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JAMES A. GARFI1:LD. 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDKl-SS 
 
 HRONOL'NCBD IS THE 
 
 HALL OF RErRESEXTATIVES, 
 
 Febriary 27, 1SS2, 
 
 Before the Departmests of the Government of 
 THE United St a tes. 
 
 LVMF.S C. I5LAIXE, 
 
 IN RtSPONSK TO AN INVITATION KROM THE 
 TWO HOUSES OK CONGRESS. 
 
 WASHINGTON": 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING O I" F I C F. 
 1882. 
 

MEMORIAL ADDRESS, 
 
 Mr. President : For the second time in 
 this generation the great departments of 
 the Government of the United States are 
 assembled in the Hall of Representatives 
 to do honor to the memory of a murdered 
 President. Lincoln fell at the close of 
 a mighty struggle in which the passions 
 of men had been deeply stirred. The 
 tragical termination of his great life added 
 but another to the lengthened succession 
 of horrors which had marked so many 
 lintels with the blood of the first-born. 
 Gari-iki-I) was slain in a day of peace, 
 when brother had been reconciled to 
 brother, and when anger and hate had 
 been banished from the land. "Whoever 
 shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, 
 if he will show it as it has been exhibited 
 
4 
 where such example was last to have been 
 looked for, let him not give it the grim 
 visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by 
 revenge, the face black with settled hate. 
 Let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth- 
 faced, bloodless demon; not so much an 
 example of human nature in its depravity 
 and in its paroxysms of crime, as an 
 infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary 
 display and development of his character. " 
 
 From the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply- 
 mouth till the uprising against Charles I., 
 about twenty thousand emigrants came 
 from old England to New England. As 
 they came in pursuit of intelledtual freedom 
 and ecclesiastical independence rather than 
 for worldly honor and profit, the emigra- 
 tion naturally ceased when the contest for 
 religious liberty began in earnest at home. 
 The man who struck his most efiective 
 
blow for freedom of conscience by sailing 
 for the colonies in 1620 would have been 
 accounted a deserter to leave after 1640. 
 The opportunity had then come on the soil 
 of England for that great contest which 
 established the authority of Parliament, 
 gave religious freedom to the people, sent 
 Charles to the block, and committed to the 
 hands of Oliver Cromwell the supreme 
 executive authority of England. The 
 English emigration was never renewed, 
 and from these twenty thousand men, 
 and from a small emigration from Scot- 
 land, from Ireland, and from Erance, are 
 descended the \ast numbers who have 
 New England blood in their veins. 
 
 In 1685 the revocation of the edid of 
 Nantes by Louis XIV. scattered to other 
 countries four hundred thousand Protest- 
 ants, who were among the most intelligent 
 and enterprising of Erench subjects — 
 merchants of capital, skilled manufact- 
 
urers, and handicraftsmen, superior at the 
 time to all others in Europe. A consider- 
 able number of these Huguenot French 
 came to America; a few landed in New 
 England and became honorably prominent 
 in its history. Their names have in large 
 part become anglicized, or have disap- 
 peared, but their blood is traceable in 
 many of the most reputable families, and 
 their fame is perpetuated in honorable 
 memorials and useful institutions. 
 
 From these two sources, the FLnglish- 
 Puritan and the French-Huguenot, came 
 the late President — his father, Abram Gar- 
 field, being descended from the one, and 
 his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other. 
 
 It was good stock on both sides — none 
 better, none braver, none truer. There 
 was in it an inheritance of courage, of man- 
 liness, of imperishable love of liberty, of 
 undying adherence to principle. ( jARFIeld 
 was proud of his blood; and, with as much 
 
7 
 satisfaction as if he were a British noble- 
 man reading his stately ancestral record in 
 Burke's Peerage, he spoke of himself as 
 ninth in descent from those who would 
 not endure the oppression of the Stuarts, 
 and seventh in descent from the brave 
 French Protestants who refused to submit 
 to tyranny even from the Grand Monarque. 
 General Garfield delighted to dwell on 
 these traits, and, during his only visit to En- 
 gland, he busied himself in searching out 
 every trace of his forefathers in parish reg- 
 istries and on ancient army rolls. Sitting 
 with a frientl in the gallery of the House 
 of Commons, one night, after a long day's 
 labor in this field of research, he said, with 
 evident elation, that in every war in which 
 for three centuries patriots of English blood 
 had struck sturdy blows for constitutional 
 government and human liberty, his family 
 had been represented. They were at Mars- 
 ton Moor, at Naseby, and at Preston; they 
 
8 
 
 were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga, and at 
 Monmouth; and in his own person had 
 battled for the same great cause in the 
 war which preserved the Union of the 
 States. 
 
 His father dying before he was two 
 years old, Garfield's early life was one 
 of privation, but its poverty has been 
 made indelicately and unjustly prominent. 
 Thousands of readers have ima<>ined him 
 as the ragged, starving child, whose reality 
 too often greets the eye in the squalid 
 sections of our large cities. General Gar- 
 fU'Ld's infancy and youth had none of 
 this destitution, none of these pitiful feat- 
 ures appealing to the tender heart, and to 
 the open hand, of charity. He was a poor 
 boy in the same sense in which Henry 
 Clay was a poor boy; in which Andrew 
 Jackson was a poor boy; in which Daniel 
 Webster was a poor boy; in the sense in 
 which a large majority of the eminent men 
 
9 
 
 of America in all generations have been 
 poor boys. Before a great multitude, in 
 a ])ublic speech, Mr. Webster bore this 
 testimony: 
 
 " It (lid not ha|)pen to me to be born in a 
 log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters 
 were born in a log cabin raised amid the 
 snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period 
 so early that when the smoke rose first from 
 its rude chimney and curled oxer the frozen 
 hills there was no similar evidence of a 
 white man's habitation between it and the 
 settlements on the ri\ers of Canada. Its 
 remains still exist. I make to it an annual 
 visit. I carry my children to it to teach 
 them the hardships endured b)- the genera- 
 tions which have gone before them. I love 
 to dwell on the tender recollections, the 
 kintlred ties, the earl) affections, and the 
 touching narratives and incidents which 
 mingle with all I know of this primitive 
 family abode." 
 
lO 
 
 With the requisite change of scene the 
 same words would aptly portray the early 
 days of Garfield. The poverty of the 
 •frontier, where all are engaged in a com- 
 mon struggle and where a common sym- 
 pathy and hearty co-operation lighten the 
 burdens of each, is a very different pov- 
 erty, different in kind, different in influ- 
 ence and effect, from that conscious and 
 humiliating indigence which is every day 
 forced to contrast itself with neighboring 
 wealth on which it feels a sense of grinding 
 dependence. The poverty of the frontier is 
 indeed no poverty. It is but the beginning 
 of wealth, and has the boundless possibili- 
 ties of the future always opening before it. 
 No man ever grew up in the agricultural 
 regions of the West, where a house-raising, 
 or even a corn-husking, is matter of com- 
 mon interest and helpfulness, with any 
 other feeling than that of broad-minded, 
 generous independence. This honorable 
 
1 1 
 
 independence marked the \oiith of Car- 
 i-iHLi), as it marks the youth of inilHons of 
 the best blood and brain now training^ for 
 the future citizenship and future govern- 
 ment of the Republic. CiARi-ii:Li) was 
 born heir to land, to the title of freeholder, 
 which has been the jxitent and passport of 
 self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race 
 ever since Ilengist and llorsa landed on 
 the shores of I-Jigland. 11 i^ adventure on 
 the canal — an alternative between that and 
 the deck of a Lake Erie schooner — was a 
 farmer boy's device for earning money, just 
 as the New Hngland lad begins a possibly 
 great career by sailing before the mast on 
 a coasting vessel, or on a merchantman 
 bound to the farther India or to the China 
 seas. 
 
 No iiKfnly man feels anything of shame 
 in looking back to early struggles with 
 adverse circumstances, and no man feels a 
 worthier pride than when he has conquered 
 
12 
 
 the obstacles to his progress. But no one 
 of noble mould desires to be looked upon 
 'as having occupied a menial position, as 
 having been repressed by a feeling of infe- 
 riority, or as having suffered the evils of 
 poverty until relief was found at the hand 
 of charity. General Garfield's youth 
 presented no hardships which family love 
 and family energy did not overcome, sub- 
 jected him to no privations which he did 
 not cheerfully accept, and left no memories 
 save those which were recalled with delight, 
 and transmitted with profit and with pride. 
 Garfield's early opportunities for secur- 
 ing an education were extremely limited, 
 and yet were sufficient to develop in him 
 an intense desire to learn. He could read 
 at three years of age, and each winter he 
 had the advantage of the distrid school. 
 He read all the books to be found within 
 the circle of his acquaintance; some of 
 them he got by heart. While yet in child- 
 
13 
 hood he was a constant student of the 
 I)il)lc. anil became familiar with its Htera- 
 tiire. i'he dii^nity and earnestness of his 
 speech in his maturer life ;<ave evidence 
 of this early trainini;. At eij^diteen years 
 of ai,^e he was able to teach school, and 
 thenceforward his ambition was to obtain 
 a colle^^e education. To this end he bent 
 all his efforts, workinjj^ in the harvest field, 
 at the carpenter's bench, and, in the winter 
 season, teachin^^ the common schools of 
 the neii(hborhood. While thus laboriously 
 occupietl he found time to prosecute his 
 studies, and was so successful that at 
 twenty-two )ears of age he was able to 
 enter the junior class at Williams CoUes/e, 
 then under the presidency of the venerable 
 and honored Mark Hopkins, who. in the 
 fullness of his |)owers, survives the emi- 
 nent |)U|)il to whom he was of inestimable 
 service. 
 
 The histor\- of r,.\Riii-i.i)'s life to this 
 
14 
 
 pcricxl presents no novel features. He 
 had undoubtedly shown perseveranee, self- 
 reliance, self-sacrifice, and ambition — qual- 
 ities which, be it said for the honor of our 
 country, are everywhere to be found among 
 the young men of America. But from his 
 graduation at Williams onward, to the hour 
 of his tragical death, Gakfiklu's career was 
 eminent and exceptional. Slowly working 
 through his educational period, receiving 
 his diploma when twenty-four years of age, 
 he seemed at one bound to spring into 
 conspicuous and brilliant success. Within 
 six years he was successively President of 
 a College, vState Senator of Ohio, Major 
 General of the Army of the United States, 
 and Representative eleCl to the National 
 Congress. A combination of honors so 
 varied, so elevated, within a period so 
 brief and to a man so young, is without 
 precedent or parallel in the history of the 
 country. 
 
15 
 
 (/ \Ki iiii.d's army life was begun with no 
 other niihtar)- knowledge than such as he 
 had hastily gained from books in the few 
 months preceding his march to the field. 
 Stepping from ci\il life to the head of a 
 regiment, the first order he received when 
 ready to cross the Ohio was to assume 
 command of a brigade, and to operate as 
 an independent force in Kastern Kentucky. 
 His immetliate duty was to check the 
 advance of Humphrey Marshall, who was 
 marching down the Big Sandy with the 
 intention of occupying, in connection with 
 other Confederate forces, the entire territory 
 of Kentuck)', and of precipitating the State 
 into secession. This was at the close of 
 the year 1861. Seldom, if e\er, has a 
 young college professor been thrown into 
 a more embarrassing and discouraging 
 position. lie knew just enough of mili- 
 tary- science, as he expressed it himself, to 
 measure the extent of his ignorance, and 
 
i6 
 
 with a handful of men he was marching, 
 in rough winter weather, into a strange 
 country, among a hostile population, to 
 confront a largely superior force under the 
 command of a distinguished graduate of 
 West Point, who had seen adive and 
 important service in two preceding wars. 
 The result of the campaign is matter 
 of history. The skill, the endurance, the 
 extraordinary energy shown byGyVRFiELD, 
 the courage he imparted to his men, raw 
 and untried as himself, the measures he 
 adopted to increase his force and to create 
 in the enemy's mind exaggerated estimates 
 of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the 
 routing of Marshall, the capture of his 
 camp, the dispersion of his force, and the 
 emancipation of an important territory 
 from the control of the rebellion. Coming 
 at the close of a long series of disasters to 
 the Union arms, Garfield's vidory had an 
 unusual and extraneous importance, and in 
 
17 
 the popular jiul;^micnt elevated the young 
 commander to the rank of a miiitar\- hero. 
 With less than two thousand men in his 
 entire command, with a mobilized force of 
 only eleven hundred, with(nit cannon, he 
 had met an army of fi\e thousand and 
 defeated them — driving Marshall's forces 
 successively from two strongholds of their 
 own selection, fortified with abundant artil- 
 lery'. Major (jeneral Huell, commanding 
 the Department of the Ohio, an expe- 
 rienced and able soldier ol the Regular 
 Army, published an order of thanks and 
 congratulation on the brilliant result of the 
 Hig Sandy Campaign, which would have 
 turned the head of a less cool and sensi- 
 ble man than Garfimld. Buell declared 
 that his services had called into action the 
 highest (jualities of a soldier, and Presi- 
 dent Lincoln supplemented these words 
 of praise by the more substantial reward 
 of a Hrii/adier General's Commission, to 
 
i8 
 
 bear date from the day of his decisive 
 victory over Marshall. 
 
 The subsequent military career of (>ar- 
 FiKLD fully sustained its brilliant beginning. 
 With his new commission he was assigned 
 to the command of a brigade in the Army 
 of the Ohio, and took part in the second 
 and decisive day's fight on the bloody field 
 of .Shiloh. The remainder of the year 1862 
 was not especially eventful to Garfield, as 
 it was not to the armies with which he was 
 serving. His practical sense was called into 
 exercise in completing the task, assigned 
 him by General Buell, of reconstructing 
 bridges and re-establishing lines of railway 
 communication for the Army. His occu- 
 pation in this useful but not brilliant field 
 was varied by service on courts-martial of 
 importance, in which department of duty 
 he won a valuable reputation, attracting 
 the notice and securing the appro\al of the 
 able and eminent Judge Advocate General 
 
'9 
 
 of the Army. This of itself was warrant 
 to honorable fame; for among the great 
 men who in those trying clays gave them- 
 selves, w ith entire devotion, to the service 
 of their country, one who brought to that 
 service the ripest learning, the most fer\id 
 elocjuence, the most varied attainments, 
 who labored with modesty and shunned 
 applause, who in the day of triumph 
 sat reserved antl silent and grateful — as 
 Francis Deak in the hour of Hungary's 
 deliverance — was Joseph Molt, of Ken- 
 tucky, who in his honorable retirement 
 enjoys the respect and veneration of all 
 who lo\e the I'nion of the States. 
 
 Iiarl\- in 1863 ("iAKI ii:i.i) was assigned 
 to the highl)- important and responsible 
 post of Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans, 
 then at the head of the Army of the 
 Cumberland. Perhaps in a great military 
 canijjaign no subordinate officer recjuires 
 sounder judgment ant! (juicker knowledge 
 
20 
 
 of men than the Chief of Staff to the Com- 
 manding General. An indiscreet man in 
 such a position can sow more discord, 
 breed more jealousy, and disseminate more 
 strife than any other officer in the entire 
 organization. When General Garfield 
 assumed his new duties he found various 
 troubles already well developed and seri- 
 ously affeding the value and efficiency of 
 the Army of the Cumberland. The energy, 
 the impartiality, and the tatt with which he 
 sought to allay these dissensions, and to 
 discharge the duties of his new "and trying 
 position, will always remain one of the most 
 striking proofs of his great versatility. His 
 military duties closed on the memorable 
 field of Chickamauga, a field which, how- 
 ever disastrous to the Union arms, gave 
 to him the occasion of winning imperish- 
 able laurels. The very rare distinction 
 was accorded him of a great promo- 
 tion for bravery on a field that was lost. 
 
21 
 
 President Lincoln appointed him a Major 
 General in the Army of the L'nited States 
 for gallant and meritorious conduct in the 
 battle of Chickamauga. 
 
 The Army of the Cumberland was reor- 
 ganized under the command of General 
 Thomas, who promptly offered Gakfieli) 
 one of its divisions. lie was extremely 
 desirous to accept the position, but was 
 embarrassed by the fact that he had, a )ear 
 before, been elected to Congress, and the 
 time when he must take his seat was draw- 
 ing near. He preferred to remain in the 
 military service, and had within his own 
 breast the largest confidence of success in 
 the wider field which his new rank opened 
 to him. Balancing the arguments on the 
 one side and the other, anxious to deter- 
 mine what was for the best, desirous above 
 all things to do his patriotic dut) , hc was 
 decisively influenced by the advice of Pres- 
 ident Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both 
 
22 
 
 of whom assured him that he could, at that 
 time, be of especial value in the House of 
 Representatives. He resigned his com- 
 mission of major-general on the 5th day 
 of December, 1863, and took his seat in 
 the House of Representatives on the 7th. 
 He had served two years and four months 
 in the Army, and had just completed his 
 thirty-second year. 
 
 The Thirty-eighth Congress is pre-emi- 
 nently entitled in history to the designation 
 of the War Congress. It was ele(il:ed while 
 the war was flagrant, and every member 
 was chosen upon the issues involved in the 
 continuance of the struggle. The Thirty- 
 seventh Congress had, indeed, legislated 
 to a large extent on war measures, but it 
 was chosen before any one believed that 
 secession of the States would be actually 
 attempted. The magnitude of the work 
 which fell upon its successor was unpre- 
 cedented, both in respec^t to the vast sums 
 
23 
 
 of money raised for the support of the 
 Army and Na\y, and of the new and 
 extraordinary powers of legislation which 
 it was forced to exercise. Only twenty- 
 four States were represented, and one 
 hundred and eighty-two members were 
 upon its roll. Among these were many 
 distinguished party leaders on both sides, 
 veterans in the public service, with estab- 
 lished reputations for ability, and with 
 that skill which comes onl\- from parlia- 
 mentar>- experience. Into this assemblage 
 of men Garfield entered without special 
 preparation, and, it might almost be said, 
 unexpectedK. The question of taking 
 command of a dixision of troops under 
 General Thomas, or taking his seat in Con- 
 gress, was kept open till the last moment, 
 so late, indeed, that the resignation of his 
 militar)' commission and his appearance in 
 the House were almost contemporaneous. 
 He wore the uniform of a major-general of 
 
24 
 
 the United States Army on Saturday, and 
 on Monday, in civilian's dress, he answered 
 to the roll-call as a Representative in Con- 
 gress from the State of Ohio. 
 
 He was especially fortunate in the con- 
 stituency which elected him. Descended 
 almost entirely from New England stock, 
 the men of the Ashtabula distrid were 
 intensely radical on all ciuestions relating 
 to human rights. Well educated, thrifty, 
 thoroughly intelligent in affairs, acutely 
 discerning of character, notc[uick to bestow 
 confidence, and slow to withdraw it, they 
 were at once the most helpful and most 
 cxading of supporters. Their tenacious 
 trust in men in whom they have once con- 
 fided is illustrated by the unparalleled fad 
 that Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings, 
 and James A. Garfield represented the 
 district for fifty-four years. 
 
 There is no test of a man's ability in any 
 department of public life more severe than 
 
25 
 
 service in the House of Representatives; 
 there is no place where so httle deference 
 is paid to reputation previously acquired, 
 or to eminence won outside ; no place where 
 so little consideration is shown for the feel- 
 ings or the failures of beginners. What a 
 man gains in the Mouse he gains by sheer 
 force of his own character, and if he loses 
 and falls back he must expect no mercy, 
 and will recei\"e no sympath)-. It is a field 
 in which the survival of the strongest is 
 the recognized rule, and where no pretense 
 can deceive and no glamour can mislead. 
 The real man is discovered, his worth is 
 impartially weighed, his rank is irreversibly 
 decreed. 
 
 With possibly a single exception, Gar- 
 riELD was the youngest member in the 
 House when he entered, and was but seven 
 years from his college graduation. But he 
 had not been in his seat sixty days before 
 his ability was recognized and his place 
 
26 
 
 conceded. He stepped to the front with 
 the confidence of one who belonged there. 
 The House was crowded with strong men 
 of both parties; nineteen of them have 
 since been transferred to the Senate, and 
 manv of them have served with distinction 
 in the gubernatorial chairs of their resped- 
 ive States, and on foreign missions of great 
 consequence; but among them all none 
 grew so rapidly, none so firmly, as (iAR- 
 FiELD. As. is said by Trevelyan of his 
 parliamentary hero, Gari'IKLD succeeded 
 "because all the world in concert could 
 not have kept him in the background, and 
 because when once in the front he played 
 his part with a prompt intrepidity and a 
 commanding ease that were but the out- 
 ward symptoms of the immense reserves 
 of energy on which it w^as in his power to 
 draw." Indeed, the apparently reserved 
 force which GAUFiiiLD possessed was one 
 of his great charaderistics. He never did 
 
27 
 
 so well but that it seemed he could easily 
 have done better. He never expended so 
 much stren^rth but that he appeared to be 
 holding additional power at call. This is 
 one of the happiest and rarest distin(itions 
 of an effectixe debater, and often counts 
 for as much, in persuading an assembly, as 
 the eloquent and elaborate argument. 
 
 The great measure of C.aki ii:i.i)s fame 
 was tilled by his service in the House of 
 Representatives. His military life, illus- 
 trated by honorable performance, and rich 
 in promise, was, as he himself felt, prema- 
 turely terminated, and necessarily incom- 
 plete. Speculation as to what he might 
 have done in a field where the great prizes 
 are so few, cannot be profitable. It is 
 sufficient to say that as a soldier he did 
 his duty bravely; he did it intelligently; 
 he won an en\iable fame, and he retired 
 from the service \\'ithout blot or breath 
 again.st him. As a lawyer, though admi- 
 
28 
 
 rably equipped for the profession, he can 
 scarcely be said to have entered on its 
 practice. The few efforts he made at the 
 bar ^vere distinguished by the same high 
 order of talent which he exhibited on every 
 field where he ^vas put to the test; and, if a 
 man may be accepted as a competent judge 
 of his own capacities and adaptations, the 
 law was the profession to which Garfield 
 should have devoted himself But fate 
 ordained otherwise, and his reputation in 
 history will rest largely upon his ser\'ice in 
 the I louse of Representatives. That serv- 
 ice was exceptionally long. He was nine 
 times consecutively chosen to the House, 
 an honor enjoyed probably by not twenty 
 other Representatives of the more than 
 five thousand who have been elerted from 
 the organization of the Government to this 
 hour. 
 
 As a parliamentary orator, as a debater 
 on an issue squarely joined, where the 
 
29 
 
 position had been chosen and the ground 
 laid out, Garfikli) must be assigned a 
 very high rani<. More. |)erhaps, than any 
 man with whom he was associated in 
 pubhc hfe, he gave careful and systematic 
 study to public questions, and he came to 
 e\ery (.liscussion in which he took part w ith 
 elaborate and complete preparation. lie 
 was a steady and indefatigable worker. 
 Those who imagine that talent or genius 
 can supply the place or achieve the results 
 of labor will find no encouragement in 
 Gari-iilld's life. In preliminary work he 
 was apt, rapid, and skillful. I le possessed 
 in a high degree the i)Owcr of readily 
 absorbing ideas and facts, and, like Dr. 
 Johnson, had the art of getting from a 
 book all that was of \alue in it by a 
 reading apparently so cjuick and cursory 
 that it seemed like a mere glance at the 
 table of contents. He was a pre-emi- 
 nently fair and candid man in debate. 
 
30 
 
 took no petty advantage, stooped to no 
 unworthy methods, avoided personal allu- 
 sions, rarely appealed to prejudice, did not 
 seek to intianie passion. He had a quicker 
 eye for the strong point of his adversary 
 than for his weak point, and on his own 
 side he so marshalled his weighty argu- 
 ments as to make his hearers forget any 
 possible lack in the complete strength of 
 his position. He had a habit of stating 
 his opponent's side with such amplitude of 
 fairness and such liberality of concession 
 that his followers often complained that he 
 was giving his case away. But never in 
 his prolonged participation in the proceed- 
 ings of the House did he give his case 
 away, or fail in the judgment of competent 
 and impartial listeners to gain the mastery. 
 These characteristics, which marked 
 Garfield as a great debater, did not, 
 howe\er, make him a great parliamentary 
 leader. .\ parliamentary leader, as that 
 
3' 
 
 term is understood wherever free repre- 
 sentative government exists, is necessarily 
 and \-ery strictly the organ of his party. 
 An ardent American defined the instinctive 
 warmth of j^atriotism when he offered the 
 toast, '"Our country, always right; but right 
 or wrong, our countr)-."' The parliamentary 
 leader who has a body of followers that will 
 tlo and dare and die for the cause, is one 
 who believes his party always right, but 
 right or wrong, is for his party. No more 
 important or exacting duty devolves u])on 
 him than the selection of the field and 
 the time for contest. He must know not 
 mercl) how to strike, but where to strike 
 and when to strike. He often skillfully 
 avoids the strength of his opponent's ]K>si- 
 tion and scatters confusion in his ranks by 
 attacking an exposed point when really the 
 righteousness of the cause and the strength 
 of logical intrenchment are asj^ainst him. 
 He concjuers often both against the right 
 
32 
 
 and the heavy battahons; as when youni^ 
 Charles Fox, in the days of his Toryism, 
 carried the House of Commons aj^ainst jus- 
 tice, against its immemorial rights, against 
 his own convictions, if, indeed, at that period 
 Fox had conxictions, and, in the interest of 
 a corrupt administration, in obedience to a 
 tyrannical sovereign, drove Wilkes from 
 the seat to which the eledlors of Middlesex 
 had chosen him, and installed Luttrell, in 
 defiance not merely of law but of public 
 decency. For an achievement of that kind 
 (lARi'iKLi) was disc[ualified — disqualified 
 l)y the texture of his mind, by the honesty 
 of his heart, by his conscience, and by every 
 instinct and aspiration of his nature. 
 
 •The three most distinguished parlia- 
 mentary leaders hitherto developed in this 
 country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglas, and 
 Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. They were all men 
 of consummate ability, of great earnestness, 
 of intense personality, difiering widely each 
 
'>'> 
 
 oo 
 
 from the others, and yet with a signal trait 
 in common — the power to command. In 
 the give-and-take of daily discussion, in the 
 art of controlling and consolidating reluct- 
 ant and refradory followers, in the skill to 
 overcome all forms of opposition, and to 
 meet with competency and courage the 
 varying phases of unlooked-for assault or 
 unsuspected defection, it would be difficult 
 to rank witli these a fourth name in all our 
 Congressional history. But of these Mr. 
 Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, 
 he impossible to find in the parliamentary 
 annals of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay, 
 in 1841, when at sixty-four years of age he 
 took the control of the ^\'hig party from the 
 President who had received their suffrages, 
 against the power of Webster in the Cabi- 
 net, against the eloquence of Choate in the 
 Senate, against the herculean efforts of 
 Caleb Cushing and Henry A. Wise in the 
 House. In unshared leadership, in the 
 
 -3 
 
34 
 pride and plenitude of power, he hurled 
 against John Tyler with deepest scorn the 
 mass of that conquering column which had 
 swept over the land in 1840, and drove his 
 administration to seek shelter behind the 
 lines of its political foes. Mr. Douglas 
 achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful 
 when, in 1854, against the secret desires of 
 a strong administration, against the wise 
 counsel of the older chiefs, against the 
 conservative instincts and even the moral 
 sense of the country, he forced a reludant 
 Congress into a repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens in 
 his contests from 1865 to 1868 actually 
 advanced his parliamentary leadership until 
 Congress tied the hands of the President 
 and governed the country by its own 
 will, leaving only perfunctory duties to be 
 discharged by the Executive. With two 
 hundred millions of patronage in his hands 
 at the opening of the contest, aided l)y the 
 
35 
 
 a::tive force of Seward in the Cabinet and 
 the moral j^owcr of Chase on the bench, 
 Andrew Johnson could not command the 
 sujjport of one-third in either House 
 ajrainst the parliamentary uprising of which 
 Thaddeus Stevens was the animating spirit 
 and the unquestioned leader. 
 
 From these three great men Garfield 
 differed radically, differed in the ciualit)' of 
 his mind, in temperament, in the form and 
 phase of ambition, lie could not do what 
 they did, but he could do what they could 
 not. and in the breadth of his Concessional 
 work he left that which will longer exert a 
 jjotential influence among men, and which, 
 measured by the severe test of posthumous 
 criticism, will secure a more enduring and 
 more enviable fame. 
 
 Those unfamiliar with CiAKi-iiiLD's in- 
 dustry, and ignorant of the details of his 
 work, may, in some degree, measure them 
 b)- the annals of Congress. No one of the 
 
36 
 
 generation of public men to which he 
 beloncred has contributed so much that 
 will prove valuable for future reference. 
 His sj)eeches are numerous, many of them 
 brilliant, all of them well studied, carefully 
 phrased, and exhaustix e of the subject 
 under consideration. Colleded from the 
 scattered pages of ninety royal octavo vol- 
 umes of Congressional record, they would 
 present an invaluable compendium of the 
 political events of the most important era 
 through which the National Government 
 has ever passed. When the history of this 
 |)erit)d shall be impartially written, when 
 war legislation, measures of reconstruction, 
 protection of hunian rights, amendments 
 to the Constitution, maintenance of public 
 credit, steps toward specie resumption, true 
 theories of revenue, may be reviewed, un- 
 surroundetl b)' i)rcjudice and disconnedled 
 from partisanism, the speeches of Gari'IIiLD 
 will be estimated at their true value, and 
 
37 
 will be found to comprise a vast magazine 
 of fa(5t and argument, of clear anal \ sis and 
 sound conclusion. Indeed, if no other 
 authority were accessible, his speeches in 
 the House of Representatives from Decem- 
 ber, 1863, to June, 1880, would give a well- 
 connected history and complete defense of 
 the important legislation of the seventeen 
 eventful years that constitute his parlia- 
 mentary life. F^r beyond that, his speeches 
 would be found to forecast many great 
 measures yet to be completed — measures 
 which he knew were beyond the public 
 opinion of the hour, but which he confi- 
 dently beliexed would secure popular ap- 
 proval w ithin the period of his own lifetime 
 and by the aid of his own efforts. 
 
 Differing, as Garfield does, from the 
 brilliant parliamentary leaders, it is not 
 easy to find his counterpart anywhere in 
 the record of American public life. He, 
 perhaps, more nearly resembles Mr. Sew- 
 
38 
 anl in his supreme faith in the all-con- 
 quering power of a principle. He had the 
 love of learning, and the patient industry 
 of investigation, to which John Quincy 
 Adams owes his prominence and his Pres- 
 idency. He had some of those ponderous 
 elements of mind which distinguished Mr. 
 Webster, and which, indeed, in all our pub- 
 lic life have left the great Massachusetts 
 Senator without an intellectual peer. 
 
 In English parliamentary history, as in 
 our own, the leaders in the House of 
 Commons present points of essential dif- 
 ference from Gakfif.ld. But some of his 
 methods, recall the best features in the 
 strong, independent course of Sir Robert 
 Peel, to whom he had striking resem- 
 blances in the type of his mind and in 
 the habit of his speech. He had all of 
 Burke's love for the Sublime and the 
 Beautiful, with, possibly, something of his 
 superabundance. In his faith and his 
 
39 
 
 maj^nanimity, in liis jxnvcr of statement, 
 in his subtle analysis, in his faultless logic, 
 in his love of literature, in his wealth and 
 world of illustration, one is reminded of 
 that great English statesman of to-day, 
 who, confronted with obstacles that would 
 daunt any but the dauntless, reviled by 
 those whom he uou,ld relieve as bitterly 
 as by those whose supposed rights he is 
 forced to in\"ade, still labors with serene 
 courage for the amelioration of Ireland 
 and for the honor of the English name. 
 
 GARi-iiiLDS nomination to the Presi- 
 dency, while not predicted or anticipated, 
 was not a surprise to the country. His 
 prominence in Congress, his solid quali- 
 ties, his wide reputation, strengthened by 
 his then recent election as Senator from 
 Ohio, kept him in the public eye as a man 
 occupying the very highest rank among 
 those entitled to be called statesmen. It 
 was not mere chance that brought him this 
 
40 
 
 hii^h honor. "We must," says Mr. Emer- 
 son, "reckon success a constitutional trait. 
 If Eric is in robust health and has slept 
 well and is at the top of his condition, 
 and thirty years old at his departure frt)m 
 Greenland, he will steer west and his ships 
 \vill reach Newfoundland. But take Eric 
 out and put in a stronger and bolder man, 
 and the ships will sail six hundred, one 
 thousand, fifteen hundred miles farther 
 and reach Labrador and New England. 
 There is no chance in results." 
 
 As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew 
 in popular favor. He was met with a 
 storm of detradion at the very hour of his 
 nomination, and it continued w ith increas- 
 ing volume and momentum until the close 
 of his vidorious campaign: 
 
 No might nor greatness in mortality 
 Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny 
 The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 
 Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? 
 
41 
 
 Under it all he was calm, and strong, 
 and confident; never lost his self-posses- 
 sion, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or 
 ill-considered word. Indeed, nothing in 
 his whole life is more remarkable or more 
 creditable than his bearing through those 
 fi\e full months of vituperation — a pro- 
 longed agony of trial to a sensitixe man, a 
 constant and cruel draft upon the powers 
 of moral endurance. The great mass of 
 these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, 
 and with the general ddbris of the cam- 
 paign fell into oblivion. But in a few 
 instances the iron entered his soul, and 
 he died with the injury unforgotten if not 
 unforgiven. 
 
 One aspecT; of Gari-ield's candidacy was 
 unprecedented. Never before, in the his- 
 tory of partisan contests in this country, 
 had a successful Presidential candidate 
 spoken freely on passing events and cur- 
 rent issues. To attempt anything of the 
 
42 
 
 kind seemed novel, rash, and even des- 
 perate. The older class of voters recalled 
 the unfortunate Alabama letter, in which 
 Mr. Clay was supposed to have signed his 
 political death-warrant. They remembered 
 also the hot-tempered effusion by which 
 General Scott lost a large share of his pop- 
 ularity before his nomination, and the un- 
 fortunate speeches which rapidly consumed 
 the remainder. The younger voters had 
 seen Mr. Greeley, in a series of vigorous 
 and original addresses, preparing the path- 
 way for his own defeat. Unmindful of 
 these warnings, unheeding the advice of 
 friends, Garfield spoke to large crow^ds 
 as he journeyed to and from New York in 
 August, to a great multitude in that city, 
 to delegations and deputations of every 
 kind that called at Mentor during the 
 summer and autumn. With innumerable 
 critics, watchful and eager to catch a phrase 
 that might be turned into odium or ridicule, 
 
43 
 or a sentence that mi<<ht be distorted to his 
 own or his party's injury, Garfield ditl 
 not trip or halt in any one of his se\cnty 
 speeches. This seems all the more remark- 
 able when it is remembered that he did not 
 write what he said, and yet spoke with such 
 logical consecutiveness of thought and such 
 admirable precision of phrase as to defy the 
 accident of misreport and the malignity of 
 misrepresentation. 
 
 In the beginning of his Presidential life 
 Gakmhlu's experience did not yield him 
 pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that 
 engross so large a portion of the Presi- 
 dent's time were distasteful to him, and 
 were unfavorably contrasted w ith his legis- 
 lative work. " I have been dealing all 
 these years with ideas," he impatiently 
 exclaimed one day, "and here I am deal- 
 ing only with persons. I have been hereto- 
 fore treating of the fundamental principles 
 of government, and here I am considering 
 
44 
 
 all day whether A or B shall be appointed 
 to this or that office." He was earnestly 
 seeking some pradical way of corredling 
 the evils arising from the distribution of 
 overgrowai and unwieldy patronage — evils 
 always appreciated and often discussed by 
 him, but whose magnitude had been more 
 deeply impressed upon his mind since his 
 accession to the Presidency. Had he lived, 
 a comprehensive improvement in the mode 
 of appointment and in the tenure of office 
 would have been proposed by him, and, 
 with the aid of Congress, no doubt per- 
 feded. 
 
 But, w^hile many of the Executive duties 
 were not grateful to him, he was assiduous 
 and conscientious in their discharge. From 
 the very outset he exhibited administrative 
 talent of a high order. He grasped the 
 helm of office with the hand of a master. 
 In this resped, indeed, he constantly sur- 
 prised many who were most intimately 
 
45 
 associated with him in the Government, 
 antl especially those who had feared that 
 he mij;ht be lacking in the executive fac- 
 ultv. His disposition t)f business was 
 orderly and rapid. His power of analysis, 
 and his skill in classification, enabled him 
 to dispatch a vast mass of detail with sin- 
 gular promptness and ease. His Cabinet 
 meetings were admirably conducted. His 
 clear presentation of official subjects, his 
 well-considered suggestion of topics on 
 which discussion was invited, his tjuick 
 decision when all had been heard, com- 
 bined to show a thoroughness of mental 
 training as rare as his natural ability and 
 his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged 
 field of labor. 
 
 With perfed; comprehension of all the 
 inheritances of the war, with a cool calcu- 
 lation of the obstacles in his way, impelled 
 always by a generous enthusiasm, Car- 
 field conceived that much might be done 
 
46 
 
 by his Administration towards restoring 
 harmony between the different sections of 
 the Union. He was anxious to go South 
 and speak to the people. As early as 
 April he had ineffectually endeavored to 
 arrange for a trip to Nashville, whither he 
 had been cordially invited, and he was 
 again disappointed a few weeks later to 
 find that he could not go to South Caro- 
 lina to attend the centennial celebration of 
 the victory of the Cowpens. But for the 
 autumn he definitely counted on being 
 present at three memorable assemblies in 
 the South; the celebration at \'orkto\\n, 
 the opening of the Cotton H.xposition at 
 Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army of 
 the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He was 
 already turning over in his mind his ad- 
 dress for each occasion, and the three taken 
 together, he said to a friend, gave him the 
 exaCt scope and verge which he needed. 
 y\t ^'orktown he would liaxe before him 
 
47 
 the associations of a hundred years that 
 bound the South and the North in the 
 sacred memory of a common danger and a 
 common viclory. At Atlanta he would ])rc- 
 sent the material interests and the industrial 
 development which appealed to the thrift 
 and independence of every household, and 
 which should unite the two sections by the 
 instinct of self-interest and self-defense. At 
 Chattanooga he would revive memories of 
 the war only to show that after all its dis- 
 aster and all its suffering, the country was 
 stronger and greater, the Union rendered 
 indissoluble, and the future, through the 
 atronv and blood of one generation, made 
 brighter and better for all. 
 
 CjAKFIi:i.d'.s ambition ior the success of 
 his Administration was high. With strong 
 caution and conservatism in his nature, he 
 was in no danger of attempting rash ex- 
 periments or of resorting to the empiricism 
 of statesmanship. But he believed that 
 
48 
 
 renewed and closer attention should be 
 given to questions affeciting the material 
 interests and commercial prospects of fifty 
 millions of people. He believed that 
 our continental relations, extensive and 
 undeveloped as they are, involved re- 
 sponsibility, and could be cultivated into 
 profitable friendship or be abandoned to 
 harmful indifference or lasting enmity. 
 He believed with equal confidence that an 
 essential forerunner to a new era of national 
 progress must be a feeling of contentment 
 in every se{!;l;ion of the Union, and a gen- 
 erous belief that the benefits and burdens 
 of government would be common to all. 
 Himself a conspicuous illustration of what 
 ability and ambition may do under repub- 
 lican institutions, he loved his country with 
 a passion of patriotic devotion, and every 
 waking thought was given to her advance- 
 ment. He was an American in all his 
 aspirations, and he looked to the destiny 
 
49 
 and influence of the United States with the 
 philosophic composure of Jefferson and the 
 demonstrative confidence of John Adams. 
 The poHtical events which disturbed the 
 President's serenity for many weeks before 
 that fateful day in July form an important 
 chapter in his career, and, in his own judg- 
 ment, involved questions of principle and 
 of right which are vitally essential to the 
 constitutional administration of the Fed- 
 eral Government. It would be out of 
 place here and now to speak the language 
 of controversy; but the events referred to, 
 however they may continue to be source 
 of contention with others, have become, so 
 far as Garfield is concerned, as much a 
 matter of history as his heroism at Chicka- 
 mauga or his illustrious service in the 
 House. Detail is not needful, and per- 
 sonal antagonism shall not be rekindled 
 by any word uttered to-day. The motives 
 of those opposing him are not to be here 
 
50 
 
 adversely interpreted nor their eourse 
 harshly characterized. But of the dead 
 President this is to be said, and said be- 
 cause his own speech is forever silenced 
 and he can be no more heard except 
 through the fidelity and love of surviving 
 friends: from the beginning to the end of 
 the controversy he so much deplored, the 
 President was never for one moment actu- 
 ated by any motive of gain to himself or 
 of loss to others. Least of all men did he 
 harbor revenge, rarely did he even show 
 resentment, and malice was not in his na- 
 ture. He w^as congenially employed only 
 in the exchange of good offices and the 
 doing of kindly deeds. 
 
 There was not an hour, from the begin- 
 ning of the trouble till the fatal shot entered 
 his body, when the President would not 
 gladly, for the sake of restoring harmony, 
 have retraced any step he had taken if 
 such retracing had merely involved conse- 
 
51 
 qucnccs personal to himself. The pride 
 of consistency, or any supposed sense of 
 humiliation that mij;ht result from surren- 
 dering his jiosition, had not a feather's 
 weight w ith him. No man was ever less 
 subject to such influences from within or 
 from without. lUit alter moht anxious 
 deliberation and the coolest survey of all 
 the circumstances, he solemnl\' believed 
 that the true prerogatives of the Executive 
 were involved in the issue which had been 
 raised, and that he would be unfaithful to 
 his supreme obligation if he failed to 
 maintain, in all their vigor, the constitu- 
 tional ri'-hts and dignities of his great 
 office. He believed this in all the con- 
 victions of conscience when in sound and 
 vigorous health, and he believed it in his 
 suffering and prostration in the last con- 
 scious thoui^ht which his wearied mind 
 bestowed on the transitor\- struggles of 
 life. 
 
52 
 
 More than this need not be said. Less 
 than this could not be said. Justice to the 
 dead, the highest obligation that devolves 
 upon the living, demands the declaration 
 that in all the bearings of the subjed, 
 adlual or possible, the President was con- 
 tent in his mind, justified in his conscience, 
 immovable in his conclusions. 
 
 The religious element in Garfield's 
 character was deep and earnest. In his 
 early youth he espoused the f^iith of the 
 Disciples, a sed of that great Baptist Com- 
 munion, which in different ecclesiastical 
 establishments is so numerous and so in- 
 fluential throughout all parts of the United 
 States. But the broadening tendency of 
 his mind and his adive spirit of inquiry 
 were early apparent, and carried him be- 
 yond the dogmas of sect and the restraints 
 of association. In selecting a college in 
 which to continue his education he rejeded 
 Bethany, though presided over by Alex- 
 
53 
 
 andcr Campbell, the greatest preacher of 
 his church. His reasons were characteris- 
 tic: first, that Bethany leaned too hea\ily 
 towards slavery; and, second, that being 
 himself a Disciple and the son of Disciple 
 parents, he had little acquaintance with 
 people of other beliefs, and he thought it 
 would make him more liberal, cjuoting his 
 own words, both in his religious and gen- 
 ,eral views, to go into a new circle and be 
 under new influences. 
 
 The liberal tendency which he anticipated 
 as the result of wider culture was fully 
 realized. He was emancipated from mere 
 sedarian belief, and with eager interest 
 l)ushed his investigations in the diredion 
 of modern jjrogressive thought. He fol- 
 lowed with ciuickening step in the. paths 
 of exploration and speculation so fearlessly 
 trodden by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, 
 and by other living scientists of the radical 
 and advanced type. His own church, bind- 
 
54 
 ini;- its disciples by no formulated creed, but 
 acceptin;< the Old and New Testaments as 
 the word of God, with unbiased liberality of 
 private interpretation, favored, if it did not 
 stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its 
 members profess with sincerity, and profess 
 only, to be of one mind and one faith with 
 those who immediately followed the Mas- 
 ter, and who were first called Christians at 
 Antioch. 
 
 But however high Garmeld reasoned 
 of "fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge ab- 
 solute," he was never separated from the 
 Church of the Disciples in his affedions and 
 in his associations. For him it held the Ark 
 of the Covenant. To hini it was the gate of 
 Heaven. The world of religious belief is 
 full of solecisms and contradic'tions. A 
 l)hilosophic observer declares that men by 
 the thousaml will die in defense of a creed 
 whose doctrines they do not comprehend 
 and whose tenets they habitually violate. 
 
55 
 It is c([ually true that men by the thousand 
 w ill cling to church organizations with in- 
 stinctive and undying fidelity when their 
 belief in maturer years is radically different 
 from that which inspired them as neophytes. 
 But after this range of speculation, and 
 this latitude of doubt, Gari ii:i.i) came back 
 always with freshness and tlelight to the 
 simpler instincts of religious faith, which, 
 earliest implanted, longest suryiye. Not 
 many weeks before his assassination, w alk- 
 ing on the banks of the Potomac with a 
 friend, and conversing on those topics of 
 personal religion, concerning which noble 
 natures have an unconquerable reser\'c, he 
 said that he found the Lord's Prayer and 
 the simple petitions learned in infancy in- 
 finitely restful to him, not merely in their 
 stated repetition, but in their casual and 
 frequent recall as he w ent about the daily 
 duties of life. Certain texts of scripture 
 had a very strong hold on his memory 
 
56 
 
 and his heart. lie heard, while in Edin- 
 burgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch 
 preacher who prefaced his sermon with 
 reading the eighth chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Romans, which book had been the 
 subject of careful study with Garfield 
 during all his religious life. He was 
 greatly impressed by the elocution of the 
 preacher and declared that it had imparted 
 a new and deeper meaning to the majestic 
 utterance of St. Paul. He referred often 
 in after years to that memorable service, 
 and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon 
 the radiant promise and the assured hope 
 with which the great Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles was "persu^ided that neither death, 
 nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to 
 come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from 
 the U)ve of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord." 
 
57 
 
 The crowniniT characteristic of General 
 Garfield's religious opinions, as, indeed, 
 of all his opinions, was his liberality. In 
 all things he had charity. Tolerance was 
 of his nature. He respeded in others 
 the c[ualities which he possessed himself— 
 sincerity of conviction and frankness of 
 expression. With him the inquiry was 
 not so much what a man believes, but 
 does he believe it? The lines of his 
 friendship and his confidence encircled 
 men of every creed, and men of no creed, 
 and to the end of his life, on his ever- 
 lemrthenino- list of friends, were to be 
 found the names of a pious Catholic priest 
 and of an honest-minded and generous- 
 hearted free-thinker. 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, July sec- 
 ond, the President was a contented and 
 happy man — not in an ordinary degree, 
 but joyfully, almost boyishly happy. On 
 his way to the railroad station, to which he 
 
58 
 
 drove slowiy, in conscious enjc^iyment of 
 the beautiful morning, with an unwonted 
 sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of 
 pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful 
 and gratulatory vein. He felt that after 
 four months of trial his Administration 
 was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong 
 in popular favor, and destined to grow 
 stronger; that grave difficulties confront- 
 ino' him at his inauguration had been 
 safely passed; that trouble lay behind hini 
 and not before him; that he was soon to 
 meet the wife whom he lo\ed, now recov- 
 ering from an illness \\hich had but lately 
 disquieted and at times almost unnerved 
 him; that he was Qoing to his Alma Mater 
 to renew the most cherished associations 
 of his young manhood, and to exchange 
 greetings with those whose deepening 
 interest had followed every step of his 
 upward progress from the day he entered 
 upon his college course until he had at- 
 
59 
 tained the loftiest elevation in the ;<ift of 
 his countrymen. 
 
 Surely, if happiness can ever come from 
 the honors or triumphs of this world, on 
 that quiet July morning Jami:s A. (i.\K- 
 FiiiLi) may well ha\e been a happy man. 
 No foreboding of evil haunted him; no 
 slightest premonition of danger clouded 
 his skv. His terrible fate was upon him in 
 an instant. One moment he stood ereci, 
 strong, confident in the years stretching 
 peacefully out before him. The next he 
 lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed 
 to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and 
 the grave. 
 
 Great in life, he was surpassingly great 
 in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy 
 of wantonness and wickedness, by the red 
 hand of murder, he was thrust from the full 
 tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, 
 its aspirations, its vittories, into the visible 
 presence of death — and he did not (piail. 
 
6o 
 
 Not alone for the one short moment in 
 which, stunned and dazed, he could give 
 up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, 
 but through days of deadly languor, 
 tlu-ough weeks of agony, that was not less 
 agony because silently borne, with clear 
 sight and calm courage, he looked into 
 his open grave. What blight and ruin met 
 his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell — 
 what brilliant, Ijroken plans, what baffled, 
 high ambitions, what sundering of strong, 
 warm, manhood's friendships, what bitter 
 rending of sweet household ties! Behind 
 him a proud, expedant nation, a great host 
 of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy 
 mother, wearing the full, rich honors other 
 early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, 
 whose whole life lay in his; the little boys 
 not yet emerged from childhood's day of 
 frolic; the fair young daughter; the sturdy 
 sons just springing into closest companion- 
 ship, claiming every day and every day 
 
■\ 
 
 6i 
 
 rewarding a father's love and care; and in 
 his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet 
 all demand. Before him, desolation and 
 great darkness! And his soul was not 
 shaken. His countr>'men were thrilled with 
 instant, profound, and universal sympathy. 
 Masterful in his mortal weakness, he lie- 
 came the center of a nation's love, enshrined 
 in the prayers of a world. But all the love 
 and all the sympathy could not share with 
 him his suffering. He trod the wine-press 
 alone. W'idi unfaltering front he faced 
 death. With unfailing tenderness he took 
 leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of 
 the assassin's bullet he heard the \oice of 
 Gotl. With simple resignation he bowed 
 to the divine decree. 
 
 As the end drew near, his early craving 
 for the sea returned. The stately mansion 
 of power had been to him the wearisome 
 hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken 
 from its prison walls, from its oppressive. 
 
62 
 
 stiflinu air, from its homelessness and its 
 hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of 
 a ^reat people bore the pale sufferer to the 
 longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to 
 die, as God should will, within sight of its 
 heaving billows, within sound of its mani- 
 fold voices. With wan, fevered face ten- 
 derly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked 
 out wistfully upon the ocean's changing 
 wonders ; on its far sails, whitening in the 
 morning light; on its restless waves, rolling 
 shoreward to break and die beneath the 
 noonday sun; on the red clouds of even- 
 ing, arching low to the horizon ; on the 
 serene and shining pathway of the stars. 
 Let us think that his dying eyes read a 
 mystic meaning which only the rapt and 
 parting soul may know. Let us believe 
 that in the silence of the receding world he 
 heard the great waves breaking on a farther 
 shore, and felt already upon his wasted 
 brow the breath of the eternal niornin*'. 
 
A p p p: X P) I X . 
 
 The Senate on December 6th adopted 
 the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of six Sen- 
 ators i)e appointed, on the jxirt of the 
 Senate, to join such committee as may 
 be appointed, on the part of the Plouse, 
 to consider and report 1)\- what token of 
 respecl and affeclion it may be proper for 
 the Congress of the P^nited States to ex- 
 press the deep sensibilit\- of the Nation to 
 the event of the decease of the late Presi- 
 dent, Iamhs a. CjARFIHLI), and that so 
 much of the message of the President as 
 relates to that melancholy event be referred 
 to said committee. 
 
 The Committee on the part of the Sen- 
 ate. ha\ ing been subsecjuently increased to 
 
 63 
 
66 
 
 E. Hooker of Mississippi, Nicolas Ford 
 of Missouri, Edward K. Valentine of 
 Nebraska, George W. Cassidy of Nevada, 
 Joshua G. Hall of New Hampshire, John 
 Hill of New Jersey, Samuel S. Cox of 
 New York, Robert B. Vance of North 
 Carolina, Melvin C. George of Oregon, 
 Charles O'Neill of Pennsylvania, Jonathan 
 Chace of Rhode Island, D. Wyatt Aiken 
 of South Carolina, Augustus H. Pettibone 
 of Tennessee, Roger Q. Mills of Texas, 
 Charles H. Joyce of Vermont, J. Randolph 
 Tucker of Virginia, Benjamin Wilson of 
 West Virginia, and Charles G. Williams 
 of Wisconsin, were appointed as the com- 
 mittee on the part of the House. 
 
 The following concurrent resolutions 
 were adopted by both Houses of Con- 
 gress December 21, 1881 : 
 
 Whereas the melancholy event of the 
 violent and tragic death of Jamus Abram 
 
67 
 
 Garfikld, late President of the United 
 States, having occurred during the recess 
 of Congress, and the two Houses sharing 
 in the general grief and desiring to mani- 
 fest their sensibility upon the occasion of 
 the public bereavement: Therefore, 
 
 Be it resolved by the Senate and House 
 of Representatives, That the two Houses 
 of Congress will assemble in the Hall of 
 the House of Representatives on a day 
 and hour to be fixed and announced by 
 the Joint Committee, and that in the pres- 
 ence of the two Houses there assembled 
 an address upon the life and character 
 of Jami:s Ahram Garfii:li), late Presi- 
 dent of the United States, be pronounced 
 by Hon. James (i. Blaine, and that the 
 President of the Senate pro tempore and 
 the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives be requested to in\ite the President 
 and ex-Presidents of the United States, 
 the Heads of the several Departments, the 
 
68 
 
 Judges of the Supreme Court, the repre- 
 sentatives of the foreign Governments near 
 this Government, the Governors of the sev- 
 eral States, the General of the Army and 
 the Admiral of the Navy, and such officers 
 of the Army and Navy as have received 
 the thanks of Congress, who may then be 
 at the seat of Government, to be present 
 on the occasion. 
 
 And be it fitrthcy resolved, That the 
 President of the United States be requested 
 to transmit a copy of these resolutions to 
 Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield, and to assure 
 her of the profound sympathy of the two 
 Houses of Congress for her deep personal 
 afflidion, and of their sincere condolence 
 for the late national bereavement. 
 
 And the following by both Houses on 
 February i, 1882: 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of 
 Representatives, That Monday, the 27th 
 
69 
 
 day of February, 1882, be set apart for the 
 Memorial Services upon the late President, 
 James Aiskam Garfielu. 
 
 A programme of arrangements was pre- 
 pared by the Joint Committee, as follows: 
 
 The Capitol will be closed on the morn- 
 ing of the 27th to all except the members 
 and officers of Congress. 
 
 At ten o'clock the east door leading to 
 the Rotunda will be opened to those to 
 whom invitations have been extended 
 under the joint resolution of Congress by 
 the Presiding Officers of the two Houses, 
 and to those holding tickets of admission 
 to the galleries. 
 
 The Hall of the House of Representa- 
 tives will be opened for the admission of 
 Representatives, and to those who have 
 invitations, who will be conducted to the 
 seats assigned to them, as follows: 
 
70 
 
 The President and ex-Presidents of the 
 United States and special guests will be 
 seated in front of the Speaker. 
 
 The Chief Justice and Associate Justices 
 of the Supreme Court will occupy seats 
 next to the President and ex-Presidents 
 and special guests, on the right of the 
 Speaker. 
 
 The Cabinet officers, the General of the 
 Army and Admiral of the Navy, and the 
 officers of the Army and Navy who, by 
 name, have received the thanks of Con- 
 gress, will occupy seats on the left of the 
 Speaker. 
 
 The Chief Justice and Judges of the 
 Court of Claims and the Chief Justice and 
 Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of 
 the Distrid; of Columbia will occupy seats 
 dire(^tly in the rear of the Supreme Court. 
 
 The Diplomatic Corps will occupy the 
 front row of seats. 
 
 Ex-Vice-Presidents, Senators, and ex- 
 
71 
 Senators will occupy seats on the second, 
 third, fourth, and fifth rows, on east side of 
 main aisle. 
 
 Representatives will occupy seats on 
 west side of main aisle and in rear -of the 
 Senators on cast side. 
 
 Commissioners of the Distrid, Govern- 
 ors of States and Territories, Assistant 
 Heads of Departments, and invited guests 
 will occupy seats in rear of Representa- 
 tives. 
 
 The Executive Gallery will be reserved 
 exclusively for the families of the Supreme 
 Court and the families of the Cabinet and 
 the invited guests of the President. Tickets 
 thereto will be delivered to the Private 
 Secretary of the President. 
 
 The Diplomatic Gallery will be reserved 
 
 exclusively for the families of the members 
 
 of the Diplomatic Corps. Tickets thereto 
 
 will be delivered to the Secretary of State. 
 
 The Reporters' Gallery will be reserved 
 
72 
 
 exclusively for the use of the reporters for 
 the Press. Tickets thereto will be delivered 
 to the Press Committee. 
 
 The Official Reporters of the Senate and 
 of the House will occupy the Reporters 
 desk in front of the Clerk's table. 
 
 The House of Representatives will be 
 called to order by the Speaker at twelve 
 o'clock. 
 
 The Marine Band will be in attendance. 
 
 The Senate will assemble at twelve 
 o'clock, and immediately after prayer will 
 proceed to the Hall of the House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 The Diplomatic Corps will meet at half 
 past eleven o'clock in Representatives' 
 Lobby, and be conducted by the Sergeant- 
 at-Arms of the House to the seats assigned 
 to them. 
 
 The President of the Senate will occupy 
 the Speaker's chair. 
 
 The Speaker of the House will occupy 
 
73 
 a scat at the left of the President of the 
 Senate. 
 
 The Chaplains of the Senate and of the 
 House will occupy seats next to the Pre- 
 sidini,^ Officers of their respcdive Houses. 
 
 The Chairmen of the Joint Committee 
 of Arrangements will occupy seats at the 
 riuht and left of the Orator, and next to 
 them will be seated the Secretary of the 
 Senate and the Clerk of the House. 
 
 The other officers of the Senate and of 
 the House will occupy seats on the floor 
 at the right and the left of the Speaker's 
 Platform. 
 
 Prayer will be offered by the Rev. F. D. 
 Power, Chaplain of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 The Presiding Officer will then present 
 the Orator of the Day. 
 
 The benediction will l)e pronounced by 
 the Rev. J. J. Bullock, Chaplain of the 
 Senate. 
 
74 
 
 By reason of the limited capacity of the 
 galleries the number of tickets is neces- 
 sarily restrid;ed, and will be distributed as 
 follows : 
 
 To each Senator, Representative, and 
 Delegate, three tickets. 
 
 No person will be admitted to the 
 Capitol except on presentation of a ticket, 
 which will be good only for the place 
 indicated. 
 
 The Archited; of the Capitol and the 
 
 Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and Ser- 
 
 geant-at-Arnis of the House are charged 
 
 with the execution of these arrangements. 
 
 John Sherman, 
 
 Wm. McKinley, Jr., 
 
 C/iainiicii yoiiit Coiiunittee. 
 
Proceedings in the Hall of Rcpfcscntativcs, 
 Monday, Febniary 2j, 1882. 
 
 The House met ut twelve o'clock m. 
 Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. I\ I). Power. 
 
 The Speaker. This day has been dedi- 
 cated by the action of the two Houses 
 of Congress to services in commemora- 
 tion of the life and death of Ja.mi:s Abram 
 Garfield, late President of the United 
 States. This action was taken through 
 the adoption of concurrent resolutions by 
 the unanimous vote of the two Houses, 
 presented by a Selecl Joint Committee ap- 
 pointed "to consider and report by what 
 token of respedl, esteem, and affection it 
 may be proper for Congress to express its 
 and the nation's deep sensibility over the 
 event of the decease of our late President." 
 
 75 
 
76 
 
 This House is now assembled and ready 
 to perform its part in the solemn duty. 
 The Clerk will read the concurrent resolu- 
 tions. 
 
 The Clerk read the concurrent resolu- 
 tions of December 21 and February i. 
 
 The Senate met at twelve- o'clock m.; 
 and, after the following prayer by the 
 Chaplain, Rev. J. J. Bullock, proceeded to 
 the Hall of Representatives : 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, 
 we desire to look up to Thee for Thy 
 blessing to rest upon the services of this 
 day. Sandify to us the Memorial Serv- 
 ices upon which we are about to attend. 
 Deeply impress upon our minds a sense 
 of our mortality and the importance of 
 being ever ready for our departure, for we 
 know not the day nor the hour when we 
 may be called hence. 
 
 Bless, we pray Thee, our rulers, the 
 
77 
 President of the United States, the Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, the Senators and Rep- 
 resentatives in Congress, and all others in 
 authority. Give them grace and wisdom 
 for the right discharge of their important 
 duties. 
 
 God, be merciful unto us and bless us. 
 Cause His face to shine upon us, and give 
 us peace in our day and generation, and 
 finally save us all in Heaven. We ask for 
 Christ our Redeemer's sake. Amen. 
 
 The President pyo tcmpovc of the 
 Senate called the two Houses to order. 
 
 Rev. F. D. Power, Chaplain of the 
 House of Representatives, offered prayer, 
 as follows : 
 
 O Lord, our God, we thank Thee for this 
 hour and for this service. We thank Thee 
 for a great life given to this Nation; for 
 its genius and potencies; for its example 
 
78 
 
 and memories; for its immortality and 
 eternity. May this Republic never forget 
 its dead. 
 
 As we come together this day to recall 
 the wisdom, the integrity, the statesman- 
 ship, the loyalty, the reverence for Thee 
 and Thy word, the unselfish love for 
 country and for all mankind, wherewith 
 Thou didst endow Thy servant and fit 
 him for the administration of the affairs 
 of the Government; as we meditate upon 
 the patience, the sweetness, the fortitude, 
 the faith, the quiet resignation to Thy 
 will wherewith Thou didst fit him for his 
 sore trial ; as we remember his triumph 
 and our sorrow, grant us Thy gracious 
 benedi(5tion. 
 
 We bear, during this Memorial Service, 
 our Father, before Thee, on our hearts, his 
 loved ones with whcMii we weep. Sustain, 
 \vc beseech Thee, the mother who bore 
 him. May the peace of God that passeth 
 
79 
 
 all understanding be the strength and the 
 crown of her spirit. Be ver\ merciful to 
 the \\ ife in her present separation from the 
 husband of her youth. May she rest in 
 God, and may she find such sympathy and 
 joy in her Saviour as the world cannot give 
 nor take away. He a father to the children 
 now fatherless, and nia\ they imitate the 
 virtues of their illustrious parent, and like 
 him be useful in li\ing and mourned in 
 dying. May the youth of this land and 
 of all lands feel the power of his example 
 and follow in his footsteps. May those 
 who rule among us and among men every- 
 where by the study of his virtues be incited 
 to like patriotism and piet)-. 
 
 Now we ask Thy blessing on this assem- 
 bly. May the remembrance of this great 
 life be a genuine help to all those present 
 and that greater audience waiting w ithout. 
 Give grace and utterance to Thy servant 
 who shall speak to us. May his words 
 
8o 
 
 be wise and worthy and fitly chosen, like 
 apples of gold in picl;ures of silver. 
 
 Remember Thy servant before Thee, the 
 President of the United States. Preserve 
 him from evil influences and evil men. 
 May truth rest upon his brow, wisdom 
 upon his lips, justice in his hands, and 
 grace in his heart. Bless his counselors, 
 this Congress assembled, our magistrates 
 and judges, our Army and Navy, our 
 schools and churches, our whole land and 
 all the inhabitants thereof 
 
 May we keep alive in us the faith and 
 virtue of those who have passed before. 
 Give peace in our time. Make religion 
 and righteousness, truth and justice, knowl- 
 edge and freedom to abound everywhere. 
 May Thy name be glorified and Thy king- 
 dom rule over us from sea to sea. 
 
 We ask it all reverently, through Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord. Amen.. 
 
8i 
 
 The President /w tempore of the Sen- 
 ate said: Senators and Representatives, 
 this day is dedicated by Congress for me- 
 morial services upon the late President, 
 James A. Gariteld. I present to you 
 Hon. James G. Blaine, who has been fitly 
 chosen as the Orator for this historical 
 occasion. 
 
 The Memorial Address was then deliv- 
 ered by Mr. Blaine. 
 
 Upon its conclusion. Rev. J. J. Bullock, 
 Chaplain of the Senate, pronounced the 
 benediction, as follows : 
 
 May the peace of God. which passeth all 
 understanding, keep your minds and hearts 
 in the knowledge and love of God and His 
 Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the bless- 
 ing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost, rest upon and remain 
 with you, now and forevermore. Amen. 
 
 OI 1- 
 
82 
 
 The President and his Cabinet, the Chief 
 Justice and Associate Justices of the Su- 
 preme Court, and other invited guests then 
 retired from the Hall; after which the Sen- 
 ate returned to their Chamber. 
 
 The House having been called to order, 
 Mr. McKiNLEY submitted the tollow- 
 ing resolutions; which were unanimously 
 adopted by the House, and, on the suc- 
 ceeding day, by the Senate: 
 
 Rcso/vcif by the Senate and House of 
 Representatives, That the thanks of Con- 
 gress be presented to Hon. James C. 
 Blaine, for the appropriate Memorial Ad- 
 dress delivered by him on the life and 
 services of J.\AiKS AbryVM Gari-ield, late 
 President of the United States, in the 
 Representatives' Hall, before both Houses 
 of C'ongress and their invited guests, on 
 the 27th day of February, 1882; and that 
 
83 
 he be requested to furnish a copy for 
 publication. 
 
 Resolved, That the Chairmen of the Joint 
 Committee appointed to make the neces- 
 sary arrangements to carr>' into effccl the 
 resolutions of this Congress in relation to 
 the memorial exercises in honor of Jamks 
 Abram Garfield be requested to commu- 
 nicate to Mr. Blaine the foregoing resolu- 
 tion, receive his answer thereto, and present 
 the same to both Houses of Congress. 
 
 Mr. McKiNLEY. I now offer the resolu- 
 tion which I send to the Clerk's desk. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That, as a further testimonial 
 of resped to the deceased President of the 
 United States, the House do now adjourn. 
 
 The resolution was adopted ; and there- 
 upon (at one o'clock and fifty-five minutes 
 p. m.) the House adjourned. 
 
Correspondence. 
 
 The CAriTOL, 
 Washington, D. C, 
 Fcbrnary 28, 1882. 
 
 Sir: Wc have the honor to present to 
 you an official copy of two concurrent res- 
 olutions, unanimously passed by the Sen- 
 ate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States on the 27th instant, express- 
 ing the thanks of Congress for the appro- 
 priate Memorial Address pronounced by 
 you upon the Life and Services of James 
 Abram Garfield, late President of the 
 United States, and dircding us to recjuest 
 from you a copy of the Address for publi- 
 cation. 
 
 In performing this agreeable duty, we 
 
86 
 
 avail ourselves of the opportunity to ex- 
 press our hearty satisfaction with your 
 very able Address, and beg that you will 
 be pleased to furnish a copy of it for pub- 
 lication. 
 
 We have the honor to be, with great 
 respedt, your obedient servants, 
 John Sherman, 
 Cliairiuau on the part of the Senate. 
 
 Wm. McKinlev, Jr., 
 Chairman on the part of the House. 
 
 To the Honorable 
 
 James G. Blaine. 
 
 Washington, D. C, 
 
 March 2, 1S82. 
 
 Gentlemen: With profound apprecia- 
 tion of the honor conferred upon me by 
 the Resolution of Congress, which you 
 
87 
 transmit, and with my sincere thanks for 
 your own kindly expressions, I take pleas- 
 ure in sending herewith a'cojjy of the 
 Memorial Address for publication. 
 
 Very respedfully and sincerely, 
 
 James G. Blaine. 
 Hon. John Sher.max, 
 
 Chainnaii on the part of the Senate. 
 Hon. Wm. IVIcKinlev, Jr.. 
 
 Chairman on the part of the House. 
 
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