Badeau, Colonel and Aide de-Camp to the General-in-Chief, Brevet Brigadier-General V. S. A. With Portrait, and numerous Maps. Vol. L 8vo. Cloth, $4.00 ; half calf, extra, $6.50. Memoirs of W. T. Sherman. By Himself. (With a Military Map showing the Marches of the United States Forces under General Sherman's command.) Two handsome vols., 8vo. Blue cloth, $5.60 ; sheep, $7.00 ; half morocco, $8.50 ; full morocco, $12.00. CHEAP EDITION. 1vol. Cloth, $3.60. D. APPLETON & 00., Publishers, 1„3, & 5 Bond St., New York. forts on American Government, History, ani Eiograpliy. Benton's Thirty Tears' Tlew; or, a History of the Working of the American Gov- ernment for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850. New edition, revised, with copions Index. 2 very large vols., 8vo. Cloth, $6.00; sheep, $8.00; half calf, $10.00; half morocco, $10.00; full calf, $12.00. Benton's Abridgement of the Dehates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856. Prom Gales and Seaton's Annals of Congress ; from their Register of Debates; and from the Official Beported Debates, by John 0. Eives. By the author of "The Thirty Years' View." 16 large vols., 8vo. (Published by subscrip- tion.) Half morocco, per vol., $0.00; half calf, $6.00. Benton's Historical and legal Ex- amination of the Dred Scott Case. 1 vol., 8vo. Cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 63 cents. Cutts (J. Madison). A Brief Treatise upon Constitutional and Party Questions, as received from the late Stephen A. Douglas. 1 vol., 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. Argument at tteneva. A Complete Col- lection of the Forensic Discussions on the Part of the United States and Great Britain, before the Tribunal of Arbitration under the Treaty of Washington, as puUished by au- tluynty of the Government. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50. Presidential Counts (The). A Com- plete Official Eecord of the Proceedings of Congress at the Counting of the Electoral Votes in all the Elections of President and Vice-President of the United States, together with all Congressional Debates incident thereto, or to Proposed Legislation upon that Subject. With an Analytical Intro- duction. 1 vol., 8vo. Paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. Kendall (George Wilkins). The War between the United States and Mexico. Illustrated. Embracing Eleven Folio Pic- torial Drawings (in Colors) of the Principal Conflicts by Carl Nebel, author of "A Picturesque and ArchEeological Voyage in Mexico." With a Description of each Bat- tle, by George Wilkins Kendall, author of " The Texan Santa Ffi Expedition," etc. 1 vol., folio. Half morocco, $40.00. O'Callaghan (E. B.), M. D. History of New Netherlands; or. New York under the Dutch. 2 vols., 8vo. Illustrated with Steel Plates and Maps. Cloth, $6.00. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Eebellion. 1 vol., 8vo. Paper, $1.00; cloth, $1.60. Peters. General History of Connecticut, from the First Settlement to the Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain. Lon- don, 1781. Cloth, $1.60. Curtis (George T.) Life of Daniel "Web- ster. Illustrated with Steel Portrait and Woodcuts. (Subscription.) 2 vols., 8vo. Cloth, $10.00; sheep, $12.00; half mor., $14.00. Curtis (George T.) Life of Daniel Web- ster. New popular edition. 2 vols., small 8vo. Cloth, $6.00; half morocco, $12.00. Curtis (George T.) The Last Tears of Daniel Webster. A Monograph. 8vo. Paper, 50 cents. Seward (William H.) The Autobiog- raphy of (1801-1834), with a later Memoir by his Son, Frederick W. Seward, late Assist- ant Secretary of State. (Subscription.) Per volume, over 800 pages, cloth, $4.25; sheep, $5.25; half turkey, $6.25; full turkey, $8.25. Badeau (Adam). The Military History of General U. S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865. By Adam Badeau, Colonel and Aide-de-Camp to the General-in-Chief, Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. A. With Portrait, and numerous Maps. Vi»l. I. 8vo. Cloth, $4.00; half calf, extra, $6.50. Sherman (W. T.), Memoirs of. By him- self. (With a Military Map showing the Marches of the United States Forces under General Sherman's command.) 2 handsome vols., 8vo. Blue cloth, $5.50; sheep, $7.00; half morocco, $8.60; full morocco, $12.00. Cheap Edition. Subscription. 1 vol. Cloth, $3.50. Four Years with General lee : Being a Summary of the more Important Events touching the Career of General Eobert E. Lee, in the War between the States; together with an Authoritative Statement of the Strength of the Army which he commanded in the Field. By WilUam H. Taylor, of his Staff, and late Adjutant-General of the Aitny of Northern Virginia. 8vo. Cloth, $2.00. The life of General Albert Sidney JOHNSTON. By his Son, Colonel William Preston Johnston. 1 large octavo volume, 774 pages. With Maps, a fine Portrait on Steel, and 8 fhll-page Hlustrations. Cloth, $5.00; sheep, $6.00; half turkey, $7.00. D. APPLETON & CO., Publishebs, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Strebt, New Toek. APPLETONS' ANNUAL CYCLOPJIDIA, AND Register of Important Events of the Year 1879. NEW SERIES. Vol. IV. The Annual CycLOPiEDiA of 1879 is a most valuable book. It is uniform in size, style, and price, with the American Cyclopedia. It gives the history of the world during the year. A special article ia devoted to every State in the Union. To each country on the globe an article is also given, comprising complete infonnation in regard to its area, population, commerce, re- ligion, military aifairs, foreign relations, internal agitations, status, and progress. The volume is, in fact, an exhaustive annual register, being the only publication of the kind in this country. Special record is made of the proceedings of Congress. The high value and authority of the exhaustive monographs on the Marine Hospital Service, the Signal Service, the Kesumption op Specie Payments, and Repundino the Pl'blic Debt, will be appreciated by every reader. The biograph- ical articles on Sherman, Hill, Blaine, Conkling, and Randall, deserve also to be well noted, for they have been prepared under the eyes of those statesmen and their immediate friends. Not less original are the sketches of W. L. Garri- son, Asa Packer, General John A. Dix, and of other prominent men. The Great Engineering Enterprises op the World and the chief subjects of scientific research and experiments have received their full share of attention. Recent Developments in Chemistry are given by Dr. W. J. Toumans, Associate Editor of " The Popular Science Monthly." An elaborate record of Astronomical Phenomena and Progress is made by Professor Daniel Kirkwood, of the Uni- versity of Indiana. Numerous well-executed maps and woodcuts illustrate the volume, together with three fine steel engravings, portraits of President Geevt, of the French Re- public, Speaker Randall, and Secretary Sherman. pxicx: FJEH roxmni!:. Cloth $5 00 Sheep 6 00 Half Turkey $7 00 Half Russia 8 00 June, 1880. Now ready and for sale hy Subscription only. D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York. APPLETONS' PERIODICALS. Appletons' Journal : A Magazine of General Literature. Subscription, $3.00 per annum ; einglft copy, 23 cents. The volumes begin January and July of each year. The Art Journal ; An International Gallery of Engravings by Distinguished Artists of Europe and America. With Illustrated Papers in the various branches of Art. Each volume contains the monthly numbers for one year. Subscription, $9.00. The Popular Science Monthly; Conducted by E. L. and W. J. Toumans. Containing instructive and interesting articles and abstracts of articles, original, selected, and illustrated, from the pens of the leading scientific men of different countries. Subscription, to begin at any time, $5.00 per annum; single copy, 60 cents. The volumes begin May and November of each year. The North American Review: Published Monthly. Containing articles of general public interest, it is a forum for their full and free discussion. It is cosmopolitan, and, true to its ancient motto, it is the organ of no sect, or party, or school. Subscription, $5.00 per annum ; single copy, 50 cents. The New Yorl< Medical Journal :■ . ' Edited by Frank P. Fobter, M. D. Subscription, $4.00 per annum ; single copy, 40 cents. CLUB RATES. POSTAOE PAID. Appletons' Journal and The Popular Science Monthly, together, $7.00 per annum (full price, $8.00); and North American Eeview, $11.50 per annum (full price, $13.00). The Popular Science Monthly and New York Medical Journal, together, $8.00 per annum (full price, $9.00) ; and North American Review, $12.50 per annum (full price, $14.00). Appletons' Journal and New York Medical Journal, together, $0.25 per annum (full price, $7.00) ; and North American Review, $10.50 per annum.(full price, $12.00). The Popular Science Monthly and North American Review, together, $9.00 per annum (full price, $10.00). Appletons' Journal and North American Review, to- gether, $7.00 per annum (full price, $8.00). New York Medical Journal and North American Review, together, $8.00 per annum (full price, $9.00). J}. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, New York.