V / '/ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA r GEN. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. STORIES*- AND S^CiETOXHIiES OF f/S GEN. GARFIELD, Including His Early History, War Eecord, Public Speeches, Nomination, and All the Interesting Facts of His Great Career from the Farm .^^ Boy to His Candidacy for President. t^ EDITED BY Compiler of " Moody's Anecdotes ;" •' Moody's Chi Id Stories ; " " Edison and His Inventions;" "Lincoln's Stories;" 'Mistakes of Ingersoll ; " "Stories and Sketches of Gen. Grant;" "Entertaining Anecdotes;" "Replies to Ingersoll pu Thomas Fame ;" "Stones and Sketches of Chicago," Etc. CHICAGO: EHODES & McCLURE, PUBLISHERS. 1880. T Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, By J. B. McClure & K. S. Rhodes, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. JUNGBLUT, HeNRICKS & CO., KLECTROTTPERS. Co-operative Print, 241 S. Water-st., CHICAGO. We present in this volume an authentic and exceedingly interesting outline of Gen. Gariield's life, carefully pre- pared from all available sources. No one, young or old, can read these stories and sketches of the farmer boy, wood- chopper, canal-driver, school-boy, carpenter, teacher, college president, soldier, congressman, and Presidential candidate, without being deeply interested and benefitted. In this form, with its wide field for usefulness, the book is dedicated to the public Chicago, June 21, 1880. J. B. McCLURE. Page. Anecdote of Gen. Garfield at Murfreesboro, Illustrating a J^oble Trait of His Character 130 Anecdote of Garfield's Early Life — His Greatness Antici- pated by a Woman in Connection with a Laughable In- cident 33 An Interesting Keminiscence— Garfield and Arthur both School Teachers in the Same Koom at North Pownal, Vermont 33 An Interesting Story — Garfield as a Temperance Man— How He Disposed of an Obnoxious Brewery in One Hour 41 An Interesting Reminiscence of Garfield's Youth— A Letter He Wrote Twenty-three Years Ago that Helped to Make a College President, and that President Now Eeads It to His Students 119 A Pen Picture of Garfield 34 A Splendid Record — Summary of Garfield's Labors — The Rewards of Industry 49 A Trying Ordeal— In the Hands of the Doctors— Melting Down an "Ague Cake" with Calomel ! — How the Cruci- ble (Young Garfield) Endured It — He is Saved by a Kind Mother 23 X. CONTENT;- Boyhood of Gen. Garfield— The Farmer Boy on the Tow- path— A Tough Time— Good Health and Indomitable Energy Triumphant IS C Chester A. Arthur — Sketch of His Life 142 Col. Garfield's First Great Battle— He Defeats Humphrey Marshall and Wins a Brigadier-Generalsliip 58 Comparative Statement of Ballots 93 Closing Scenes in Garfield's AVar Record— Why He Left the Army 66 ID Dignity of American Citizenship— Garfield's Speech in Wash- ington, J une 16, 1880 132 Dying Words of Gen. Garfield's Father— He Leaves His Four Children in Care of His Wife 115 Enthusiasm on Fire — Making the Nomination of Gen. Gar- field Unanimous at the Chicago Republican Conven- tion — Speeches of Messrs. Conkling, I>ogan, Beaver, Hale, Pleasants, and Harrison 9§ First Vote for Garfield in the Chicago Convention— The Man Who Gave It Voted for Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln Under Like Circumstances 107 Full Details of Garfield's Pound Gap Expedition— Strategy and Victory— Battle of Pittsburg Landing, etc 59 CONTENTS. Garfielcl at College— He Graduates with High Honors— His Personal Appearance at This Period that of a Newly Imported Dutchman 27 Garfield at Home— His Eesidence in Mentor — His Family and His Mother 42 Garfield in War — How He Volunteered to Put Down the Rebellion, and was Promoted — Interesting Incidents on the Field of Battle 53 Garfield Nomination Joke Ill Garfield on the Democracy — Extract from One of His Old Speeches— His Walk in the Democratic Graveyard 73 Garfield "Photographed" by "Gath" — A Remarkably In- teresting Pen Picture of the Great Man — His Physical, Social, Moral, and Intellectual Powers 46 Garfield's Celebrated Speech at the Andersonville Reunion Held at Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 3, 1879— How the General Looks " Without Gloves ! " 78 Garfield's Extra Session Speech — Turning on the Light 128 Garfield's First Ride on the Cars — First Visit to Columbus- First School, Etc. — Interesting Reminiscences 126 Garfield's Great Speech at Columbus, Acknowledging His Election as United States Senator S3 Garfield's Life in Hiram Sketched by President Hinsdale, of Hiram College— An Interesting History 116 Garfield's School Days — He Attends a High School— Takes His Frying-pan Along— The Old, Old Story of What Grit Will Do 25 Garfield's Speech at the Wisconsin Republican Reunion- Outlining the Condition of the Country 76 Gen. Garfield as a Wood-Chopper — He Contracts to Put Up Twenty-five Cords— His Visit to Cleveland Harbor, and Laughable Interview with " The Captain 19 CONTENTS. Gen. Garfield En Route for Home After His Nomination for President— From Illinois to Ohio— Incidents and Wel- comes by the AVay 102 Gen. Garfield is Called to the Halls of Congress from the Fields of War— How it was Done— Early Experience of the Farmer Boy on the Floor 69 Gen. Garfield on the Floor of the Great Chicago Convention —Full Text of His Eloquent Speech Nominating John Sherman for President— Delivered June 5, 1880 87 Gen. Garfield's First Important Speech After His Nomina- tion—It is Delivered to the Students of Hiram College on " Commencement Day "—An Interesting Address. . . 44 Gen. Garfield's Marriage— A Happy Home— What the Gen- eral Says of His Wife 31 Gen. Garfield's Proclamation to the Citizens of Sandy Valley 62 Gen. Garfield's Speech Before the Hiram College Eeunion Association— The Commencement Day of 1880 Long to be Remembered 12^ Heroic Conduct of Gen. Garfield on the Field of Chicka- mauga— Driving Back Longstreet's Columns and Saving Gen. Thomas 63 How the Xews of Garfield's Nomination was Received at Hiram College— Ringing the Old Bell 107 Increasing Fame of the College President— His Election to the State Senate, and What He Did 32 CONTENTS. O Off the Tow-path— Why Young Garfield Abandoned the Canal— A Providential Escape that Set Him to Think- inji' and Sent Him Home 22 Professor Garfield in the Hiram Eclectic Institute— He Becomes President of the Institution— How He Became a Preacher 29 President Hinsdale's Stories and Tribute to Gen. Garfield, the Man who was in Hiram College Before Him— The Canal and Wood-Chopping Incidents— How He Made Success Possible, and Why He Succeeded a 36 s Seventeen years a Member of Congress— Garfield's Great Work in the Halls of Legislation— A Triumphant Leader 71 Summary of Ballots in the National Republican Conven- tion—Nominating Garfield for President 97 The Break to Garfield— Thirty-fourth Ballot 94 The Canal Story, Told by Garfield's Employer 134 The Way Garfield Got His Military Education 140 The General and the Fugitive Slave 141 The Habits and Methods of Garfield 138 »' The Member from New York" 133 The Turning Point in Garfield's Life 135 The Thirty-fifth Ballot 95 The Thirty-sixth and Last Ballot— Garfield Nominated 96 What Prominent Eoreign-Born Citizens Say of the Conven- tion—They Declare It Positively American 108 Who is Gen. Garfield? 113 g^gMfe^fe HOME LIFE 17 WAR KECOIIT) 53 SPEECHES ....... eg GAEFIELD'S KOMIXATIOX . ... 91 MISCELLANEOUS - Il3 '^ The man wlio wants to serve his country must piit himself in the line ol its leading thought, and that is tlie restoration of business, trade, commerce, industry, sound political economy, hard money, and the honest payment of all obligations, and the man who can add any- thing in the direction of accomplishing any of tiiese purposes is a public benefactor."— (6r^«^:^eM in Congress, Dec. 10. 187S.) STORIES AND SKETCHES OF Greneral GrarfielcL. HOME LIFE. Boyhood of Gen. Garfield— The Farmer Boy— On the Tow-path— A Toug Time— Good Health and Indomitable Energy Triumphant. Gen. James Abraham Garfield, the farmer boy, canal boatman, carpenter, school teacher, college professor, preacher, soldier, congressman, the popular candidate of the Kepublican party for Presidential honors, was born in the township of Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, fifteen miles from Cleveland, on the 10th of November, 1831. His father, Abraham Garfield, was born in Otsego County, New York, and was of a family that had resided in Massachusetts for several generations. His mother, Eliza Ballon, niece of the Rev. Hosea Ballon, the noted Universalist clergyman, was born in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. The General is, therefore, of New England stock. James was the youngest son of four children. The father died in 1833, leaving the family dependent upon a 17 2 18 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. small farm and the exertions of tlie mother. There was nothing about the elder Garfield to distinguish him from the other plodding farmers of the rather sterile to^\mship of Orange. JMo one could discern any qualities in him, which, transmitted to the next generation, might help to make a statesman, unless it was industry; but his wife, who is still living at an advanced age, was always fond of reading when she could get leisure from her hard household duties, and was a thoroughly capable woman, of strong will, stern j)rinciples, and more than average force of character. Of the children, no one besides James has made the slightest mark in the world. The older brother is a farmer in Michigan, and the two sisters are farmers' wives. The General had a tough time of it when a boy. He toiled hard on the farm early and late in summer, and worked at the carpenter's bench in winter. The best of it was he liked work. There was not a lazy hair on his head- He had an absorbing ambition to get an education, and the only road opened to this end seemed that of mamial labor. Ready money was hard to get in those days. The Ohio Canal ran not far from where he lived, and, finding that the boatmen got their pay in cash, and earned better wages than he could at farming or carpentry, he hired out as a driver on the tow-path, and soon got up to the dignity of holding the helm of a boat. Then he determined to ship as a sailor on the lakes, but an attack of fever and ague interfered with his plans. He was ill three months, and when he recovered he decided to go to a school called Geauga Academy, in an adjoining county. His mother had saved a small sum of money, which she gave him, together with a few cooking utensils and a sack of provisions. He hired a small room and cooked his own food to make his expenses as light as HOME LIFE. 19 possible, lie paid his o^vii way after that, never calling ou his mother for any more assistance. By working at the carpenter's bench mornings and evenings and vacation times, and teaching conntry schools during the winter he managed to attend the academy during the spring and fall terms, and to save a little money toward going to college. He had excellent heath, a robust frame, and a capital memory, and the attempt to combine mental and physical work, which has broken down many farmer boys ambitions to get an education, did not hurt him. Gen. Garfield as a Wood-Chopper— He Contracts to Put Up Twenty-five Cords —His Visit to Cleveland Harbor, and Laughable Interview with the " The Captain." The friends and early companions of the Greneral relate wonderful stories of his precocit}', telling how he could read at 3 years, and possessed remarkable capacitvfor com- mitting to memory what he had read, so that at the age when boys usually learn their letters he was somewhat ad- vanced in literature. During all the years of boyhood he simply worked and attended school, and grew strong and hearty, until, at the age ot sixteen, he was fully capable of doing a strong man's work on the farm. In the spring of this year he went to the To^vnship of Newburg, now in the limits of Cleveland, to chop cordwood. He took a job of putting up twenty-five cords, and man- fully did he set himself in his solitude to his task. To the north of him, as he worked, was the lake in slaty blue. There, in miniature, was the ocean of which he had so long di-eamed. Everything had to be won by little. The ocean was a great way off. He could not early reach it. He would begin his life of a sailor on the lake, and then seek a 20 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIELB. Avider range uj)on the " ocean blue." The work of wood- chopping was vigorously prosecuted, and time flew with great rapidity. He felt that the pay tor wood-chopping was hardly suffi- cient for a start, and so he hired out to a Mr. Treat, during the haying and harvesting season, but he still dreamed on. When this job was finished he went home to his mother and announced his intentions. She knew well that it was useless to oppose him, now that he had really set his heart upon it, and so, in the midst of prayer and God-blessings, he departed. He visited the harbor in Cleveland. Here he found a single vessel about to depart for a trip up the lakes. In all his dreams he had never seen a Captain except as a sort of mixture of angel and dashing military officer in blue coat and brass buttons. He went on board this vessel and in- quired for the Captain. He was told, with a smile, by one of the men, that the Captain would come up from the hold in a fevv" minutes. He had not long to wait. Presently a drunken wretch, brutal in every feature, came up, swearing at every step. " There is the Captain," said one of the men. The country lad stepped forward and modestly asked if a hand was wanted. Turning upon the youth, the brute poured a volley ofj pent-up curses and oaths, and made no other answer. The poor awkward boy was for a moment amazed, and then, turning away, walked about to recover himself. He was by no means cui"ed of his longing for the sea; he had too strong a will for that, and this had taken too strong a hold upon him. Kevolving the matter in his miad, he came to the conclusion that he had failed because he lacked some initiatory process.' As the lake was to the ocean, so should the canal be to the lake ; he would apply at the canal and gain some training there. E02IE LIFE. 21 Young Garfield Tries the Canal— Thirteen Duckings on the First Trip, and one Fight— The First Victory. !N"otwithstanding his poor success witli "the Captain," young Garfield determined to persevere, and the very first canal-boat he visited wanted a driver, and he got the place. The General avers that, by actual count, he fell into the can;d thirteen times on the first trip. Knowing nothing of the art of swimming, he came very near drowning. He worked faithfully and well, however, and at the end of his first round trip he was promoted from driver to bowsman. On his first trip to Beaver, in this new capacity, he had his first fight. lie was standing on the deck, with the setting pole against his shoulders. Some feet away stood Dave, a great, good-natured boatman, and a firm friend of the young General. The boat gave a lurch, the pole slipped from the youth's shoulder, and flew in the direction of Dave. "■ L(jok out, Dave!" called Garfield; but the pole was there first, and struck Dave a severe blow in the ribs. Garfield expressed his sorrow, but it was of no use. Dave turned upon the luckless boy with curses, and threatened to thrash him. Garfield knew he was innocent even of carelessness. The threat of a flogging from a heavy man of 35 roused the hot Garfield blood. Dave rushed upon him with his head down, like an enraged bull. As he came on, Garfield sprang one side and dealt him a powerful blow just back of and under the left ear. Dave went to the bottom of the boat with his head between two beams, and his now heated foe went after him, seized him by the throat, and lifted the same clenched hand for another blow. "Pound the blamed fool to death, Jim," called the appreciative Captain. ""Ifhehaint no more sense to get mad at accidents he orto die; " and, as the youtli hesitated, *'Whv don't vou strike? Blame me, if I'll interfere." 22 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. He could not; the man was down, lielj^less in his power. Dave exjDressed regret at his rage. Garliekl gave liim his hand, and they were better friends than ever. The victory gave the young man much prestige among the canal men. The idea that a hoy could thrash Dave was somethino; that the roughs could not understand. Oif the Tow-Path.— Why Young Garfield Abandoned the Canal.— A Provi- dential Escape that Set Him to Thinking and Sent Him Home. The General says that two causes were instrumental in causing him finally to abandon the canal. One was his mother, and the other was the ague cake in his side. He had worked but a short time when he began to feel the ague in his system, and finally it assumed a very seri- ous form. His money fell into the water, and the thorough wetting which followed increased his disease, and finally one especi. ally heavy fall left him to reason quite fully over the mat- ter. It was night, and in the darkness he grasped for something to draw himself out of the water. As luck would have it he chanced to reach the dry rope of the boat. Hand over hand he grasped the rope, and finally he drew himself up. He thought of his mother, and how he had left her with the intention of going upon the lake, and how she still believed he was there. The next day's warm sun dried his clothes, but he was sicker than ever with the chills, and he determined upon reaching Cleveland to go and visit his mother and lay off long enough to get well. It was after dark when he approached the home of the widow and orphans. Coming cjuietly near he heard her HOME LIFE. 23 voice in prayer •\vitliin. He bowed and listened as the fer- vent prayer went on. He heard her pray for him. When the voice ceased he softly raised the latch and entered. Her pra^^er was answered. Not till after that time did he know that his going away had crushed her. A Trying Ordeal— In the Hands of the Doctors— Melting Down an "Agu Cake " with Calomel I— How the Crucible i Young Garfield) Endured It— He is Saved by a Kind Mother. After the terrible ducking and narrow escape that closed the hibors of young Garfield on the canal, lie was at once prostrated with the " ague cake," as the hardness of the left side is popularly called. One of the old school JM.D.'s salivated him, and for several awful months he lay on the bed with a board so adjusted as to conduct the flow of saliva from his mouth while the cake was dissolving under the influence of cak)mel, as the doctor said! Nothing but the indissoluble constitution given him by his father carried him through. However it fared witli that obdurate cake, his })assioii for the sea survived, and he intended to return to the canal. The wise, sagacious love of the mother won. She took counsel of other helps. During the dreary months with tender watchfulness she cared for liiin. She trusted in his noble natui'e; she trusted in good faith that, although he constantly talked of carrying out his old plans, he would abandon them. Not tor 3'ears did he know the agony these M'ords cost her. She merely said, in her sweet, quiet way: 'James, you're sick. If you return to the canai, I fear you will be taken down again. I have been thinking it over. It seems to me you had better go to school this spring, and then, with a term in the fall, you maybe able to teach in the winter. It vou can teach winters and want 24 STOmJES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD to go on tlic canal or lake summers, you will haves employment the year round." Wise woman that she was, in his broken condition it did not seem a bad plan. While he revolved it, she went on : " Your money is now all gone, but your brother Thomas and I will be able to raise $17 for you to start to school on, and you can perhaps get along, after that is gone, upon your own resources." He took the advice and the money, — the only fund ever contributed by others to him either in fitting or passing through college, — and went to The Grange, a seminary at Chester. In speaking of this longing for the sea, the General said, half regretfully : " But even now, at times, the old feeling, (the longing for the sea) comes back," and, walking across the room, he turned, with a flashing eye: "I tell you I would rather now command a fleet in a great naval battle than to do anything else on this earth. The sight of a ship often fills me with a strong fascination, and when upon the water, and my fellow-landsmen are in the agonies of sea-sickness, I am as tranquil as when walldng the land in the serenest weather." And so the mother conquered. When a thirst for knowledge was once engendered in the youth, the mother stood in no danger of losing him. But during all -those years of education, there were obstacles of great magnitude to be overcome, poverty to be struggled against, and victories to be won. HOME LIFE. 25 Garfield's School Days— He Attends a High School— Takes His Frying-pan Along-The Old Old Story of What Grit Will Do. Up to the time of vonng Garfield's canal experience lie seemed to have cherished little ambition for anything beyond the prospects ofiered by the laborious life he had entered. But it happened that one of the winter schools was taught by a promising young man named Samuel Bates. He had attended a high school in 'an adjacent township, known as the " Geauga Seminary," and with the proselyting spirit common to young men in the back- woods, who were beginning to taste the pleasures of edu- cation, he was very anxious to take back several new students with him. Garfield listened to Mr. Bates, and was tempted. lie had intended to become a sailor on the lakes, but he was yet too ill to carry out this plan, and so he finally resolved to attend the high school one teinn, and postpone sailing till the next fall. That resolution made a scholar, a Major General, a Senator-elect, and a Presidential candidate out of him, instead of a sailor before the m ast on a Lake Erie schooner. The boy never dreamed of what the man would be. Early in March, 1849, young Garfield reached Chester (the site of the Geauga Academy) in company with his cousin and another young nuui from his village. They car- ried with them frying-pans and dishes as well as their few school books. They rented a room in an old, unpainted frame house near the academy, and went to wor . Garfield bought the second Algebra he had ever seen, and began to study it. English Grammar, Natural Philosophy, and Arithmetic were the list of his studies. His mother had scraped together a little sum of money to aid him at the start, which she gave him with her blessino' when he left his humble home. After that he 26 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. never had a dollar in his life that he did not earn. As soon as he began to feel at home in his classes he sought among the carpenters of the village for employment at his trade. He worked mornings, evenings, and Saturdays, and thus earned enough to pay his way. When the summer vaca- tion came he had a longer interval for work; and so when the fall term opened lie had enough money laid up to pay his tuition and give him a start ao-ain. By the end of the fall term Garlield had made such progress that a lad of 18 thought he was able to teach a district school. Then the future seemed easy to him. The fruits of the winter's teaching were enough, with his economical management to pay the expenses of the spring and fall terms at the academy. Whatever he could make at his morning and evening work at his carpenter's trade would go to swell another fund, the need of which he had begun to feel. For the backwoods lad, village carpenter, tow-path canal hand, would-be sailor, had now resolved to enter college. " It is a great point gained," he said years afterwards, "when, in our hurrying times, a young man makes up his mind to devote several years to the accomplishment of definite work." It was so now in his o\\m case. With a definite purpose before him he began to save all his earnings, and to shape all his exertions to the one end. Through the summer vacation of 1850 he worked at his trade, helping to build houses within a stone's throw of the academy. During the next session of the academy he was able to abandon Ijoarding himself, having found a boarding house where he found the necessaries of life for $1 per week. The next winter he taught again, and m the spring removed to Hiram to attend the " Institute " over which he was afterward to preside. So he continued teaching a EC2JE LIFE. 27 tenn each winter, attending school through spring and fall, and keeping up with his classes hy private study during the time he was absent. Before he had left Iliram Institute he was the finest Latin and Greek scholar that the school had ever seen — and at this day he reads and writes the language fluently. At last, by the summer of 1854, the carpenter and tow- path boy had gone as far as the high school and academies of his native region could carry him. He was now nearly 23 years old. The struggling, hard-working boy had de- veloped into a self-reliant man. He was the neighborhood wonder for scholarship, and a general favorite for the hearty, genial ways that had never deserted him. He had been brought up in '' the Church of the Disciples," as it loved to call itself, of which Alexander Campbell was the great light. At an early age he had followed the example of his parents in connecting himself with this church. His life corresponded with his profession. Everybody believed in and trusted him. He had saved from his school-teaching and carpenter work about half enough money to carry him through the two years in which he thought he could finish the ordinary colleo-e course. Garfield at College-He Graduates with Higii Honors-His Personal Appear- ance at this Period that of a " Newly-Imported Dutchman. " AYhen he was 23 yeai-s of age young Garfield concluded he had got about all there was to be had in the obscure cross-roads academy. He calculated that he had saved about half enough money to get through college, provided he could begin, as he hoped, with the Junior year. He was growing old, and he determined that he must go to colleo-e that fall. 28 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. How to procure the rest of tlie needed money was a mystery; but at last his good character, and the good will this brought him, solved the question. He was in vigorous lusty health, and a life insurance policy was easily obtained. This he assigned to a gentle- man who thereupon loaned him what money was needed, knowing that if he lived he would j)ay it, and it he died the ]')olicy would secure it. Pecuniary difficulties thus disposed of, he was ready to start. But where? He had originally intended to attend Bethany College, the institution sustained by the church of which he was a member, and presided over by Alexander Campbell, the man above all others whom he had been taught to admire and revere. But as study and experience had enlarged his vision, he had come to see that there were Ijetter institutions outside the limits of his peculiar sect. So in the fall of 1854 the pupil ot Geauga Seminary and the Hiram Institute applied for admission at the venerable doors of Williams College. He knew no graduate of the college and no student attending it; and of the President he only knew that he had published a volume of lectures wdiich he liked, and that he had w^ritten a kindly word to him when he spoke of coming. The Western carpenter and village school-teacher re- ceived many a shock in the new sphere he had now entered. On every hand he was made to feel the social superiority of his fellow-students. Their ways were free from the .awk- ward habits of the untrained laboring youth. Their speech was free from the uncouth phrases of the provincial circles jn which he moved. Their toilets made the handiwork of his village tai lor sadly shabby. Their free-handed -exj^en- ditures contrasted strikingly with his enforced parsimony. To some tough- fibred hearts these would have been only petty annoyances. To the warm, social, generous mind of HOME LIFE. 29 young Garfield they seem, from more than one indication of his college life that we can gather, to have been a source of positive anguish. But he bore bravely up, maintained the advance standing in the junior class to which he had been admitted on his. arrival, and at the end of his two years' course (in 1856) bore off the metaphysical honor of his class — reckoned at Williams among the highest within the gift of the institu- tion to her graduating members. Eut now, on his return to his home, the younj'- man who had gone so far East as to old AVilliams, and had come back decorated with her honors, was thought good for anything. A daguerreot\^3e of him taken about this time represents a rather awkward youth, witli a shock of light hair stand ing straight up from a big forehead, and a frank, thought ful face, of a very marked German tj^e. There is not^ however, a drop of German blood in the Garfield family, but this })icture would be taken for some Fritz or Carl just over from the Fatherland. Proffessor Garfield in the Hiram Eclectic Institute.— Ee Becomes President of the Institution.— How He Became a Preacher. Before he went to college Garfield had connected him- self with the Disciples, a sect having a numerous member ship in Eastern and Southern Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had traveled and preached. The principal peculiarities of the denomination are their refusal to formulate their beliefs into a creed, the indepen- dence of each congregation, the hospitality and frateriial feeling of the members, and the lack of a regular ministry. When Garfield returned to Ohio it was natural that ho should soon ravitate to the struggling little college of the so STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. young sect at Iliram, Portage coimty, near liis boyhood's home. Here lie was straightway made tutor of Latin and Greek in the Hiram Eclectic Institute, in which only two years before he had been a pupil, and so he began to work for money to pay his debts. So high a position did he take, and so po])ular did he become, that the next year he was made President of the institute, a position which he con- tinued to hold until his entrance into political life, but a little before the outbreak of the war. Two years of teaching (during which time he married) left him even with the world. Through the school year of 1858-9 he even began to save a little money. At the same time he commenced the study of law. Hiram is a lonesome country village, three miles from a railroad, built upon a high hill, overlooking twenty miles of cheese-making country to the southward. It contains lifty or sixty houses clustered around the green, in the cen- ter of which stands the homely red-brick college structure. Plain livino; and hio-h thinkino;' was the order of things at Hiram College in those days. The teachers were poor, the pupils were poor, and the institution was poor, but there was a great deal of hard, faithful st)idy done, and many ambitious plans formed. The young President taught, lectured, and preached, and all the time studied as diligently as any aeolyte in the tem- ple of knowledge. He frequently spoke on Sundays in the churches of the towns in the vicinity to create an interest in«the college. Among the Disfciples any one can preach who has a mind to, no ordination being required. From these Sunday dis- courses came th-e story that Garfield at one time was a minister. He never considered himself as such, and never had any intention of finding a career in the pulpit. His HOME LIFE, 31 ambition, if lie liad any outside of the school, lay in the direction of law and politics. Gen. Garfield's Marriage— A Happy Home— What the General says of his Wife. Dui'ing his professorship at Hiram, Garfield married JMiss Lucretia liudolph, daughter of a farmer in the neighborhood, whose acquaintance he had made while at the academy, where she was also a pupil. She was a quiet, thoughtful girl, of singularly sweet and refined disposition, fond of study and reading, possessing a warm heart and a mind with the capacity of steady growth. The marriage was a love affair on both sides, and has been a thoroughly happy one. Much of Gen. Garfield's subsequent success in life may be attributed to the never- failing sympathy and intellectual companionship of his wife and the stimulus of a loving home circle. The young couple bought a neat little cottage fronting on the college campus, and began their wedded life poor and in debt, but with brave hearts. Speaking ot his wife recently, Mr. Garfield said: I have been wonderfully blessed in the discretion of my wife. She is one of the coolest and best-balanced women I ever saw. She is unstampcdable. There has not been one solitary instance of my public career where I suffered in the smallest degree ior any remark she ever made. It woiild have been perfectly natural for a woman often to say something that could be misinterpreted; but without any design, and with the intelligence and coolness of her character, she has never made the slightest mistake that I ever heard of. With the competition that has been against me, many times such discretion has been a real blessing. She has borne him a large family of children, two of whom — the eldest boys — are now preparing for college. Their home since their marriage has been in Hiram until three or four years ago, when they removed to Mentor, Lake County, where their residence now is. 32 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. Increasing Fame of tbe College President— His Election to the State Senate and What He Did. The College President began to draw attention through wider circles than those which he had been a center as a teacher, and his oratorical powers had brought him promi- nently before the public. As President of the institute, it was natural that he should secure a prominent position among educated men, and his reputation grew very rapidly until, in 1859, the people of his county thought him a proper man to represent them in the State Senate. He was elected by a large majority, and took an influential part in legislation and debate. "it is generally supposed that General Garfield was once a clergyman. This is not strictly true; he frequently appeared in the pulpit of the Disciples Church, in accord- ance with the liberal usages of that denomination, but never entertained any idea of becoming a minister, nor did he ever take holy orders. Since his entrance into politics as a member of the Legislature he has not performed any ministerial duties, but has turned his attention more to the practice of law. When the war broke out General Garfield was a leading member of the Ohio State Senate, and was the foremost of a small band of Republicans who thought it impolitic to adopt the constitutional amendments which had been sent by Congress to the States forbidding forever legislation on the subject of slavery. He took the lead in revising an old statute about treason, and when what was known as the " million war bill " came up, he was the most conspicuous of its advocates. A HOME LIFE. 33 Anecdote of Garfield's Early Life— His Greatness Anticipated by a Woman is Connection with a Laughable Incident. A reminiscence of Gen. Garfield's earlier manliood is found in the recital given by one Capt. Styles, the pres- ent Sheriff of Ashtabula county, Ohio. In 1S50, Capt. Stiles relates that Garfield taught the district school of Stiles' district, and " boarded around." Like many other school -masters of the pioneer days, Garfield's wardrobe was scanty, consisting of but one suit of jean. One day the school-master was so unfortunate as to rend his pantaloons across the knee in an unseemly degree. He pinned up the rend as best he could, and went to the home- stead of the Stiles' where he was then boarding. Good Mrs. Stiles cheerfully said to the unfortunate pedagogue: "Oh, well, James, never mind; you go to bed early and I will put a nice patch under that tear, and darn it all up so nice that it will last all winter, and when you get to be United States Senator nobody will ask you what kind of clothes you wore when you were keeping school." Last winter when Gen. Garfield was elected Senator from the State of Ohio Mrs. Styles, who is still a hale old lady, sent her congratulations to \\\m and reminded him of the torn pantaloons; and for her kindly congratulations she re- ceived a most touching reply from the newly-elected Senator, assuring her that the incident was fresh in his memory. An Interesting Reminiscence— Garfield and Arthur Both School Teachers in the Same Room at North Pownal, Vt. North Pownal, Bennington, Co., Vt., formerly known as Whipple's Corners, is situated in the southwestern comer of the State, and by the usually travelled road one passes in an hour's ride from New York through the 3 34 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. corner of Yermont by way of Nortli Pownal into the State of Massachusetts. In 1851 Chester A. Arthur, fresh from Union College, came to North Pownal, and for one summer taught the village school. About two years later James A. Garfield, then a young student at Williams College, several miles distant, in order to obtain the necessary means to defray his expenses while pursuing his studies, came also to North Pownal and established a writing-school in the room for- merly occupied by Mr. Arthur, and taught classes in pen- manship during the long winter evenings. Thus, from a common starting-point in early life, after the lapse of more than a quarter of a century, after years of manly toil, these distinguished men are brought into a close relationship before the nation and before the civilized world. A Pen Picture of Garfield. In person Gen. Garfield is six feet high, broad-shouldered and strongly built. He has an unusually large head, that seems to be three-fourths forehead, light-brown hair and beard, large, light-blue eyes, a prominent nose, and full cheeks. He dresses plainly, is fond of broad-brimmed slouch hats and stout boots, eats heartily, cares nothing for luxurious li^dng, is thoroughly temperate in all respects save in that of brain-work, and devoted to his wafe and children and very fond of his country home. Among men he is genial, approachable, companionable, and a remarkably entertaining talker. HOME LIFE. 0,5 A Pen Picture of Gen. Garfield's Wife-A Model Woman. Mrs. Garfield is a lady of medinin lieig-ht, and of slight but well-knit form. She has small features, with a some- what prominent forehead, and lier black liair, crimped in front and done up in a modest coil, is slightly tinged with ^ray. A pair of black eyes, and a mouth about which there plays a sweetly bewitching smile, are the most attrac- tive features of a thoroughly expressive face. In dress she is quite as plain as the present mistress of the White House, whom she resembles in several respects. Iler man- ners are graceful and wiiming in the extreme. Though she is noted for her modest, retiring ways and her thorough domesticity more than for aiiv other distinmiishiuir char- acteristic, her educational accomplishments are many and varied. In ail the public life of her distinguished compan- ion she has been his constant helpmeet and adviser. She is a quick observer, an intelligent listener, but undemon- strative in the extreme. When the General was at Chick- amagua, and everybody at Iliram was painfully anxious to get the latest news from the field of battle, she sat quiet and patient in what is now Professor Hinsdale's cosy library, and was able to control the inmost emotions that swayed her breast. How she received the news of the General's nomination at Chicago will probably never be fully known, but everybody here is sure that siie was as undemonstrative as when waiting for news from Chickamaugua. 36 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. President Hinsdale's Stories and Tribute to Gen. Garfield, the Man Who was in Hiram College Before Him— The Canal and Wood-Chopping Incidents— How He ISade Success Possible, and Why He Succeeded. President B. A. Hinsdale, of Hiram College, on the day of Garfield's election to the United States Senate, made the following annomi cement to the students in the chapel: " To-day a man will be elected to the United States Senate in Columbus who, when a boy, was once the bell- ringer in this school and afterward its President. Feeling this, we ought, in some way, to recognize this step in his history. I will to-morrow morning call your attention to some of the more notable and worthy features of Gen. Gar- field's history and character." The address which President Hinsdale delivered on the occasion is as iollows: Young Ladies and Gentlemen: I am not going to at- tempt a formal address on the life and character of Gen. Garfield. There is now no call for such an attempt, and I have made no adequate preparations for such a task. My object is far humbler: simply to hold up to your minds some points in his history, and some features in his char- acter that young men and women may study with interest and profit. I shall begin by destroying history, or what is commonly held to be history. The popularly accepted account of Gen. Garfield's history and character is largely fabulous. We are not to suppose that the ages of myth and legend are gone; under proper conditions such growths spring up now; and I know of no man in public life around whom they have sprung up more rankly than around the subject of my remarks. No doubt you have seen some of the stories concerning him and his family that appear ever and anon in the news- HOME LIFE. 37 papers; that his motlier chopped cordwood; that she fought wolves with fire to keep them from devouring her children, her distinguished son being one of the group; that the cir- cumstances of the family were the most pinching; that Garfield himself could not read at the age of 21; that he was peculiarly reckless in his early life; that, when he had become a man, he went down from the pulpit to thrash a bully who interrupted him in his sermon on the patience of Job. These stories, and others like them, are all false and all harmfid. They fail of accomplishing the very purpose for Avhich they were professedly told— thd stimulation of youth. To make the lives of the great distorted and monstrous is not to make them fruitful as lessons. If a life be anomalous and outlandish, it is, for that reason, the poorer example. It is all in the wrong direc- tion. It makes the impression that, in human history, there is no cause and no effect; no antecedeiit and no con- sequent; that everything is capricious and fitful; and sug- gests that the best thing to do is to abandon one's self to the currents of life, trusting that some beneficent Lnilf stream will seize you and bear you to some happy shore. No, young people, do not heed such instruction as this. The best lives for them to study are those that are natural and symmetrical; tliose in wliich the relation between cause and efiect is so close and a])parent that the dullest can see it; and that preach in the plainest terms the sermon on the text: " Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Irregular and abnormal lives will do for " studies," but healthy, normal, liarmonious lives should be chosen for example. And Gen. Garfield's life from the first has been eminently healthy, normal, and well-proportioned. He was born in the woods of Orange, Cuyahoga County, in 1831. His father died when the son was a year and a 38 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. half old. Abram Gariielcrs circumstances were those of his neighbors. Measured by our standard they were all poor; they lived on small farms, for wliicli they, had gone in debt, hoping to clear and pay for them by their toil. Garfield dying, left his wife and four young children in the condition that any one of his neighbors would have done in like circumstances — poor. The family life before had been close and hard enough; now it became closer and harder. Grandma Garfield, as some of us familiarly call her, was a woman of unusual energy, faith, and courage. She said the children should not be separated, but kept them together; and that the home should be maintained, as when its head was living. The battle was a hard one, and she won it. All honor to her, but let us not make her ridiculous by inventing impossible stories. To external appearance, young Garfield's life did not differ materially from the lives of the neighbors' boys. He chopped wood, and so did they; he mowed, and so did they; he carried butter to the store in a little pail, and so did they. Other families that had not lost their heads naturally shot ahead of the Garfields in property; but such differences counted far less then than they do now. The traits of his maturer character appeared early; studi- ousness, truthfulness, generosity of nature, and mental power. So far was he from being reckless, that he was almost serious, reverent and thoughtful. So far was he from being unable to read at 21 that he was a teacher in the district schools before he was 18. He was the farthest removed from being a pugilist, though he had great physical strength and courage, cool- ness of mind, was left-handed withal, and was both able and disposed to defend himself and all his rights, and did so on due occasion. HOME LIFE. G9 His tliree months' service on the canal has been the source of numerous fables and morals. The morals are as false as the fables, and more misleading. All I have to say about it is: James A, Garfield has not risen to the position of a United States Senator because he '" ran on a canal." Nor is it because he chopped more wood than the neighbors' bovs. Manv a man has run lono-er on the canal, and chopped more wood, and never became a Senator. Gen. Garfield once rang the school bell when a student here. That did not make him the man he is. Convince me tliat it did, and I will hang uj) a bell in every tree in the cam])us, and set you all to ringing. Thomas Corwin, M-hen a boy, drove a wagon, and l)ecame the head of the Treasury; Thomas Ewing boiled salt, and became a Senator; Henry Clay rode a horse to mill from the "Slashes," and he became the great commoner of the West. But it was not the wagon, the salt, and horse that made these men great. These are interesting facts in the lives of these illus- trious men; they show that, in our country, it has been, and still is possible lor young men of ability, energy, and determined pui*pose to rise above a lowly condition, and win places of usefulness and lionor. Poverty may be a good school; straightened circumstances may develop power and character; but the pi-incipal conditions of success are in the man, and not in his surroundings. Garfield is the man he is because nature gave him a noble endowment of faculties that he has nobly handled. We must look within, and not without, for the secret of destiny. The thing to look at in a man's life are his aspirations, his energy, his courage, his strength of will, and not the Avood he may have choi)ped, or the salt he may liave boiled. How a man works, and not what he does, is the test of worth. 40 ST0RIE8 AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. His success did not lie in liis teclmical scholarship, or his ability as a drill-master. Teachers are plenty who much surpass him in these particulars. He had great ability to grasp a subject; to organize a body of intellectual materials; to amass facts and work out striking generalizations; and, therefore, lie excelled in rhetorical exposition. An old pupil who has often heard him on the stump, once told me, " the General succeeds best when talking to tlie people just as he did to his class." He imparted to his pupils large- ness of view, enthusiasm, and called out of them unbounded devotion to himself. This devotion was not owing to any plan or trick, but to the qualities of the man. Mr. H. M. Jones of the Cleve- land schools, an old Hiram scholar, speajking of the old Hiram days before Garfield went to college, once wrote me : " There 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, or a simple word from him, w^as to me an inspiration." Probably all were not equally susceptible, but all the boys who were long under his charge (save, perhaj)S, a few " sticks ") would speak in the same strain. He had great power to energize young men. Gen. Garfield has carried the same qualities into public life. He has commanded success. His ability, knowledge, mastery of questions, generosity of nature, devotion to the public good, and honesty of purpose, have done the work. He has never had a political "machine." He has never forgotten 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. ]^o "bar-bains," no "slate," no "grocery" at Columbus. He did not even go to the Capital City. Such things are inspiring to those who think politics in a broad HOME LIFE. 41 way. He is a man of positive convictions, freely uttered. Politically he may be called a '• man-of-war; " and yet few men, or none, begrudge him his triumph. Democrats vied with Republicans the other day in 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 Senator is honored, Ohio is honored, and so is the school in Hiram, with which he was connected so many years. The whole story abounds in interest, and I hope I liave so told it as to bring out some of its best points, and to give you stimulus and cheer. An Interesting Story— Garfield as a Temperance Man— How He Disposed of an Obnoxious Brewery in One Hour. I heard a little stand it HOME LIFE. 47 was a providence that his neiglibors 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 delio-ht of Rosecrans 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 entii-e absence of non-balance or worldliness in his nature. He is never indift'erent, never vindictive. A base action or ingratitude or cruelty may make him sad, but does not provoke retaliation, nor alter that faith in men or Providence which is a j^art of his sound stomach and athletic head. Garfield is simple as a child; to the ser- pent's wisdom he is a stranger. Having no use nor apti- tude with the weapons of coarser natures, he often avoids mere disputes, does not go to i)ublic resorts where men are familiar or vulgar, and the walk from his home in Wash- ington to the Capitol, and an occasional dinner out, com- prise 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 affairs are associated with a military nature in him. He is on a broad scale a schoolmaster of tlie range of Glad- stone, of Agassiz, of Gallatin. With as hon3st a heart as ever beat above the competitors of sordid ambition. Gen. 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 investment, nor the rapid solution 48 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. ot wealth, nor profound respect for tlie penny in and out of pound, and still is neither careless, improvident, nor dependent. The great consuming 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 suspicious 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 men. The people of his district, who are quick to punish public venality or defection, heard him in his defense in 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 Gar- field's scholarship, which is equally up to this age of wider facts. The average American, pursuing money all day long, is now presented to a man who had invariably put the business of others above his own, and worked for that alleged nondescript — the public — gratitude all his life. But lie has not labored without reward. The great nomination, came to-day to as pure and loving a man as ever wished well of anybody and put his shoulder to his neighbor's wheel. Garfield's big, boyish heart is pained to-night with the weight of his obligation, affection, and responsibility. To- day, as hundreds of telegrams came from everywhere, say" ing kind, strong things to him — such messages as only Americans in their rapid, good impulses pour upon a lucky friend — he w^as with two volunteer clerks in a room open- ing 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 afterward told it. HOME LIFE. 49 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, un- assuming woman ; the mother of seven or eight children, and, as he told me only a few weeks ago, had never, by any remark, brought him into the least trouble, while she was unstampedable by any clamor. He is the ablest public speaker in the country, and the most serious and instructive man on the stump. His in- stincts, liberal and right; his courtesy, noticeable in our politics; his aims, ingenuous; and his piety comes by na- ture. 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 ottice it has never yet had, while he has no pedantry in his composition, and no conceit whatever. Gen. Gartiekl may be worth $125,000, or a little more than Mr. Lincoln was when he took the office. His old mother, a genial lady, liv'es in his family, and his kindness to heron every occasion bears out the commandment of "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land." A Splendid Record— Summary of Garfield's Labors— The Rewards of Industry. It is astonishing how much there is in the story of Gen. Garfield's life to excite the sympathy, appeal to the pride, and call out the commendation of young men and old men who believe in the dignity of American citizenship. In 1840, an orphan boy struggling along the prosaic dead level ot life on a farm; in 1847, working steadily under the hardships and drudgery of a canal-boatman's experience; in 1849, an aspiring student, supporting himself at an acad- 4 50 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. emy; in 1S50, a teacher in a country school, earning money to forward his ambition to become an educated man; in 1854, a stubborn student at college; in 1858, a young man struggling against the debts incurred in educating himself; in 1859, President of an educational institute and a State Senator; in 1860, influential as a man and prominent as a politician; in 1861, the Colonel of a Union regiment, and the commander of a brigade, driving forward with resistless energy into Eastern Kentucky; in 1862, a Brigadier Gen- eral, and then a Major General; in 1863, occupying Gid- dings' seat in Congress; re-elected in 1864, 1866, 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, and 1878, and for nearly all the time an acknowledged leader; elected United States Sen- ator in January, 1880, and nominated President in June. This is the ideal career of the ambitious or aspiring American boy. Here is a man who, beginning life as a poor boy, has in truth fought his way to distinction. Pure and courageous as a boy, ambitious and self-reliant as a young man, tireless and brave as a soldier, aggressive but even-tempered as a leader in Congress, Gen. Garfield has retained every friendship of his youth, held fast to every comrade of liis soldier experience, and commanded the respect of all his co-laborers in Congress. Garfield's life is the story of a young man who has suc- ceeded through his own etforts. ILu'iiig passed through all the trials common to boys and young men in this coun- try, he has achieved the distinction which we teach, as a part of our American system, all our boys to strive for. He is from the people and of the people, a pure, kind- hearted, tolerant, broad-spirited, and distinguished man. Such a life record is a source of pride to any man who thoroughly believes in the possibilities of the American system of education and government. It must be an ele- ment of streno-th to the Presidential candidate of any party, HOME LIFE. 51 and, judojed by this record, by his talent, experience, and spirit, Gariield should be a strong candidate for the Repub- lican party. It is a good sign when those who know a man best like him best. It is a good sign when those who have been most intimately associated with a man arise promptly and voluntarily to testily in his behalf. It is a good sign when men are attracted to another man because he is a man of heart and principle. 52 WAR RECORD. Garfield in War— How He Voluntered to put down the Rebellion, and was Promoted Interesting Incidents on the Field of Battle. Troops were being raised in Ohio early in 1S61, and Gen. Garfield at once notified (Governor Dennison of his desire to enter the service. Garfield was sent to New York by Governor Dennison to secure arms for the e(jni])nient of the Ohio troops, and u])on his return was oti'ered a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in a ])roposed regiment, which was never organized. In August, 1861, however, after McClellan's West Virginia campaign, Gen. Garfield was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Fortv-Second Oliio lieo-iment, for which had been recruited many of his old pupils at the Hiram Institute. Gen. (4arficld went diligently at work studying tactics, and after five weeks of camp life was promoted to the Colonelcy of his regiment, and started for the field. The regiment went first to Kentucky, where it reported to Gen. Buell, and Garfield was at once assigned the command of the Seventeenth Brigade, and ordered to drive the rebel forces, under IIum])hrey Marshall, out of Eastern Kentucky. Up to that date no active operations had been attempted west of the Blue Bidge Mountains, and Gen. Garfield found himself in command of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of cavalry, charged with the 53 54 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. important work of driving out of his native State an ofticer reported to be the ablest that Kentucky had given to the rebellion. Gen. Garfield had never seen a gnn tired in action, and had no knowledge of military service except what had been gained in a tew months' experience. Garfield moved rapidly up the valley, with a force numbering only 2,200, to meet an experienced olMcer with 5,000 well-equipped men; but Marshall retreated before him, and after a slight skirmish, Garfield found himself in possession of the enemy's camp and baggage. He pushed the pursuit, and was reinlorced by about 1,000 men. The fight that followed was severe at times, but on the whole desultory, and continued three days, until the troops had become practically disabled, because of a heavy rainstorm that flooded the mountain gorges, and made so strong a current in the rivers that Garfield's supplies were unable to reach him. The troops were almost out of rations, and the mountain- ous country was incapable of supporting them. Garfield went by land to the base of his supplies, and ordered a steamer to take on a cargo and move up to the relief ot his troops. Tlie Captain declared it was impossible; finally, Garfield ordered the Captain and his crew on board, stationed sentinels in the pilot-house, and, having gained a load, started up stream. The water in the usually shallow river was sixty feet deep, and the tree tops along the banks were submei'ged. The little vessel trembled from stem to stern at every motion ot the engines; the waters whirled her about as if she were a skiff, and the utmost speed that steam could give her was three miles an hour. When night fell, the Captain of the boat begged permission to tie up. To attempt ascending the fiood in the dark he declared was WAR RECORD. 55 madness. But Cul. Garfield kept his place at the wheel. Finally, in one of the sndden bends of the river, they drove, with a full head of steam, into the hank. Every effort to back her off was in vain. Mattocks were procnred, and excavations were made aronnd the imbedded bow. Still she stnck. Garfield at last ordered a boat to be lowered to take a line across to the op])(jsite bank. The crew protested airainst ventnrinij; ont in the flood. The Colonel leaped into the boat and steered it over. A windlass of rails was hastily made, and with a long line the vessel was warped ofi', and once mo)'e was afloat. It was Saturday when they left Sandy Creek. All through that day and night, Sunday and Sunday night, the boat i)ushed her way against the curi-ent, Garfield leaving the wheel but eight hours of the whole time. At nine o'clock Monday they reached camp, and Garfield could scarcely escape being borne to headquarters on the shoulders of the men. During the nu>ntlis of January, Februaiy and March there were numerous encounters with mountain guerrillas, but the Union arms finally prevailed, and the bands of marauders were driven from the State. Just on the border, however, at the rough pass across the mountains known as round Cr;\]\ Humphrey Marshall still held a post of observation, willi a force of about 5 00 men. On the 14th of Mardi, Garfield started with 500 inlantry and a cou]fle of hundred cavalry against this detachment. The distance was forty miles. The roads were at their worst, but by evening of the next day he had reached the mountain two miles north of the gap. Next morning the cavalry were deployed up the gap road, while the infantry were led along an unfrequented path on the side of the mountain. A heavy snowstorm also helped to mask the movement. While the enemy 56 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. were watching tlie cavalry, Garfield had led the infantry to within a quarter of a mile of their camp. Then an attack was ordered, the enemy taken by surprise, and a few volleys sent them in confusion down the side of the mountain into Yirginia. Considerable quantities of stores were captured. That night the victorious troops rested in the comfortable log huts built by the enemy, and the next morning burned them down. Six days afterward, the command was ordered to Louisville. These operations had been conducted with such energy and skill as to receive the special commenda- tion of the Government, and Col. Garfield was given a commission as Brigadier General. The discomfiture of Humphrey Marshall was a source of special chagrin to the rebel sympathizers of Kentucky, and Garfield took rank in the popular estimation among the most promising of the volunteer Generals. On his return to Louisville after the campaign, he found the army ot the Ohio already beyond Nashville, on its way to Gen. Grant's aid at Pittsburg Landing. He hastened after it, and assumed command of the Twentieth Brigade. He reached the field on Pittsburg Landing about one o'clock on the second day of the battle, and participated in the closing scenes. When Gen, Buell sought to prepare a new campaign, he assigned Gen, Garfield to the task of rebuilding the bridges and railroad from Corinth to Decatur. After performing the duty with great skill and energy, he found himself reduced by fever and ague, which he had contracted in the days of his tow-])atli service on the Ohio Canal, and went home on sick leave. Soon after he received orders to proceed to Cumbei'land Gap and relieve Gen. George W. Morgan of his command ; but he was too ill to leave his bed, and another officer was sent to the service. WAR RECORD. 57 As soon as his health would permit, he was ordered to "Washington, where he was placed npon court-martial tor the noted trial ot Fitz John Porter. Gen. Gartield was one of the clearest and foremost in the conviction ot Porter's guilt, and had the bill to restore Porter ever been brought up in the House of Representa- tives, he would have made a determined opposition to its passage ; but Gen. Logan finished the shameful scheme in the Senate, and Gen. Garfield never had an opportunity to deli«ver a speech which he had prepared with great thoroughness and care. After the trial of Fitz John Porter, he was appointed Chief of Staff to Gen. Posecrans, and from the day of his appointment became the intimate associate and confidential adviser of his chief. Garfield's influence had become so important in shaping campaigns that he was always con- sulted, and during the successful campaigns that followed Ohickamauga he took an active part. Gen. Garfield's military career did not subject him to trials of a large scale. lie a])])r()ved himself a good inde- pendent commander in the small o])erations in Sandy Yalley. His camjjaign there opened our series of successes in the West. As a Chief of Staff he Avas unrivalled. There, as else- where, he was ready to accept the gravest responsibilities in following his\ convictions. The bent of his mind was judicial, and his judgment of military matters good. His record will stand for him a monument of courage, and his conduct at Chickamauga will never be forgotten by ii nation of brave men. 58 STORIES AND SKEl CHES OF GARFIELD. Col. Garfield's First Great Battle— He Defeats Humphrey Marshall and Wins a Brigadier-Generalship. On the ITtli of December, 1861, Garfield left Camp Chase, Ohio, with his regiment (Forty-second Ohio) under orders for the Big Sandy Valley region in Eastern Ken-. tncky. Upon arriving in Louisvdlle he was invited by Gen. Buell to arrange his own campaign, and he accordingly pre- pared a plan, which was submitted to and approved by the commanding General. The next day he started for his field of operations with a command consisting of four regiments of infantry and about two hundred cavalry. The Big Sandy was reached and followed up for some sixty miles through a rough, mountainous region, his force driving the outposts of Gen. Humphrey Marshall before them for a considerable distance. On the 7th of January, 1862, he drove the enemy's cav- alry from Paintsville, after a severe skirmish, killing and wounding tw^enty-five of them. At a strong point, three miles above Paintsville, Marshall had prepared to make a stand, with 4,500 infantry, 700 cavalry, and two batteries ot six guns each; but, his cavalry being driven in, his courage tailed, and he hastily evacuated his works and retreated up the river. The rapid marching thus far had much exhausted Gen. Garfield's forces; still, he resolved to pursue, and, selecting 1,100 (jf his best troops, he continued on to Prestonburg, a distance of fifteen miles. There he found the Rebels strongly posted on the crest of a hill, at once attacked them, and maintained the battle during five hours, the enemy's cannon meanwhile playing briskly. Although most of Garfield's troops were now under fire for the first time, their daring valor swept all before them. The Bebels were driven from every position, and, after de- WAR RECORD. 59 stroying their stores, wagons, and camp equipage, they retreated in disorder to Pound Gap, in tlie Cumberland Mountains. This was the tirst brilliant achievement of the War in the West, and a most complete and humiliating defeat to tlie Rebels, their loss in killed and wounded amounting to two hundred and iifty, in addition to forty taken prisoners, while the Union loss was but thirty-two, all told. It is said that at the time of this battle, Gen. Garfield had in his possession a letter written a short time before by Humphrey Marshall to his wife, but intercepted by Gen. Buell and sent to Gen. Gariield, in which Marshall stated that he had five thousand effective men in his command. This letter General Garfield refrained from showing to his ofiicers and men until after the battle. His commission as Briii-adier dated from the battle of Prestonburg. Full details of Garfield's Povind-Gap Expedition-Strategy and Victory— Battle of Pittsburg Landing, Etc. About the middle of March he made his famous Pound- Gap expedition, for a proper understanding of which a few words descriptive of the locality will be necessary. Pound- Gap is a zig-zag opening through the Cumberland Moun- tains into Virginia, leading into a tract of fertile meadow- land lying between the base of the mountains and a stream called Pound Fork, which bends around the opening of the gap, at some little distance from it, forming what is called ''tlie Pound." These names originated in this wise: This mountain locality was for a long time the home of certain predatory Indians, from which they would make periodical forays into X^irginia for plunder, and to which they would retreat as rapidly as they came, carrying with them the stolen cattle, which they would pasture in the meadow-land 60 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. jnst mentioned. Hence, among tlie settlers it became known as "TlieFonnd," and from it tlie gap and stream took their names. After liis defeat at Prestonburg, as has been stated, Ilnmphrej Marshall retreated Avith his scattered forces through the gap into Yirginia. A foi-ce of 500 rebels was left to guard the pass against any sudden incursion of Gen. Gai'tiehrs force, who, to make assurance doubly sure, had built directly across the gap a formidable breastwork, completely blocking up the way, aud behind which 500 men could resist the attack of as many thousand. Behind these works, and on the southwestern slope of the mountains, they had erected commodious cabins for winter quarters, where they spent their time in ease and comfort, occasionally — by way ot variety, and in imitation of their Indian predecessors — descending from their stronghold into Kentucky, greatly to the damage of the stock-yards and larders of the well-to-do tanners of that vicinity, and to the Light of their wives and children. Gen. Garfield determined to dislodge them from their position, and so put an end to their maurauding expe- ditions. He accordingly set out with a sufficient force, and after two days' forced march reached the base of the mountains a short distance above the gap. Of the strength of the reljels and their position he had been well informed by the spies he had sent out, who had penetrated to their very camp in the absence of the usual pickets, which were never thrown out by them, so secure did they feel in their mountain fortress. It would have been madness to enter the gap and attack them in front, and the General did not propose or attempt it. Halting at the foot of the mountains for the night, he sent his cavalry early the next morning to the mouth of the gap to menace the rebels and draw them from behind their defences. This they did, arriving at a given time and threatening an attack. The rebels jumped WAR RECORD. 61 at the bait and at once caine out to meet them, our men rapidly retreating, and tlie rebels following until the latter M^ere some distance in front of their breastworks instead of behind them. Meantime, Gen. Garfield, with his infantry, had scaled the mountain-side, in the face of a blinding snow-storm, and, marching along- a narrow ridge on the summit, had reached the enemy's camp in the rear of his fortifications. A vigorous attack was now made, resulting in the complete route of the rebels, many of whom were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, and the remainder dispersed through the mountains. The General now reassembled his forces, and spent a comfortable night in the enemy's quarters, faring sumptuously on the viands there found. The next morning the cabins, sixty in number, were burned, the breastworks destroyed, and the General set out on his return to Piketon, which he reached the following night, luniiig been absent four days, and having marelied in that time about one hundred miles over a broken country. On his return he received orders from Gen. Buell, at Xashville, to report to him in person. Arriving at that place, he found that Buell had already begun his march towards Pittsburg Landing, and pushed on after him. Overtaking the army, he was placed in command of the Twelfth Brigade, and, with his command, participated in the second day's fight at Shiloh. lie was present through all the operations in front of Corinth, and, after the evacua- tion of that place, rebuilt, with his brigade, the bridges on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and erected fortifica- tions at Stevenson. Throughout the months of July and August he was prostrated by se\-ere sickness, and, conse- (juently, was not in the retreat to Kentucky or the battles fought in that State. During his illness he wars assigned to the command of the forces at Cumberland Gap, but 62 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. could not assume it. Upon liis recovery, lie was ordered to Wasliino'ton, and detailed as a member of the Fitz John Porter court martial, which occupied forty-live days, and in which his great abilities as a lawyer and a soldier were called forth and freely recognized. When the court adjourned he was ordered to report to Gen. Rosecrans, aijd by him was placed in the responsible position of Chief of Staff, though at first it had been intended to give him only the command of a division in the field. Gen. Garfield's Proclamation to the Citizens of Sandy Valley. On the 16th day of January, 1S()2, Garfield, then in command of the Union forces in Eastern Kentucky, issued the f Jlowino; address to the inhabitants: " Citizens of Sandy Valley: I have come among you to re- store the honor of the Union, and to bring back the old banner which you once loved, but whicli, by the machinations of evil men, and by mutual misunderstanding, has been disnonored among you. To those who are in arms against the Federal Government I offer only the alternate of battle or unconditional surrender. T)ut to those who have taken no part in this war, who are in no way aiding or abetting the enemies of this Union— even to those who hold sentiments averse to tlie Union, but will give no aid or comfort to its enemies — I offer the full protection of the Govern- ment, both in their persons and property. "Let those who have been seduced away from the love of their country to follow after and aid the destroyers of our peace lay down their arms, return to their homes, bear true allegiance to the Federal Government, and they shall also enjoy like protection. The armv of the Union wages no war of plunder, but comes to bring back the prosperity of peace. Let all peace-loving citizens Avho have tied from their homes return and resume again the pur- suits of peace and industry. If citizens have suffered from any outrages by the soldiers under my command, I invite them to make known their complaints to me, and their wrongs shall be redressed and the offenders punished. I expect the friends of the Union in this valley to banish from among them all i)rivate feuds, and let a WAB RECORD. ' 63 liberal love of country direct their conduct toward those who have been so sadly estrayed and misguided, hoping that these days of turbulence may soon be ended and the days of the llepublic soon return. J, A. GARFIELD, "Colonel Commanding Brigade." Gen. Garfield moved liis forces to Piketon, Kv., 120 miles above the mouth of the Eig Sandy. Here he re- mained several weeks; sending out, meanAvhile, expedition j in every direction wherever he could hear of a Rebel camp or band, and at length completely cleared the whole conn- try of the enemy. Heroic Conduct of Gen. Garfield on the Field of CMckamaugna— Driving Back Longstreet's Columns and Saving Gen. Thomas. Gen. Garfield was made a ^Eajor-General for " gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Chickamanga." "VYhat those services were may bo learned from the follow- ing extract from the history of the Fort)'-second Ohio In- fantry, page 18: Trying vainly to check the retreat [of Tlosecrans] Gen. Garfield was swept with his chief back beyond Rossville. But the Chief of Staff could not concede that defeat had been entire. He heard the roar of Thomas' guns on the left, and gained ])ei"missi(jn of liosecrans to go around to that (juarter and find the ^Vrmy of the Cuinber- land. While the commander busied himself with j)re- p-'/'ing a refuge at Chattanooga for his I'outed army, his Chief of Staff went back accompanied by a staff olhcer and a few orderlies, to find whatever ])art of the army still held its gi-ound and save what M'as lost. It Avas a ])(M'i]ous ride. Long before he reached Thomas one of his orderlies was killed. Almost alone he pushed on over the obstructed road, through ])ursners and pursued, found the heroic Tlumias encircled by fire, but still firm, told him of the 64 &TOEIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. disaster on tlie right, and explained how he could withdraw his right wing and fix it upon a new line to meet Long- street's column. The movement was made just in time, but Thomas' line -was too short. It would not reach to the base of the mountain. Longstreet saw the gap, drove his column into it, and would have struck Thomas' column fatally in the rear. In that critical moment Gen. Gordon Granger came up with Steedman's division, which moved in heavy column, threw itself upon Longstreet, and after a terrific struggle drove him back. The dead and wounded lay in heaps where these two columns met, but the army of Gen. Thomas was saved. As night closed in around the heroic Army of the Cumberland, Gens. Garfield and Granger, on foot and enveloped in smoke, directed the loading and pointing of a battery of Kapoleon guns, whose flash, as they thundered after the retreating column of the assailants, was the last light that shone upon th© battlefield of Chickamauga. This ride of Garfield's was one of the gallantest acts o f the war, and so recognized at the time by the Government and people. It earned Garfield the lasting friendship and regard of Gen. Thomas and all associated with him, and o-ave him a name as a brave soldier which no malicious scribbler can now take away. A correspondent on the field, W. S. Furay, under date of Se^^tember 21, 1863, after describing the perilous con- dition of the Union Army, speaks of Garfield's ride and arrival on the battlefield, as follows : Just before the storm broke, the brave and high-souled Garfield was perceived making his way to the headquarters of Gen. Thomas. lie had come to be present at the final contest, and in order to do so had ridden all the way from Chattanooga, passing through a fiery ordeal upon the road. His horse was shot under him, and his orderly was killed WAR RECORD. 65 by his side. Still lie had come through, he scarce knew how, and here he was to inspire fresh courage into the hearts of the brave soldiers, who w^ere holding the enemy at bay, to bring them words of greeting from Gen. Eose- crans, and to inform them that the latter was reore-anizinff the scattered troops, and, as fast as possible, would hurry them forward to their relief. Just upon the side of the hill, to the left, and in rear of the still smoking ruins of the liause, was gathered a group whose names are destined to be historical — Thomas, Win taker. Granger, Garfield, Steedman, Wood. Calmly they watched the progress of the tempest, speculated upon its duration and strength, and devised methoJs to break its fury. The future analyst will delight to dwell upon the characteristics and achievements of each member of this group, and even the historian of the present, hastening to the completion of his task, is constrained to pause a moment only to repeat their names — Whitaker, Garfield, Granger, Thomas, Steedman, Wood. The fight around the hill now raged with terror inex- perienced before, even upon this terrible day. Our soldiers were formed in two lines, and as each marched up to the crest and fired a deadly volley at the deadly foe, it fell back a little ways, the men lay down upon the ground to load their guns, and the second line advanced to take their place! They, too, in their turn retired, and then the lines kept marching back and forth, and deliver- ing their withering volleys, till the very brain grew dizzy as it \vatched them. And all the time not a man wavered. Every motion was executed with as much precision as though the troops were on a holiday parade, notwith- standing the flower of the rebel army were swarming around the foot of the hill, and a score of cannon were thuudering from three sides upon it. 5 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 66 But our troops are no longer satisfied with the defensive. Gen. Tnrcliin, at the head of his brigade charged into the rebel lines, and cut his way out again, bringing with him 300 prisoners. Other portions of this brave band followed Turchin's example, nntil the legions of the enemy were fairly driven back to the ground they occupied previous to commencing the tight. Thus did 12,000 or 15,000 men, animated by heroic impulses, and inspired by worthy leaders, save from destruction the Army of the Cumber- land. Let the ISTation honor them as they deserve. Amono- those killed at this battle were: Gen. W. H. Lytle; Col. Grose, commanding a brigade in Palmer's division ; Col. Baldwin, commanding a brigade in Johnson's division; Major Wall, of Gen. Davis' staff; Capt. Eussell, A. A. G. on Gen. Granger's staff; Col. II. C. Heg, com- manding brigade in Gen. Davis' division; 'Capt. Tinker, of the Sixth Ohio, and Capt. Parshall, of the Thirty-fifth Ohio. Closing Scenes in Garfield's War Record — Why He Left the Army. In 1862, while still an officer in the army, he was elected a Representative in Congress from Ohio, from the old Gid- diness district. About the same time he was sent to "Wash- ington as the bearer of dispatches. He there learned for the first time of his promotion to a Major-Generalship of volunteers " for gallant and meritorious conduct at the bat- tle of Chickamauga." He might have retained this posi- tion in the army; and the military capacity he had dis- played, the high favor in which he was held by the Gov- ernment, and the certainty of his assignment to important commands, seemed to augur a brilliant future. He was a WAR RECORD. 67 poor man, too, and the Major-General's salary was more than do^ble that of the Congressman. But, on mature re- flection, he decided that the circumstances under which the peoj)le had elected him to Congress in a measure compelled him to obey their wishes. He was furthermore urged to enter Congress by the officers of the army, who looked to him for aid in procuring such military legislation as the country needed and the army required. Under the belief that the path of usefulness to the country lay in the direc- tion in which his constituents had pointed, Gen. Garfield sacrificed what seemed to be his personal interests, and, on the 5th of December, 1863, resigned his commission, after nearly three years' service, to enter Congress. "tr*w l_'.»_"r„ ;tr-"faoJC^ SPEECHES. Gen. Garfield is Called to the Halls of Congress from the Fields of War— How it was Done— Early Experience of the Farmer Boy on the Floor. The Congressional District in which Garfield lived was the one long made famous by Joshua R. Giddings. The old anti-slavery champion grew careless of the arts of poli- tics toward the end of his career, and came to look upon a nomination and a re-election as a matter of course. His over-confidence was taken advantage of in 1858 by an ambitious lawyer named Ilutchins to carry a conven- tion against him. The triends of Giddings never forgave Hutchins, and cast about for a means of defeating him. The old man himself was comfortably quartered in his Con- sulate at Montreal, and did not care to make a fight to get back to Congress. So his supporters made use of the pop- ularity of Gen. Garfield and nominated him when he was in the field without asking his consent. This was in 1862. AVhen he heard of the nomination Garfield reflected that it would be fifteen months before the Congress would meet to which he would be elected, and believing, as did every- one else, that the war could not possibly last a year longer, concluded to accept. I have often heard him, says a friend, express regret that he did not help fight the war through, and say that he never would have left the army to go to 69 7o STORIES AND SKE2 CHES OF GARFIELD. Congress liad lie foreseen that the struggle would continue beyond the year 1863. He continued his military service up to the time Congress met. He was elected to succeed Joshua E.. Giddings, who had served for twenty years as the representative from the dis- trict composed of the large and prosperous counties in ISlortheastern Ohio. He resigned from the army under the belief that the path of usefulness to his country lay in the direction of Congress rather than the military service. He sacrificed what seemed to, be his personal interest, and resigning his commission he entered the Thirty-eiglith Congress. Before taking his seat he was promoted to Major General of volunteers. On entering Congress, in December, 1863, Gen, Garfield was placed upon the Committee on Military Afiairs with Schenck and Farnsworth, who were also fresh from the field. He took an active part in the debates of the House, and won a recognition which few new members succeed in gaining. He was not jDopular among his fellow members during his first term. They thought him something of a pedant because he sometimes showed his scliolarship in his speeches, and they were jealous of liis prominence. His solid attainments and able social qua! ;:ies enabled him to overcome this prejudice during his second term, and he be- came on terms of close friendship with the best men in both Houses. His committee service during his second term was on the Ways and Means, which was quite to his taste, for it gave him an opportunity to prosecute the studies in finance and political economy which he had always felt a fondness for. He was a hard worker and a great reader in those days, going home with his arms full of books from the Congres- sional Library, and sitting up late of nights to read them. SPEECHES. 71 It "vras then that he laid the foundations of the convictions on the subject of National Finance, which he has since held to tirnily amid all the storms of political ao-itation. He was renominated in 1S64, without opposition, but in ISGO Mr. Ilutchins, whom he had supplanted, made an eHbrt to de- feat him. Ilutchins canvassed the district thoroughly, but the convention nominated Gai-iield by acclamation. He has had no opposition since by his own party. In 1872 the Liberals and Democrats united to beat him, l)ut his majt)rity was larger than ever. In 1874 the Green- backers and Democrats combined and put up a popular soldier against him, but they made no impression on the result. The Ashtabula district, as it is generally called, is the most faithful to its representatives of any in the Korth. It has had but four members in half a centurv. Seventeen Years a Member of Congress -Garfield's Great Work in the Halls of Legislation A Triumphant Leader. In the Fortieth Congress Gen. GarheiQ was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. In the Forty-tirst he was given the Chairmanship of I^anking and Currency, which he liked much better, because it was in the line of his financial studies. His next i)romotion was to the Chair- manship of the Appropriations Committee, which he held until the Democrats came into power in the House in 1875. His chief work on that committee was a steady and judi- cious reduction of the expenses of the Government. In all the political struggles in Congress he has borne a lead- ing part, his clear, vigoi'ous, and moderate style of argu- ment making him one of the most effective debaters in either House. When James G. Blaine went to the Senate in 1877 the 72 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. mantle of Republican leadership was by common consent placed up(.)n Garlleld, and lie has worn it ever since. Recently Gen. Gartield was elected to the Senate to the seat vacated by Allen G. Thurman on the 4th of March, 1881. He received the unanimous vote of the Republican caucus, an honor never given to any man of any party in the State of Ohio. Since his election he has been the re- cipient of many complimentary manifestations in Washing- ton and in Ohio. As a leader in the House he is more cautions and less dashing than Blaine, and his judicial turn of mind makes him too prone to look for two sides of a question for him to be an efficient partisan. When the issue fairly touches his convictions, however, he becomes thoroughly aroused and strikes tremendous blows. Blaine's tactics were to continually harrass the enemy by sharp-shooting surprises and picket firing. Garfield waits for an opportunity to deliver a pitched battle, and his generalship is shown to best advantage when the fight is a fair one and M'aged on grounds where each party thinks itself strongest. Then his solid shot of argument are exceedingly effective. On the stump Garfield is one of the very best orators in the Hepublican party. He has a good voice, an air of evident sincerity, great clearness and vigor of statement, and a way of knitting his arguments together so as to make a speech deepen its impression on the mind of the hearer until the climax is reached. Of his industry and studious habits a great deal might be said, but a single illustration will have to suffice here. Once during the busiest part of a very busy session at Washington, says a friend, " I found him in his library behind a big barricade of books. This was no unusual sight, but when I glanced at the volumes I saw that they were all different editions of Horace, or books relating to that poet." SPEECHES. 73 " I lind I am overworked, and need recreation," said the General. " Now, my theory is that the best way to rest the mind is not to let it be idle, bnt to put it at something quite out- side the ordinary line of its employment. So I am resting by learning all the Congressional Library can show about Horace and the various editions and translations of his poems." Through the contests of the Fortieth Congress \vith the President he was firmly on the radical side. His health was seriously impaired by his laborious discharge of public duties, and at the close of the summer session, by the advice of his physician, he sailed for Europe. Since his first election Gen. Garfield has served consecu- tively in Congress, and has been the leader on the Republi- can side for the last five years ; his speeches are among the most efiective ever delivered by any man in any parliamen- tary body, and, while as a leader he has not been considered sufiiciently aggressive, his advice has always been carefully heeded, and has been effectual in holding back the more radical of the Republicans. Garfield on the Democracy— Extract from one of his Old Speeches— His Walk in the Democratic Graveyard. The following is an extract from a speech delivered by Gen Garfield, August 4th, 187(», in the JN"ational House of Representatives: Mr. Chairman: It is now time to inquire as to the fitness of this Democratic party to take control of our great nation and its vast and important interest for the next four years. I put the question to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Lamar), what has the Democratic party done to merit that great trust ? He tries to show in what respects it would 74 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. not be dangerous, I ask liim to shoM^ in what it would be safe ? I affirm, and I believe I do not misrepresent tlie great Democratic party, that in the last sixteen yeai's they have not advanced one great national idea that is not to-day exploded and as dead as Julius Caesar. And if any Democrat here will rise and name a great national doctrine his party has advanced, within that time, that is now alive and believed in, I will yield to him. (A pause.) In default of an answer, I will attempt to prove my negative. What were the great central doctrines of the Democratic party in the Presidential struggle of 1860? The followers of Breckenridge said slavery had a right to go wherever the Constitution goes. Do you believe that to-day? And is there a man on this continent that holds that doctrine to-day? Not one. That doctrine is dead and buried. The other wing of the Democracy held that slavery might be established in the Territories if the people wanted it. Does anybody hold that doctrine to-day? Dead, absolutely dead! Come down to 1S64. Your ])arty, under the lead of Tilden and Vallandigham, declared the experiment of war to save the Union was a failure. Do you believe that doctrine to-day? That doctrine was shot to death by the guns of Farragut at Mobile, and driven, in a tempest of fire, from the valley of the Shenandoah by Sheridan, less than a month after its birth at Chicago. Come down to 1868. You declared the constitutional amendments revolutionary and void. Does any man on this floor say so to-day? If so, let him rise and declare it. Do you believe in the doctrine of the Broadhead letter of 1868, that the so-called constitutional amendments should be disregarded? No; the gentleman from Mississippi accepts the results of the war! The Democratic doctrine of 1868 is dead! SPEECHES. 75 I walk across tliat Democratic camping-ground as in a graveyard. Under vaj feet resound the hollow echoes of tlie dead. There lies slavery, a black marble column at the head of its grave, on which I read: Died in tlie flames of the civil war; loved in its life; lamented in its death; followed to its bier by its only mourner, the Democratic party, but dead! And here is a double grave: sacred to the memory of squatter sovereignty. Died in the cam- paign of 1860. On the reverse side: Socred to the memory of Dred Scott and the Breckenridge doctrine. Both dead at the hands of Abraham Lincoln! And here a monument of brimstone: Sacred to the memory of the rebellion; the war against it is a failure; T'dden et Yalhindigham fecerunt, A. D. 1SG4. Dead on the field of battle; shot to death by the million guns of the Re]mblic. The doctrine of secession; of State sovereignty, Dead. Expired in the flames of civil war, amid the blazing rafters of the con- federacy, except that the modern ^Eneas, fleeing out of the flames of that ruin, bears on his back another Anchises of State sovereignty, and brings it here in the person of the honorable gentleman from the Appomattox district of Virginia (Mr. Tucker). All else is dead! Kow, gentlemen, are you sad, are you sorry for these deaths? Are you not glad that secession is dead? that slavery is dead? that squatter sovereignty is dead? that the doctrine of the failure of the war is dead? Then you are glad that you were outvoted in 1860, in 1864, in 1868, and in lSTi\ If you have tears to shed over these losses, shed them in the grave-yard, but not in this House of living men. I know that many a Southern man rejoices that these issues are dead. The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Lamar) has clothed his joy with eloquence. Now. gentlemen, if you yourselves are glad that you have suftered defeat during the last sixteen years, will you not 16 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. be equally glad when you sufler defeat next November? But pardon that remark; I regret it; I should use no bravado. Kow, gentlemen, come with me for a moment into the camp of the Republican party and review its career. Our central doctrine in 1860 was that slavery should never extend itself over another foot of American soil. Is that doctrine dead? It is folded away like a victorious banner; its truth is alive for evermore on this continent. In ISG'i we declared that we would put down tlie rebellion and secession. And that doctrine lives, and will live when the second Centennial has arrived. Freedom, national, uni- versal, and perpetual — our great constitutional amend- ments, are they alive or dead? Alive, thank the God that shields both liberty and union. And our national credit! saved from the assaults of Pendleton; saved from the assaults of those who struck it later, rising higher and higher at home and abroad: and only now in doubt lest its chief, its only enemy, the Democracy, should triumph in November. Garfield's Speech at the "Wisconsin Republican , Re-union— Outlining the Condition of the Country. At the Twenty -iifih Reunion of the Wisconsin Repub- licans, held at Madison, in July, 1S79, Gen. Garfield spoke as follows: This vast assembly must have richly enjoyed the review of the party's history presented here and celebrated here to-day, and not only a review of the past, but the hopeful promises made for the future of that great party. The Republican party, organized a quarter of a century ago, Avas made a necessity to carry out the pledges of the fathers that this should Ije a land of libertv. SPEECHES. 77 There was in the earlj days of the Republic, a Re])ub- lican party that dedicated this very territory, and all our vast territory, to freedom, that promised much for schools, that abolished imprisonment for debt, and that instituted many wise reforms. But there were many conservatives in those days, whose measures degenerated into treason; and the Republican jmrty of to-day was but the revival of the Republican party of seventy years ago, under new and broader conditions of usefulness. It is well to remember and honor the greatest names of the Republican party. One of these is Joshua R. Giddings, who for twenty years was freedom's champion in Congress, and, fi-om a feel)le minority of two, lived to see a Republi- can Speaker elected, and himself to conduct him to the cJiair. Another is Abraham Lincoln, the man raised up by God for a great mission. No man ever had a truer appre- ciation of the principles of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, that great charter which it was the mission of the Republican party to enforce. There was a litness in the first platform of the Wiscon- sin Republicans that they based themselves upon the Declaration of Independence. While the Republicans, from the first, have been true to their principles, perfecting all they promised, as proved to-day by the whole record, the Democrats, on the other hand, steadily wrong, have been forced from one bad position to another. Can any Democrat point with pride to his party plat- forms of 1854, or find in them any living issue? The issues they then presented led us into war and involved us in a great National debt. Looking for the cause of that debt I say that the Democratic party caused it. We are, as a Nation, emerging from difficulties, and the Repul)lican jjarty alone can probably claim that the briglit- est page of our country's history has been written by the 78 STORIEP AND I^KETCHES OF GARFIELD. true friends of freedom and progi'ess. The Republican party has yet work t^ do. "VVe arc confronted to-day in Congress by nearly the same spirit that prevailed in the years just before the war. They tell ns that the National Government is but the servant of the States; that wo shall not interpose, as a Kation, to guarantee an honest election in a State; that if we will interpose, they will deny appropriations. Is this less dangerous than their position in 1861? Have we no interest except in local elections, no power to guard the ballot-box and protect ourselves against outrages upon it? Why does the South make this issue? I answer: They have a solid South, and only need to carry Ohio and JSTew York to elect the President, and they trust to carry these States by the means they best know how to use. There are sentimentalists and optimists who may see no danger in this. There had been sentimentalists and opti- mists in the Republican party, but to-day all were stalwarts. President Hayes, when he came into office, was an optimist, but he saw all his hoj)es of conciliation frustrated and all his advances met with scorn. We all now stand together on the issue as one. Garfield's Celebrated Speecli at the Andersonville Reunion Held at Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 3, 1879— How the General Looks "Without Gloves!" The following is the full text of Gen. Garfield's speech at the Andersonville reunion at Toledo on Oct. 3, 1879. "My Comkades, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have ad- dressed a great many audiences, but I never before stood in the presence of '-no that I felt so wholly unworthy to speak to. A man Avho came through the war without being shot or made prisoner is almost out of place in such an assemblage as this. SPEECHES. 79 "While I liave listened to yon this evening I have re- membered the ^vords of the distinguished English- man, who once said, ' that he was willing to die for his country.' N^ow to say that a man is willing to die for his country is a good deal, but these men who sit before us have said a great deal more than that. I would like to know where the man is that would calmly step out on the platform and say : ' I am ready to starve to death for my country.' That is an enormous thing to say, but there is a harder thing than that. Find a man, if you can, who will walk out Ijefore this audience and say: ' I am willing to become an idiot for my country.' How many men could you find who would volunteer to become idiots for their country? Kow let me make this statement to you, fellow-citizens: One liundred and eighty-eight thousand such men as this were captured by the rebels who were fighting our govern- ment. One hundred and eighty-eight thousand! How many is that? They tell me there are 4,500 men and women in this building to-night! Multiply this mighty audience by forty and you will have about 188,000. Forty times this great audience were prisoners of war to the enemies of our country. And to every man of that enormous company there stood open night and day the offer: 'If yon will join the rebel army, and lift up your hand against your flag, you are free.' " A voice—" That's so." Gen. Garfield— '" And you shall have food, and you shall have clothing, and you shall see wife, and mother, and child.' " A voice — '* We didn't ao it, though." Gen. Garfield — "And do you know that out of that 188,000 there were less than 3,000 who accepted the offer? And of those 3,000, perhaps nine-tenths of them 80 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. did it with the mental reservation that they would desert at the first hour — the first moment there was an opportunity." Voices— "That's so." Gen. Garfield— " But 185,000 out of the 188,000 said: ' No ! not to see wife again ; not to see child again ; not to avoid starvation; not to avoid idiocy, not to avoid the most loathsome of deaths, will I lift this hand against my country forever.' Now, we praise the ladies for their patriotism; we praise our good citizens at home for their patriotism; we praise the gallant soldiers who fought and fell. But what were all these things compared with that yonder? I bow in reverence. I would stand with undsandaled feet in the presence of such heroism and such sufiering; ^^and I would say to you. fellow-citizens, such an assemblage as this has never yet before met on this great earth. " Who have reunions? I will not trench upon forbidden ground, but let me say this: Nothing on the earth and under the sky can call men together for reunions except ideas that have immortal truth and immortal life in them. The animals fight. Lions and tigers fight as ferociously as did you. Wild beasts tear to the death, but they never have reunions. Wliy? Because wild beasts do not fight for ideas. They merely fight for blood. All these men, and all their comrades went out inspired by two immortal ideas. First, that liberty shall be universal in America. And, second, that this old flag is the flag of a Nation, and not of a State; that the Nation is supreme over all people and all corporations. Call it a State; call it a section; call it a South; call it a North; call it anything you wish, and yet, armed with the nationality that God gave us, this is a Nation against all State-sovereignity and secesson whatever. It is the HOME LIFE. 81 immortality of that truth that makes these reunions, and that makes this one. You believed it on the battle-held, you believed it in the hell of Andersonville, and you believe it to-day, thank God; and you will believe it to the last gasp." Voices—'' Yes, we will." '^ That's so," etc. Gen. Gariield — '* Well, now, tellow-citizens and fellow- soldiers — but I am not w^orthy to be your fellow in this work. I thank you for having asked me to speak to you. [Cries of 'Go on! ' 'Go on I ' 'Talk to us some more,' etc.] I want to say simj)ly that 1 have had one opportunity only to do you any service. I did hear a man who stood bv my side in the halls of the legislation — the man that offered on the floor of Congress the resolution that any man who commanded colored troops should be treated as a jnrate, and not as a soldier; as a slave-stealer, and not as a soklier — I heard that man calmly say, with his head up in the light, in the presence of this American people, that the Union soldiers were as well treated, and as kindly treated in all the Southern prisons as were the rebel soldiers in all the Northern prisons." Voices—" Liar," " Liar! " " He was a liar." Gen. Garfield — " I heard him declare that no kinder men ever lived than Gen, Winder and his Commander-in-Chief, Jeff Davis. [Yells of derision, hisses, etc.] And I took it upon myself to overwhelm him with the proof [a roll of applause begins], with the proof of the tortures you suffered, the wrongs done to you, were suffered and done with the knowledge of the Confederate authorities from Jefferson Davis do^\^l — [great applause, waving of hats, veterans standing in their chairs and cheering]— that it was a part of their policy to make you idiots and skeletons, and to exchange your broken and shattered Indies and dethroned minds for strong, robust, well-fed rebel prisoners. 82 STORIES AND SKET'^IIES OF GARFIEFD. That policy, I affirm, lias never liad its parallel for atrocity in the civilized world." Yoice— " That's so." Gen. Garfield—" It was never heard of in any land since the dark ages closed upon the earth. While history lives men have memories. "W"o can foi-give and forget all other things before wc can forgive and forget this. Finally, and in conclusion, I am willing, for one — and I think I speak for thousands of others — I am willing to see all the bitterness of the late war buried in the grave of our dead. I would be willing that we should imitate the condescending, loving kindness of him who planted the green grass on the battlefields aud let the fresh flowers bloom on all the graves alike. I would clasp hands with those who fought against us, make them my brethren, and forgive all the past, only on one supreme condition: that it be admitted in practice, acknowledged in theory, that the cause tor which we fought, and you suffered, was and is, and forevermore will be right, eternally right." [Unbounded enthusiasm.] Voices— "That's it," "That's so," etc. Gen. Garfield — " That the cause for which they fought was, and forever will be, the cause of treason and wrong. [Prolonged applause.] Until that is acknowledged my hand shall never grasp any rebel's hand across any chasm, however small." [Great applause and cheers.] SPEECHES. 83 Garfield's Great Speech at Columbus, Acknowledging His Election as United States Senator. On the 14tli of Jauiiaiy, 1S80, Gen. Garfield arrived in Columbus from Washington. lie had that day been form- ally declared United States Senator from Ohio, his noruina- tion by the Republican Legislative caucus having taken place the week before. In an informal reception which took place in the Ilall of the House of Eepresentatives dur- ing the evening, the General made the following admirable speech: Fellow Citizens: I should be a great deal more than a man, or a great deal less than a man, if I were n(jt extremely gratified by this mark of your kindness you have shown me in recent days. I did not expect any such a meeting as this. I knew there was a greeting awaiting me, but did not expect so cordial, generous, and general a greeting with- out distinction of party, without distinction of interests, as I have received to-night. And you will allow me, in a moment or two, to speak of the memories this Chamber awakens. Twenty years ago this last week I first entered this Cham- ber and entered U})on the duties of public life, in which I have been every hour since that time in some capacity or other. I left this Chamber eighteen years ago, and I l)e- lieve I have never entered it since that time. But the place is familiar, though it was peopled not with the taces that I see before me here to-night alone, but with the faces of hundreds of peoi)le that I knew here twenty years ago, a large number of whom are gone from earth It was here in this Chamber that the word was first brought of the firing on Fort Sumter. 1 remember dis- tinctly a gentleman from Lancaster, the late Senator Schleigh — Gen. Schleigh, who died not very long ago— I remend)er distinctlv as he came down this aisle, with all the 84 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. look of agony and anxiety in liis face, informing us that the guns had opened upon Sumter. I remember that one week after that time, on motion of a leading Democratic Senator, who occupied a seat not far from that position (pointing to the Democratic side of the Chamber), that we surrendered this Chamber to several companies of soldiers, who had come to Columbus to tender their services to the imperiled Government. They slept on its carpets and on these sofas, and quartered for two or three nights in this Chamber while waiting for other quarters outside of the Capitol. All the early scenes of the War are associated with this place in my mind. Here were the musterings — here was the center, the nerve center, of anxiety and agony. Here over 80,000 Ohio citizens tendered their services in the course of three weeks to the imperiled nation. Here, where we had been fighting our political battles with sharp and severe partisanship, there disappeared, almost as if by magic, all party lines ; and from ])oth sides of the Chamber men went out to take their places on the field of battle. I can see now, as I look out over the various seats, where sat men who afterward became distinguished in the service in high rank, and nobly served their constituency and hon- ored themselves. We now come to this j^lace, while so many are gone; but we meet here to-night with the war so far back in the dis- tance that it is an almost half-forgotten memory. We meet here to-night with a nation redeemed. We meet here to-night under the flag we fought for. We meet with a glorious, a great and growing Republic, made greater and more glorious by the sacrifices through which the country has passed. And coming here as I do to-night brings the two ends of twenty years together, with all the visions of the terrible and glorious, the touching and cheerliil, that have occurred during that time. SPEECHES. 85 I came here to-niglit, fellow-citizens, to thank this Gen- eral Assembly for their great act of confidence and compli- ment to me. I do not nndervalue the office that yon have tendered to me yesterday and to-day; but I say, I think, without any mental reservation, that the manner in which it was tendered to me is far higher to me, far more desira- ble, tlian the thing itself That it has been a voluntary gift of the General Assembly of Ohio, without solicitation, tendered to me because of their confidence, is as touching and as high a ti'ibute as one man can receive from his fel- low-citizens, and in the name of all my friends, for myself, I ffive vou mv thanks. I recognize the im])ortance of the place to which you have elected me; and I should be base if I did not also re- cosrnize the o-reat man whom vou have elected me to succeed. I say for him, Ohio has had few larger-minded, broader-minded men in the records of our history than that of Allen G. Thurnuin. Difi'cring widely from him, as I have done in politics, and do, I recognize him as a man high in character and great intellect; and I take this occa- sion to refer to what I have never before referred to in public: that many years ago, in the storm of party fighting, when the air was filled with all scn-ts of missies aimed at the character and reputation of public men, when it was even for his party interest to join tho general clamor against me and my associates. Senator Thurman said in i)ublic, in the cam- paign, on the stump — when men are as likely to say unkind tilings as at any place in the world — a most generous and earnest word of defense and kindness for me which I shall ne\-er forget so long as I live. I say, moreover, that the fiowers that bloom over the garden wall of party politics are the sweetess and most fragant tliat bloom in the gardens of this world; and where we can fiirly jiluck them and enjoy their iVagrance, it is manly and delightful to do so. And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly, without 86 STOBIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. distinction of party, I recognize this tribute and compli- ment paid to me to-niglit. Whatever my own course may be in the future, a large share of the inspiration of my future public life will be drawn from this occasion' and these surroundings, and I shall feel anew the sense of ob- ligation that I feel to the State ot Ohio. Let me venture to point a single sentence in regard to that work. During the twenty years that I have been in public life, almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States, I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or other- wise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my conviction at whatever personal cost to myself. I have represented for many years a district in Congress; 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 compan- ionship. And in this larger constituency which has called me to represent them now, I can only do what is true to my best self, applying the same rule. And if I should be so unfortunate as to lose the confi- dence of this larger constituency, I must do what ev^ery other fair-minded man has to do — carry his political life in his hand and would take the consequences. But I must follow^ what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my life ; and with that view of the cose, and with that much personal reference, I leave that subject. Tlianking you again, fellow-citizens, members of the General Assemblr, Republicans as well as Democrats — all, party men as I am — thanking you both for what you have done and for this cordial and manly greeting, I bid you good-night. SPEECHES. 87 Gen. Garfield en the Floor of the Great Chicago Convention -Full Text of His Eloquent Speech Nominating John Sherman For President- Delivered June 5, 1880. It was after full fifteen miiii;tes ot applause for a pre- eeedino; candidate, in an assembly of 15,000 souls, that Gen. Garfield arose and calmly addressed the Convention at Chicago as follows: "Mr. President: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this Convention with deep solicitude. No emo- tion touches my heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a <>;reat and noble character. But as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to me vou were a human ocean in a tem])est. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into a spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and dejAhs are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when sunshine bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyer takes the level from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of the people. '• When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find the calm level of public opinion, below the storm, from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which their final action will be determined. Not here, in this brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Bepublic to be decreed; not here, where I see the enthusiastic laces of 756 delegates waiting to cast their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their party; but by 5,000,000 Kepublican firesides, where the thouo-htful fathers, with wives and children about them, 88 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. with the cahn tlioiights inspired by love of home and love of country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the future, and the knowledge of the great men who have adorned and blessed our i^ation in days gone by,— there God prepares the verdict that sliall determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but in the sober quiet that comes between now and November, in the silence of deliberate judgment, will this great question be settled. Let us aid tiiem" to-night. "But now, gentlemen of the Convention, what do we want? Bear with me a moment. Hear me for this cause, and, for a moment, be silent that you may hear. Twenty- five years ago this Eepublic was wearing a triple cliain of bondage. Long familiarity with the traffic in the body and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State sovereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest and most l)eneficent powers of the National Government, and the grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin Terri- tories of the West and dragging them into the den of eternal bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was born. It drew its first inspiration from the fire of liberty which God has lighted in every man's heart, and which ail the powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly extinguish. The Republican party came to deliver and save the Republic. It entered the arena when the beleaguered and assailed Territories were struggling for freedom, and drew around them the sacred circle of liljerty, which the demon of slavery has never dared to cross. It made them free forever. " 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, entered the National Capital and assumed the high duties of the Gov- SPEECHES. 89 eminent. The light which shone from its banner dispelled the darkness in which slavery had enshronded the Capitol and melted the shackles of every slave, and consuineia . . Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana JNIaine Maryland Massachusetts Michij^au ^linnesota Mississippi Missouri Neltraska Nevada New Ilanipsliire New .Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio* Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island ISoutli Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia West \'irginia AVisconsin Arizona Dakota District of Columbia. Idaho Montana New Mexica Utah Washington Wyoming Totals. ]-J 12 G 12 (J 8 22 42 ;!0 22 10 24 10 14 10 20 22 10 10 ;K) 10 IS 70 20 4;! .58 8 14 24 10 10 22 10 20 8 1.") i;j 10 1 12 8 8 24 1 4 20 8 (5 4 1 2 7 29 4 12 10 42 *Gen. Garfield not votiiu 96 THE NOMINATION Thirty-Fifth Ballot. States and Ter- ritories. Al;ib;iraa Arkansas r'aiifornia (Jolorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. . New Jersey New York North Carolina — Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Khode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia West Virginia — Wisconsin Arizona Dakota District of Columbia Idaho Montana New Nexico Utah Washington Wyoming Totals. 16 12 8 8 24 1 4 20 8 7 4 1 1 8 29 50 36 11 17 13 10 1 313 3 6 10 2 22 1 4 14 3 21 6 4 G 6 10 14 IS 9 20 8 1 4 1 1 2 1 2.57 4 2 21 2 2 13 34 10 27 99 16 11 the nomination. su:mmaey. Ballot. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. V.\. 14. 15. 1(3. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 2.5. 26. 27. 28. 29. 80. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 30. K 304 305 305 305 30; 305 305 306 308 30.': 30; 304 305 305 300 306 303 305 305 SOS 305 305 304 305 302 303 306 307 305 306 308 309 309 312 313 306 284 282 282 281 281 280 281 284 282 282 281 283 285 285 281 283 284 283 279 276 270 275 275 279 281 280 277 279 278 279 276 270 276 275 257 4 93 94 93 95 95 95 94 91 90 92 93 92 89 89 88 88 90 91 96 93 96 97 97 93 94 93 93 91 116 120 118 117 110 107 99 3 35 31 36 31 3(i 31 3(i 31 35 31 32 31 35 31 35 31 35 81 86 31 35 31 35 31 36 31 3() 31 3^ 31 35 12 83 11 37 11 44 11 44 11 80 11 23 11 5 o 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 17 50 399 O 03 zn PH a X «M O H q-i tH o i=l ., 03 M M > fH cS C3 fi M 98 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. ' Enthusiasm on Fire— Making the Nomination of Gen. Garfield Unanimous at the Chicago Eepublican Convention— Speeches of Messrs. Conk- ling, Logan, Beaver, Hale, Pleasants, and Harrison. Immediately after G-en. Garfield had received the 399 votes of the Chicago Convention, it was the desire of the body to make his nomination unanimous. This was effected amid the greatest enthusiasm, and called forth the following brief and eloquent speeches: SENATOR CONKLING, OF NEW YORK. Mr. Chairman — James A. Garfield, of Ohio, having re- ceived a majority of all the votes cast, I rise to move that he be unanimously presented as the nominee of this Con- vention. The Chair, under the rules, anticipates my mo- tion, and being on my feet, I avail myself of the opportun- ity to congratulate the Republican party upon the good- natured and the well-tempered rivalry which has distin- guished this animated contest. Well, gentlemen, I would speak louder, but having sat under the cool wind of these windows, 1 feel myself unable to. I was in the act to say, Mr. Chairman, that I trust that the zeal, the fervor, and now the unanimity seen in the Convention will be trans- planted to the field of the conflict, and that all of us who have borne a part against each other will find ourselves with equal zeal bearing the banner, and with equal zeal car- rying the lance of the Republican party into the ranks of the enemy. SENATOR LOGAN, OF ILLINOIS. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention — We are to be congratulated that we have arrived at a conclu- sion in reference to presenting the name of a candidate to become the standard-bearer of the Republican 23arty for President of the United States. In union and harmony there is strength. Whatever may have transpired in this Convention that may have momentarily marred the feel- THE N03IINATI0N. 99 ings of any one here, I hope that in our conchision it will pass from our minds. I, sir, with the friends of, I think, one of the grandest men that ever graced the face of the earth [applause] stood ever here to light a friendly battle in favor of his nomination. But, sir, the Convention has chosen another leader. The men who stood by Grant's banners will be seen in the front of this contest on every Held. "We will go forward, sir, not with tied hands, not wnth sealed lips, not with bridled tongues, but to speak the truth in favor of the grandest party that has ever been or- ganized in this country, to maintain its principles, main- tain its power, and to preserve its ascendancy. And sir, with the leader you have selected, my judgment is victory will perch upon our banners. I, sir, as one of the repre- sentatives from tlie State of Illinois, second the nomination of James A. Garfield, of Ohio, and I hope it may be made unanimous. GEN. BEAVER, OF PENNSYLVANIA. The State of Pennsylvania having had the honor of first naming in this Convention the gentleman who has been nominated as the standard-bearer of the Republican party in the approaching national contest, I rise, sir, to second the motion which has been made to make that nomination unanimous, and to assure this Convention and the people of this country that Pennsylvania is heartily in accord with this nomination; that she gives her full concurrence to it, and that this country may expect from her the best major- ity that has been 2:1 ven for a Presidential candidate in many years. MR. HALE, OF MAINE. Mr. President: In returning heartfelt thanks to the men in this convention wIkj have aided us in the fight that we have made for the Senator Ironi Maine, and speaking, as I know that I do, for them here, I say this most heartily: 100 STORIES AND SKETCJIES OF GARFIELD. We liave not gotten the man that we came to nominate, l)nt we liave o-ot a man in whom we have the greatest and most perfect confidence. [Cheers.] The nominee of this convention is no new or mitried man, and in that respect no dark horse. When he came here representing his State in the front of that delegation, and was seen here, every man knew him before that, and because of our faith in him, and because we Avere in that emergency glad to help make him the candidate of the Republicans for President of the United States, because of these things I stand here to pledge the Blaine forces of this convention to earnest effort from now until the ides of November, that shall make Jas. A. Garfield the next President of the United States. ME. W. H. PLEASANTS, OF VIRGINIA. Mij. Chaikman: As New York, Illinois, and Maine, along with Pennsylvania, have spoken, I stand here probably occupying a peculiar (but most rightly so) posi- tion to that of the majority of the people of this conven- tion. I came here, sir, from Virginia, instructed by the State Convention to vote for that peculiar and most dis- tinguished man, the most renowned in the world, Ulysses S. Grant, and I have proved it sincere here; I have been standing upon this floor, and upon all occasions casting my vote to the last for that man. But, sir, as the con- vention has thought best to nominate James A. Garfield, of Ohio, for President of the Unithd States, it may not be that we can promise you Virginia, but we can promise you this, as humble men, and as men who have on all occasions shoAvn their devotion to the Republican principles of the country; men who, as Virginia Republicans, on one occasion, gave the electoral vote of Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant; and while a division exists in the Republican party of that State, we hope in November next to return your THE NOMINATION. 101 Tiorainee. Although it was said that we had all to receive and nothing to give, we now receive James A. Garlield, and will endeavor to give him Virginia. I, for one — and I speak for this delegation, and for every Republican in the State — second the nomination of James A. Garfield, and the motion to make the vote unanimous. BEN nARRISON, OF INDIANA. I am not in very good voice to address the convention. Indiana has been a little noisy v^'itliin the last hour, and, though the Chairman of this delegation, I forgot myself so much as to abuse my voice, I should not have detained the convention to add any word to what has been said in a spirit of such commendalJe harmony over this nomination, if it had not been for the over partiality of my friends from Kentucky, with whom we have had a good deal of pleasant intercourse. They insist, sirs, as I am the only defeated candidate for the Presidency on the floor of this convention, having received one vote from some misguided friend from Penns>-lvania, who, unfortunately for me, didn't have staying qualities, and dropi)ed out on the next ballot. I want to say to the Ohio delegation that they may carry to their distinguished citizen who has received the nomination at the hands of this convention my encouraging support. I bear him no malice at all. But, Mr. Chairman, I will defer my speeches until the cam- paign is hot, and then, on every stump in Indiana, and wherever else my voice can help on this great Republican cause to victory I hojie to be found. 102 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. Gen. Garfield En Route for Home After His Nomination for Presiaent— From Illinois to Ohio— Incidents and Welcomes by the Way. The first emotions of surprise beiii*^ past, General Gar- field bore the fresh penalties of greatness with equanimity and apparently with some sense of enjoyment. From the moment his nomination became assured, he was made the recipient of such exuberant and spontaneous honors as loyal crowds in this republic delight to bestow upon their favor- ites. The music of brass bands announced his first appear- ance in the office of the hotel in Chicago, as he came from his room, clad for his journey to his Ohio home. A band and hundreds of people accomanied him to the depot, where a great crowd had gathered to wish him God-speed to his home, and hence through the campaign to the White House. "When he arrived at the depot, there was great cheering and waving of hats. General Garfield came to Cleveland in a special car, ac- companied by a number of intimate personal friends, among whom were Gov. Charles Foster, of Ohio; S. T, Everett, President of the Second National Bank of Cleve- land; Gen. Joseph Barrett, an old military friend of Gen. Garfield, he having been Chief of Artillery in the armies of Rosecrans and Thomas; Col. D. G, Swain, Judge Advocate of the United States Army, formerly Adjutant of the 42d Ohio Volunteers (Garfield's regiment); Lieutenant-Colonel L. A. Sheldon, Mayor W. H. AVilliams, and Capt. Charles T. Henry, all of whom were also ofiicers of Garfield's regi- ment; I. F. Mack, of the Ohio Register., Sandusky; W. B. Sherman, J. "W. Tyler, and Major Eggleston, of Cleveland, were also with Gen. Garfield. Once out of the din of Chicago, Gen. Garfield and his friends lighted their cigars and passed the hour.-^ in conning over the stirring events of the past weelc reading congratu- latory dispatches, and in a casual way discussing the politi- THE irmilNATION. 103 cal outlook. Gen. Garfield gave brief expression to liis i^ratitication at the touching incidents of the last twenty- four hours which had brought out so many evidences of the universal appreciation in which his public services are held, and mentioned feelingly the handsome compliment paid him by the House of Representatives in Washington. Gov. Foster alluded jokingly to the popular impression that he may be Gen. Garfield's successor in Senatorial hon- ors, saying that he was already filling Garfield's shoes, hav- ing had his own stolen at the hotel in Chicago, and been compelled to accept the loan of a pair of these needful arti- cles from the General. At Laporte, Ind., the first stopping place of any conse- quence, many hundreds of people, with a brass band, had collected to salute Gen. Garfield as he passed. Gov. Foster made a brief speech introducing Gen. Garfield, when there were deafening cheers from the multitude. Gen. Sheldon followed, briefly telling the story of Chicago. At South Bend the scene was repeated, but with a larger crowd, and of course louder cheering. All along the route, at the hamlets through which the train passed without stopping, and even at farm houses, people gathered and gazed and cheered in one continued outburst. Indiana's welcome. At Elkhart, Ind., where the train made a stop for din- ner, a brass band led the way along the railroad platform to the dining room, and after dinner it headed the column on its return to the cars. At Goshen hundreds ot people were waiting with a gun mounted on a log, the first dis- charge from which dismounted the piece; but the crowd made up in enthusiasm for this mishap. At Ligonier the ceremonial ol introduction w-as some- what varied. Gen. Garfield getting ahead and introducing Gov. Charlie Foster to the crowd of an uunaii>ed water sta- 104 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIEFB. tion, where a dozen men and boys — apparently the whole male population — had gathered. Several of the latter climbed aboard the car, inquiring for the coming man. Gen. Garfield was pointed out, and bowed. " Hallo! " shouted the delighted spokesman of tlie assem- blage, as the train moved away, "We'll support you." At Kendallville the ladies of the village were largely rep- resented in the greeting crowd, several of them bearing- bouquets for presentation to the num they had assembled to honor. At Waterloo and Butler, the last two stopping places in Indiana, the scenes enacted at the stations previ- ously passed were repeated. All along the lines crowds had been growing larger proportionately to the size of the towns, and the salutations were enthusiastic. IN onio. Crossing the line into Ohio, at Edgerton the greetings, of course, sufiered no diminution in point of numbers or enthusiasm, but fewer opportunities were offered for giving expression to the j^ublic feeling than in Indiana. Every- where 'the people, it was reported, were wild with enthusi- asm. At Bryan an aflecting incident occurred. Mr. AVilliam Letcher, an old gentleman, a cousin of Gen. Garfield, ])e- tween whom and himself exist ties of tender friendship, came on the car, prepared with a brief little speech of con- gratulation. He was so overcome with emotion, however, that he could only ejaculate, " Cousin James," and burst into tears. A friend recalled the fact that Mr. 'Letcher had held Gen. Garfield when a baby in his arms at the funeral of his father. CONGRATULATIONS. The following are a few of the hundreds of cons-ratula- tory telegrams received by Gen. Garfield during the day: Prof Simom Newcombe, the astronomer at Washino-ton, THE NOMINATION. 105 " Thousand congratulations on the success of the office in finding the man." J. B. Dinsmore, Captain of "The Garfield Guards, Sut- ton, i^ebraska: " " Gen. Garfield's Guards were organized to-night, with forty-eight members. Great enthusiasm; torchlight procession and ratification meeting." William E., Johnson and 600 others, Ann Arbor, Mich.: " The students of the University of Michigan send con<>rat- ulations." A. S. Stratton, Mayor of Madison, Lake county (Gen. Garfield's own county), Ohio: "Madison sends greetings; immense enthusiasm; cannon, bonfires, speeches, and cheers." Frederick "W. Pitkin, Chairman, and K. G. Cooper, Sec- retary, Denver, Col.: "At an enthusiastic ratification meet- ing of the Republicans of Denver, held this evening, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: " Resolved^ By the Republicans of Denver in mass meet- ing assembled, that we heartily endorse the nomination of James A, Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, and we pledge the State ot Colorado for the Chicago nominations with 5,000 majority." Thomas H. Wilson, member of the General Assembly, Younffstown, Ohio: "Youno:stown ablaze. Your friends have been hoping for just such a result, although appreci- ating the delicacy of your situation. The party has hon- ored and saved itself." Eli H. Murray, an old friend of Gen. Garfield's, now Governor of Utah: "Telegrams assure me that I was right in naming you President. God bless you." 106 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. Garfield's Informal Acceptance of the Nomination— His Sense of the Re- sponsibility. ISI^ear midniglit, in Chicago, June 9th, 1880, the Com- mittee appointed by Senator Hoar to wait on Generals Garfield and Artlim' and notify them of their nomination, found them in the club room of the Grand Pacific Hotel, and Senator Hoar, as Chairman, made an apj)ropriate speech. Gen. Garfield replied : Me. Chairman and Gentlemen : 1 assure you that the information you have officially given to me brings the sense of very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the fact that I was a member of your body, a feet that could not have existed with propriety had I had the slightest expectation that my name would be connected with the nomination for the office. I have felt with you great solicitude concerning the situation of our party during the struggle; but, believing that you are correct in assuring me that substantial unity has been reached in the con- clusion, it gives me a gratification far greater than any personal pleasure your announcement can bring. I accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the work of our party, and as to the character of the campaign to be entered upon, I will take an early occasion to reply more fully than I can properly do to-night. I thank you for the assurances of confidence and esteem you have presented to me, and hope we shall see our future as promising as are indications to-night. Senator Hoar, in the same manner, presented the nomination to General Arthur, who accepted it in a brief and informal way. THE NOMINATION. 107 How the News of Garfield's Nomination was Received at Hiram College -Kinging the Old Eell. When the ne^vs was received at Hiram College, where Garfield had been a school boy, Professor and President, the College bell, which Garfield used to ring for his tuition, was wildly rung, and the people came running from every part of the little town built around the College Square, to gather under the old bell to clasp hands and shout their joy. Everybody who went to school with Garfield: every pupil who remembers him as a rigid disciplinarian, but as the first and strongest on the ball ground, where he spent many hours with his scholars; every soldier who went to the war in the old Forty-Second, and all the people of this little town, who have lived here in the same houses thirty years, when as a youth he came among them, all and each loved Garfield; and as there were many representatives of each class, we can imagine the character of the occasion. First Vote for Garfield in the Chicago Convention— The Man Who Gave it Voted for Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln Under Like Circumstances. A prominent gentleman who, in speaking of the incidents of the Chicago Convention, which nominated Gen. Gar- field, said that the Pennsylvanian who cast the first and only vote which Gen. Garfield received for several ballots was Caleb N. Taylor, a delegate from the Bucks District. This gentleman says that while in Chicago he met Mr. Taylor, who was well known to him, he having been a Rep- resentative in Congress for several terms, and a person who, though a Quaker, always took a great interest in public aftairs, but was exceedingly deaf. Mr. Taylor accosted this gentleman in one of the corri- 108 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. dors of the Falmer House and remarked that he expected to cast the first vote for the man who would be nominated, He declined to mention his name, but added that if he watched his vote he would discover who this gentleman was. Mr. Taylor then mentioned several instances in his ex- perience. He stated that, in 1848, his constituents sent liim to Harrisburg with instructions to vote as they had directed, but against this verdict he had cast his vote for Zachary Taylor, and for some time his was the only vote he received, and Taylor was subsequently nominated. In 1860 he was again sent to the National Convention at Chicago, with instructions how he should vote. He again disregarded these instructions and cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, who was nominated. Mr. Taylor, in the late Chicago Convention, as already stated, cast his first vote for Garfield, who was also nominated. What Prominent Foreign-Born Citizens Say of the Convention— They Declare it Positively American. The folio wmg opinions of intelligent foreign -born citizens, respecting the Kepublican Convention at Cnicago, which nominated Gen. Garfield for President, are exceed- ingly interesting, and to the point: OPINION OF EX-LIEUT.-GOV. MITLLER. "Whoever has studied the history of the aiicients, and by its aid and lights has formed an idea of the imposing mag- nificence of the peoples' mass-meetings as they were held in the classic times of Greece and the Roman Empire for the purpose of listening to lectures, political and other matter-of-State discussions, witnessing public plays or gladiatorial contests, can find in the picture developed be- THE NO^IINATION. 109 fore my eyes in this Republican National Convention an approaching connterpart. Ten thousand stalwart men filled the immense and splendidly-decorated hall; all seats, row upon rcw, and closely joined, were occupied, so that hardly a bullet could drop to the floor. All the different delegations irom the thirty eight States, the eight Territories, and the District of Columbia, had their space and seats allotted to them, and the galleries were filled with the most prominent and talented men of the country. The impression which this convention of sovereign citizens of a free land made upon the quiet observers was grand and imposing beyond all description. No showy and gold-embroidered uniforms, no diamond-stars and decorations of any order, or other such like tinsel, as are graciously bestowed by monarchs and princes upon their devoted subjects, attracted my attention, but civic and democratic simplicity in the outward appearance of all those present greeted my eyes! Eeserve, self-reliance, and intelligence were beaming on the faces of all who composed this vast assembly, and the thought that these men could ever give up all their country's traditions and its free in- stitutions as not worthy of preservation, disappeared at once from my mind. At all events, my observations during the session of this Convention so far have quieted all my apprehensions that among the people of this country sympathies for a so-called strong or monarchical government could ever take root. I am convinced now that everything which has mani- fested itself in this direction so far emanates only from those classes of our population commonly designated as " Shoddy ites," who are represented in real life by blase aristocratic swellheads. 110 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. OPINION OF HERMAN RASTER. The conduct of the delegates and spectators in the Con- vention was, in one word, American; with that everything :'s said. IsTo personal altercations, no twitting, no insinua- tions; everywhere good cheer, pleasantness, and a disposi- tion to oblige predominated. But then came the outbursts of real or artificial enthusiasm, poured forth with such tre- mendous elementary strength, that would place the demo- niac yells of the Comanche Indians and the bowlings of the Zulu-Catfirs by far in the shade! Whoever did not witness the proceedings of the Convention on the fourth day of its session cannot even have an ap])roaching conception of the noise and wild enthusiasm which prevailed during that day from early morn until late at night. A stranger, unaware of the proceedings in the hall, might have been induced to believe that pandemonium had broken loose, or that all the lunatic asylums in the country had emptied their contents into the Exposition Building. Among the delegates, although determined in their oppo- sition and in the promotion of their choice's interests, nothing but pleasantness and affability was perceptible. During the whole time of the six days' proceedings not a word was uttered which could be tortured into a direct in- sult, and not a single serious dispute took place among them as well as among all this vast concourse of excited and enthusiastic men. In this respect the conduct of the Americans in their mass-meetings and gatherings cannot be enough praised and extolled, — more particularly so when we consider the behavior of the French, the Germans, Italians, and Poles on similar occasions. Any Convention of the importance and magnitude of that which has just adjourned in Chicago, held in France, would undoubtedly have caused hundreds of personal con- flicts and duels. Such a sudden readiness and submissive- THE NOMINATION. Ill ness to accept an unexpected result as a finality as is exhibited by Americans after their Conventions we look for in vain amono- ail other civilized nations. A Garfield Nomination Joke. An lionr or so after the latest and last from the Chicago nomination, a policeman on Randolph street halted at the door of a saloon and asked the proprietor how he liked the nomination. " I doan' care for bolitics any more," was the reply. " Wliy, what's the matter ? You were greatly excited yesterday." " If I vhas den I vhas a fool. Vhen dot first pallot vhas daken I set up der peer foi- de Grant crowd, for I likes to shtand vhell mit der poys." " Yes." " Den a pig crowdt rushes in here und yells out dot Jim Plaine vhas de coming man, und I hand out der cigars, for mein poy vhants a blace in der Gustom-house oof Jim Plaine vhas Bresident." " Yes, I see." " Vhell, pooty soon comes mein brudder in und says I vhas a fool, for dot feller Sherman w^ould git all der votes pooty queek. I tinks off Sherman gits it mein poy liaf a blace in der Post-office sure, und I calls in der poys und dells 'em to trink to my gandidate." " Just so." " I feels goot vhen I goes to bedt, but early in der morn- ings some Aldermans come roundt here und says: ' Shake, tont pe a fool. Edmunds ish der man wdio vhill knock 'em all to pieces,' und I dells efery ])ody I vhas an Edmundts, und I pet ten dollars he vhas voted in. Dis forenoon mein 112 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. poy vlias for Grant, mein briidder vlias for Sherman iind 1 vluis for Blaine, und vhere pe dose live kegs of lager dot 1 hadt dis morning? Ylien I goes home mein vhrow she saidt I vlias zwei fools, und I locks up der saloon und goes to bedt." " Well, have you heard who was nominated^" "^^ein." " It was Garfield." "■Garfeel? Pj Sheorge! I dreats avay seven kegs of lager und two poxes of cigars, und it vhas Garfeel! Wheel, dot ends me oop. If I efer haf some more to do mit boli- ticks, den 1 am as grazy as bedtbugs. Garfeel! Yhell — vhell. Vhat a fool I vhas dot I save not mein peer und make a zure blace for mein poy mit Garfeel!" MISCELLANEOUS. Who Is Geueral Garfield? The first and suj^erficial answer is, that he is the Republican leader in the popular branch of Congress, where he has served conspicuously for seventeen years, and that he is Senater elect from the State ot Ohio — two eminent stations, which, together with the Presidential nomination, distinguish him by an unexampled combination of civic honors. Reaching behind this Congressional experience, he was an enthusiastic volunteer in the Union Army. Before his military service he was for one brief term a member of the Senate of Ohio. This carries him back to the beginning of his public career, to a time when 28 years of age he was a school-teacher in a little village on the Western reserve, in the neighborhood of the hamlet where he was born. lie came of a family of yeomen. When he was left an orphan in the cradle by his father's death his mother struggled with poverty to educate him for loftier pursuits than those of his ancestors, and the boy bravely seconded her efforts. The slow and scanty savings of labor as a canal boatman and a carpenter provided him means for a liberal ed ication, and at the mature age of 25 he was graduated fruni a jV[ew England college in 1856, the same 113 8 114 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. year in which tlie Republican party set its first Presidential ticket in the field. This is an honorable record — as characteristic as Abraham Lincoln's of the aspirations and op])ortunities of life in our republic; but its recital does not touch the core of our question. The mere outline of a man's experience is not a satisfactory reply to an inquiry what manner of man that experience has left liim. Answering the question in this deeper sense, Gen. Garfield is a typical repre- sentative of the civilization of New England removed into the West, where it has grown greater and ranker than it flourishes at home, as a New England wild flower might if trans])lanted from its rocky pasture into the rich soil of the prairie. When Sir Charles Dilke wrote a book upon America a few years ago he styled it the " Greater Britain." In the same spirit that broad reach of the Northwestern territory, which begins at the Valley of the Gennesee, and, after crossing the Western Reserve, spreads out into an area encompassing the great lakes, might well be styled the "Greater New England." The leaven of its first settlers pervades it, tempered, but not dissipated, by space and time, and from these settlers Gen. Garfield descended, bearing among his own names a Biblical patronymic, which, like Lincoln's, betokens his Puritan descent from a New England ancestry. Applying this key to his public career, the American people can fairly interpret its past, and conjecture its future. It explains the alliance of his fortunes with the Republican party; the ardor with which he has assisted in the abolition of slavery, and in the distinctive political measures which resulted from that event; the courage with which lie always has antagonized the "Ohio idea" of financial legislation; the hesitation with which he has MISCELLANEOUS. 115 opposed his own liljeral convictions concerning economic questions to the predominant opinions of his political associ- ates; and the scholai'ly tastes which have impelled him to serve upon Congressional committees on education and the census, and as a regent of the Smithsonian Institute with no less zeal than he lias applied himself to the business of the committees on Military Affairs, Banking, and the Cur- rency and Appropriations, of all of which he has been successively Chairman. It defines also the respectable simplicity of his private life. Dying Words of Gen. Garfield's Father -He Leaves His Four Children in Care of His Wife. (tcu. Garfield's mother, a woman of wonderful intelH- o-ence and highly endowed by nature, was wedded to a man of the most generous impulses and largeness of soul, and together they sought their fortunes in the woods of Orange, Cuyahoga County, (). To this couple were born four children, James Abram beiu"- the last. When the youngest son was only two years old, his father, over-W(jrked and weary from the labor of saving his wheat crop from a tire which threatened its destruction, sat in a draft of wind, and contracted a violent sore throat. A quack doctor of the time applied a blister, which caused him to choke to death. Yigorous and hearty in all his frame, in his dying moments he said to his beloved wife : "I have planted four saplings in these wood?-. I must now leave them to your care." Then, taking a last look out upon his farm, and calling his oxen by name, he died. 116 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. Garfield's Life in Hiram Sketched by^resident Hinsdale, of Hiram College —An Interesting History. " Garfield's life in Hiram," says President Hinsdale, "may be divided into fonr parts: First, student period; second, stndent and teacher; third, teacher, and, fourth, citizen pei'iod. I was not in Hiram when Garfield came here, but he came in 1851. His name first appears in the catalogue of that year, 'James A. Garfield, Cuyahoga county.' It appears the same w^ay next year, but never ap- pears again as tlie name of a student. In the catalogue of 1853 it appears in the list of instructors as ' Teacher in the English Department and Ancient Languages.' He began to teach when he had been here about a year, and continued to teach at the same time carried on his owm studies, until he went to Williams College in 1854. Previous to going to Williams his name appears only once as instructor. The student period, then, may be said to have lasted one year, and student and teacher period two years. He en- tered the junior class at Williams College in 1854, and graduated in 1856, dividing the highest honors with one of his classmates. He returned to Hiram in the fall of 1856, where he had just been elected a teacher of ancient lang- uages and literature. He occupied this position one year, until, on retirement of Mr. A. L. Hayden, he became the head of the institution. The school was then called the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, and did not become Hiram Colleo-e until 1865, so that Garfield was never Pres- ident of Hiram College, as has been stated, but was princi- pal of the institute, in active duty, from June, 1857, to Sep- tember, 1861. When he became the head of the institu- tution he was 26 years old. The teacher period of his life then covers four years. He entered the army in August, 1861, taking bodily his classes in history, Latin, etc., with him into the field. At this MISCELLANEOUS. 117 time liis active connection with tlie institution ceased; but so reluctant was the Board of Trustees to part with his name that he continued nouiinally a principal until 1S64-. In the catalogiie of the two toUovring years liis name ap- jDears as 'Advising Principal,' and first as a member of the Board of Trustees in 1865. " In the fall of 1862, at 31 years of age, he was elected to Congress, but continued in the army until he took his seat in December of the year following. While in tiie army, he I)()iiglit this liouse, which I now own, which is the only piece of property Garfield ever owned in Iliram. His home continued to be here until he moved to Mentor in 1876, so that the citizen period of his life may be said to reach from 1863 to 187-1 "I came to Iliram at the opening of the winter term of 1853-1. I arri\('d in the evening, and saw nobody until next day. That day I went with father to Mr. JIayden, then Principal, and in the parlor of the house I first saw Garfield. "In stature he was what he is now, only not so well rounded up. His head was covered with an immense shock of tan-colored hair, which has since darkened. lie was but 22 years old, and had a decidedly veally appear- ance. George Pow, of Mahoning County came in, and the conversation turned ui)Ou a recent contest of Pow with B. S. Watkins on the rightfulness of Christians going to war. Pow had afiirmed this rightfulness under certain circum- stances, and, as I came in, young Garfield said: 'So, Brother Pow. you took the gun])0wder side, did you?' These are the fir^t words I remember to have e\er heard Garfiekl speak. "That winter I was a member of (Uie of Garfield's classes —a class in arithmetic of 105 members, which he handled with admirable power. The impression which he made 118 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. upon me then is the same wliich lie made upon everybody then and after. I cannot describe liim better than to read a passao;e from my history of the Delphic Society. Gar- Held, I should say, was then a member of the Philomathious Society, and delivered before it that winter a course of lectures on history. But here is the passage : "'An old Harvard student, in a private letter, speaks of the Philomathians as 'wonderful men,' mentions those he thought 'master spirits,' and adds: 'Then began to grow up in me an admiration and love for Garfield that has never abated, and the like of wliich I have never known. A bow of recognition or a single word from him was to me an inspiration. The exact parallel or my own experiences, Garfield, you have taught me more than any other man, living or dead ; and when I recall these early days, when I remember that James and I were not the last of the boys, proud as I am of your record as a soldier and a statesman, I can hardly forgive you for abandoning the academy for the field and the forum.' "When I read the above passage," continned Hinsdale, laying the book down, " before a brilliant audience in the chapel four years ago, the cheers with which it was received showed that it struck a chord in all hearts. •'My real acquaintance with Garlield did not begin until the fall of 1856, when he returned from Williams College. He then found me out, drew near to me, and entered into all my troubles and difficulties pertaining to questions of the future. In a greater or less degree this was true of his relations to his pupils generally. There are hundreds of these men and women scattered over the world to-day who cannot find language strong enough to express their feeling in contemplating Garfield as their old instructor, adviser and friend. Since 1856 my relations with him have been as close and confidential as they could be with any man, and much closer and more confidential than they have been with any other man. I do not say that it would be possible for me to know anybody better than I know him, and I MISCELLANEOUS. 119 know that lie possesses all tlie great elements of character in an extraordinary degree. " His interest in humanity has always been as broad as humanity itself, while his lively interest in young men and women, especially if they were struggling in narrow cir- cumstances to obtain an education, is a characteristic known as widely over the world as the footsteps of Iliram boys and girls have wandered. "The help that he furnished hundreds in the way of suggestions, teaching, encouragement, inspiration, and stimulus, was most valuable. I have repeatedly said that, as regards myself, I am more indebted to him for all that I am and for what I have d(jne in the intellectual field than to any other man that eyer lived. " His power over students was not so much that of a drill-master or disciplinarian as that of one who was able to inspire and energize young people by his own intellectual and moral force." An Interesting Reminiscence of Garfield's Youth-A Letter He Wrote 23 Years ago that Helped to Make a College President, and that President Now Reads it to His Students. President Hinsdale said, at the recent Commencement at Hiram College (June, 18^01, that in the fall of 1856 he left the Eclectic Institute, now Iliram College, in distress of mind growing out of his own life-cpiestions. He had passed his 19th birthday, and the question of the future weighed heavily upon his mind. That winter he taught district-school. He had already won a friend in Mr. Gar- field, then 25 years old, and just out of Williams College. Garfield was then teaching in Iliram as Professor of Ancient Languages. In his distress of mind Hinsdale wrote Gar- field a letter, in which he fully opened up his mind. In 120 8T0RIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. reply lie received a letter, wliicli gave liim great help, that illustrated some of the points in the morning's lecture. This letter, which he had religiously preserved, might give help to some of the young men before him. Besides, there was peculiar propriety in his reading it, on account of what had taken place the day before in the City of Chicago. He then proceeded to read from the original — yellow with age, and worn with repeated foldings and unfoldings — the fol- lowing beautiful letter: "Hiram, Jan. 15, 1857. — My Dear Brother Burke: I was made glad a few days since by the receipt of your letter. It was a very acceptable New Year's j^resent, and I take great pleasure in responding. You have given a vivid picture of a community in which intelligence and morality have been neglected, and I am glad you are disseminating the light. Certainly men must have some knowledge in order to do right. God hrst said, 'Let there be light;' afterward he said, ' It is very good! ' " I am ghid to hear of your success in teaching, but I approach with much more interest the consideration ol the question you have projwsed. 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 ot 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 Held of lite and see -what are its aspects. " I am not one of those who advise everyone 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 (intelligent), farmers and mechanics; and in many respects MISCELLANEOUS. 121 they pass the most independent and happy Vixe^. llut God has endowed some of His children with desires and capa- bilities for a more extended tield of hd^or and inihience, and so every life should be shajied uect-rding to 'what the man hatli.* !Now, in retereriee to yr nrselt, I know you have capabiL'ties for occupying; positions of higli and important trust in the scenes of active life, and I am sure you will not call it flattery in me nor egotism in yourself to say so. Teil me, Burke, do you not feel a spirit stirring witliin you that longs to know, to do, and to dare / to hold con- verse with the great woi'ld of thought, and hold l)efore 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 y3u M'ill pass throuirh life unsatisfied and rem-etful? I am sure you have them, and they will forever cling round your heart till you obey their mandate. They are the voices of that nature, which God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you and your fellow-men. " Now, all this might be true, and yet it might be your duty not to follow that course. If your duty to your father or yom- mother demands that you take another, I shall rejoice to see you take that other course. The path of duty is where we all ought to walk, be that where it may. But I sincerely hope that you will not, w^ithout an earnest struggle, give up a course of liberal study. Suppose you could not begin your study again till after your majority, — it will not be too late then, but you will gain in many respects. You will have more maturity of mind to appre- ciate w^hatever you nuxy study. You may say you will be too old to begin the cource. But how could you better spend the earlier days of lite? We should not measure life by the days and moments we pass on earth. 122 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. " ' The life is measured by tlie soul's advance — The enlargement of its powers — the expanded field Where it ranges, till it burns and glows With heavenly joy, with high and heavenly hope.' " It need be no discouragement that you will be obliged to hew your own way and pay your own charges. You can go to school two terms of every year, and pay your own way. " I know this, for I did so when teachers' wages were much lower than they are now^ It is a great truth that ' Where there is a will, there is a way.' It may be that by- and-by your father would assist you. It may be that even now he could let yon commence on your resources, so that you could begin immediately. Of this you know, and I do not. I need not tell you how glad I should be to assist you in your work; but, if you cannot come to Hiram while- I am here, I shall still hope to hear that you are deter- mined to go on as soon as the time will permit. Will you not write me your thoughts on this whole subject, and tell me your prospects? We are having a very good time in the school tliis winter. Give my love to liolden and Louisa, and believe me always your friend and brother, ''J. A. Garfieli.. "P. S. — Miss Booth and Mr. Ehodes send their love to- you. Henry James was here and made me a good visit a few days ago. He and I have talked of going to see you this w^inter. I tear we cannot do it. How far is it from here? Burke, was it prophetic that my last word to you ended on the picture of the Capitol of Congress? ''J. A. G." The letter was written on Congress note paper, and the sheet was entirely^filled, so that the last few words were written crosswise; and, as is said by the General, his last word came across the little picture at the upper left-hand MISCELLANEOUS. 123 corner of tlie sheet. Whether the General means to ask in regard to the prophetic significance in liis own case, or that ot Hinsdale, is not known; but it certainly came true in liis own case. Gen. Garfield's Speech Before the Hiram College Reunion Association— Thj Commencement Day of 1880 Long to be Remembered. On this happy occasion, President Hinsdale introduced Gen. Garfield as follows: It is with a good deal of satisfac- tion and pride that I now introduce to jou one into whose face most all of you have looked hundreds of times, a fellow student with some of you, and a co-worker in the institu- tion with others, a teacher of a larger number, a man who for years has been near and dear to ns, and whose presence here to-day has lifted what otherwise would have been a comparatively humble though a very pleasant and enjoyable occasion to tlie rank and dignitj^ of ]N"ational matters — Gen. Garfield. Gen. Garfield arose and said : Ladies and Gejjtlemkn: I said that there were two chapters in the history of this Institute. You have heard the one relating to the founders. They were all pioneers of. this Western Reserve, or nearly all ; they were all men of knowledge and great force of character; nearly all not men of means, but they planted this little institution. In 1850 it was a cornfield, with a solid, plain brick building in the centre of it, and that w^as all. Almost all the rest has been done by the institution itself. That is the second chapter. Without a dollar of endowment, without a powerful friend anywhere, but with a corps of teachers who were told to go on to the ground and see what they could make out 124 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. ot it, to find their own paj out of tlie little tuition that they could receive. Thej invited students of their own spirit to come on the ground and see what they could make out of it, and the response has been that many have come, and the chief j^art of the respondents I see in the faces around and before me to-day. It was a simple question of sinking or swimming for themselves. And I know that we are all inclined to be a little clannish over our own. We have, perhaps, a right to be, but I do not know of any place, I do not know of any institution that has accom- plished more with so little means as has this school on Hiram Hill. I know of no place where the doctrine of self-help has a fuller development, by necessity as well as finally by choice, as here on this hill. The doctrine of self-help and of force has the chief place among these men and women around here. As I said a great many years ago alxnit that, the act of Hiram was to throw its young men and women overboard and let them try it for themselves, and all those men able to get ashore got ashore, and I think we have few cases of drowning anvwhere. Now, I look o\'er these faces and I mark the several geological changes remarked by Mr. At water so well in his address; but in the few cases of change of geological fact there is, I find, no fossils. Some are dead and gloi-ified in our memories, but those who are not are alive — I think all. The teachers and the studens of this school built it up in every sense. They made the cornfield into Hiram Campus. Those fine groves you see across the road they planted. I well remember the day when they turned out into the woods to find beautiful maples, and brought them in; when they raised a little purse to purchase evergreen; when each young man, for himself one. and perhaps a second for some young lady, if he was in love, planted two MISCELLANEOUS. 125 trees on the campus and tlien named them after himself. There are several here to-day who remember Bolen. Bolen planted there a tree, and Bolen has planted a tree that has a Inbtre — Bolen was shot through the heart at Winchester. There are many here that can go and find the tree that you have named after yourself. They are great, strong trees to-day, and your names, like your trees, are, I hope, growing still. I believe outside of or beyond the physical features of the place, that there was a stronger pressure ot work to the square inch in the boilers that run this establishment than any other that I know of, and, as has been so well said, tliat has told all the while with these young men and women. The struggle, wherever the uncouth and un- tutored farmer boys — a farmer, of course — that came here to try themselves and find what kind of people they were. They came here to go on a voyage of discovery. Your discovery was yourselves, in many cases. I hope the discovery was a tortnne, and the friendships then formed out of that have bound this group of people longer and farther than most any other I have known in life. They are scattered all over the United States, in every field of activity, and if I had time tt) name them, the sun would iro down before I had finished. I believe the rules of this institution limits us to time — I think it is said five minutes. I may have overgone it already. We have so many already that we want to hear from, we will all volunteer. We expect now to wrestle awhile with the work before us. Some of these boys remember the time when I had an exercise that I remem- ber with pleasure. I called a young lad out in a class and said, in two minutes you are to speak to the best ot your ability on the following subject (naming it), and give the subject and let him wrestle with it. I was trying a 126 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIEFD. theory, and I believe tliat wi-estling was a good thing. I will not vary the performance save in this. I will call you and restrict you to five minutes, and let you select your theme about the old days of Hiram. JSTow, we have a grave judge in this audience, who wandered away from Hiram into the Forty-Second Regi- ment into the South, and, after the victory, stayed there. I will call now, not as a volunteer man, but as a drafted man — Judge Clark of Mississippi. Garfield's First Ride on the Cars— First Visit to Columbus— First School, Etc.— Interesting Reminiscences. It was the good fortune of the writer of this to spend the first two weeks of the notable campaign of 1877 with Gen. Garfield. It was almost evident to the best-informed poli- tical calculator that the Republicans must be defeated that year. Fate Avas against them, and whatever herculean efibrts might be made could only be in vain. The excuse was this and that, but the fact was a conglomeration of ad- verse circumstances which no one could successfully con- tend against. The campaign was opened on a bright day in early autunm, under the beautiful elms and maples of that de- lightful old university town of Athens. Hon. Stanley Matthews, recently elected United States Senator, Judge West, candidate for Governor, and Gen. Garfield, together with several lesser lights in the party, were present and made speeches. It was an occasion full of importance, and was carefully reported in the daily press of the entire country. The meeting was held on Saturday afternoon, and the General found it necessary to remain in the town over Sun- day. After taking a stroll about the town during the fore- MISCELLANEOUS. 127 noon, and reading liis usual amount from some popular volume, the General, later in tlie daj, in the presence of Cajit. C. E. Ilenrv and myself, the General said: '•Many interesting reminiscences which it is very diffi- cult for me to express have run through my mind during the past twenty-four hours. While speaking trom the stand in the college campus, yesterday, I could not refrain from casting my eyes up to a certain window in the main building which opens into a room where I spent a night, some twenty-five years ago, in the company of my cousin Ella Ballon, wlio was a student here. '' I had come all the way from our home in Cuyahoga county with my mother. It had been an eventful journey to me. "I had rode for the first time on the cars." " I had l)een for the first time to the capital, and been shown with my mother through the halls of the State House. " Hon. Gamaliel Kent was the Representative from Geauga county, and he showed us about. From there we come on to Athens, in the immediate vicinity of which town resided my mother's relatives. "That winter I taught my fii'st school in a log house in this vicinity. " I due: the coal which was burned during the winter from the bank in the i-ear of the house, and worked for, I thiidv, $10 per month. It was an eventful winter for me. I had some scholars who had been reported as somewhat hard, but I think that I succeeded reasonably well in keep- ing order." " Was this before or after your canal experience?" "It was after that, some time. I had given up all idea of a life on the canal at that time, but I did expect to go on the sea even then." 128 ."iTORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. At this early period the books ^rhich the young General mostly read were tales of the sea. These were the only stories that could he easily obtained. The General says that he most vivddly remembers the "Pirate's Own Book," and the impression which it made lived with him for years. He dreamed of an impossible career on the ocean. The great statesman v/as a good reader at 3 years old, and was remarkable for the faculty which he exhibited for re- taining almost verbatim the contents of the volumes which he perused. It is reported by the good people of the vicin- ity, who were boys with the General, that he often annoyed teachers of somewhat limited education by the numberless questions which he asked them. Garfield's Extra Session Speech— Turning on the Light. General Garheld, at the extra session of Congress in 1879, turned a flood of the fierce light of history upon the disgraceful record of the Democratic party, and then made clear that their attitude at that time in threatening to stop the supplies of the Government unless their schemes look- ing to the removal of the safeguards that surround the ballot-box were permitted was as unpatriotic and pestiferous as their attitude during the war. It was in the course of this great effort that he spoke the following words, which indicate the intense patriotic earnestness and the frank fear- lessness of the man: I desire to ask the forbearance of the gentlemen on the other side for remarks I dislike to make, for they will bear witness that I have in many ways shown my desire that the wounds of the war should be healed, and that the grass that God plants over the graves of our dead may signalize MISCELLANEOUS. 129 the return of tlie Spring of friendship and peace T)etween all parts of the country. But I am compelled hj the necessity of the situation to refer for a moment to a chapter of history. The last act of the Democratic domination in this house, eighteen years ago, was stirring and dramatic, but it was heroic and whole-souled. Then the Democratic party said: " If you elect your man as President of the United States we will shoot your Union to death." And the people of this country, not willing to be coerced, but l)elieving they had a right to vote for Abraham Lincoln if they chose, did elect him lawfully as President, and then your leaders, in control of the majority of the other wing of this Capitol, did the heroic thing ot with- drawing from their seats, and your Representatives with- drew from their seats and flung down to us the gage of mortal battle, We. called it rebellion, but we admitted that it was honoi'able, that it was courageous, and that it was noble to give us the fell gage of battle, and fight it out in the open field. That confiict, and what followed, we all know too well; and to-day, after eighteen years, thp book of your domina- tion is opened where you turned down your leaves in 1S60, and you are signalizing your return to power by reading the second chapter (not this time an heroic one) that de- clares that if we do not let you dash a statute out of the book you will not shoot the Union to death as in the first chapter — but starve it to death by refusing the necessary appropriations. You, gentlemen, have it in your power to kill it b}^ this movement. You have it in your power, by withholding these two bills, to smite the nerve centers of our Constitu- tion to the stillness of death ; and you have declared your purpose to do it if you cannot break down the elements 9 130 STORIES AND SKEICHES OF GARFIELD. oi free consent that, np to this time, have always ruled in the Government. It is unnecessary to say that the sentences quoted were burned into the memories of the Democracy. In the light of Garfield's unsparing but candid arraignment they were forced to see along with the rest of the people that their party, according to the measure of its opportunity, was as much a foe to the safety and prosperity of the American Union as the Democracv of the war. Anecdote of Gen. Garfield at Murfreesboro, Illustrating a Noble Trait of His Character. The following reminiscence throws additional light on noble character of Garfield : Garashee, Rosecrans's Chief of Staff", was killed the first day of the fight at Murfreesboro. A solid shot left his body headless. Old Rosey, as he was familiarly and affec- tionately called by the boys, who was at Garashee's side when the fatal shot took eff'ect, glanced at the faithful officer's corpse, and exclaiming " poor fellow," called out : " Scatter, gentlemen, scatter." The order was obeyed by staff" and orderlies with more than alacrity, as the enemy had us in blank range of a well- manned battery, the shot flying thick and fast, without any apparent respect of persons. A few days after, says Thomas Daughberty, w^ho tells this story, I do not remem- ber how many, but it was after we had got into quarters in the to^\^l of Murfreesboro, Garfield joined us, to take the dead man, Garashee's, place as Chief of Staff'. We boys thought he was a perfect success, and as an illustration of his kindness of heart, a virtue not often practiced by army officers in the field, toward subordinates at least, I 2:ive vou this little storv : MISCELLANEOUS, 131 One niglit, very late, tne Doys Deing rolled in their blankets on the hall floor asleep, and I at my post, sitting- in a chair at the Commanding General's door, awaiting orders to be taken to their destination by my then sleeping comrades ; the light but a tallow candle stuck in a sardine box; I, with chair til^d against the wall, had fallen asleep too, when Gen. Garfield, the new Chief of Staff, emerged from the headquarter-room quickly. Not noticing my extended limbs, he tripped over them and dropped to hands and knees on the floor. As he was no light weight, even then the fall was not easy. Affrighted, I jumped to my feet, stood at attention, and, as the General arose, saluted, expecting nothing else tlian to be cuffed, and probably kicked, too, from one end of the hall to the other. But, to my astonishment, he kindly and quietly said: " Excuse me. Sergeant." I not only excused him, but, with all our little command, to whom the inci dent was told, revered him. The First Garfield Club— Organized by the Students at Williamstown, Mass Every ballot at tlie Chicago Convention was announced immediately to a large and expectant crowd at Williams College (Gen. Garfield is a graduate of Williams College) as fast as received. Wlien the news came that a son of Williams College was nominated, the crowd went wild. Tlie students, headed by a man carrying the American flag, marched to the President's house, where Dr. Chad- bourn made a speech. A mass meeting was then held by the students in Alumni Hall, and a grand ratification meeting was appointed. A brass band was engaged, together with prominent speakers of Berkshire County. A Garfield Club was organized also, and a grand procession planned, all before 2 : 30 p. m. Tlie College took a holiday in honor of the nomination, and has the honor of organizing the first Garfield Club in the country. J 32 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. Dignity of American Citizenship— Garfield's Eloquent Speech in Washington After His Nomination, Delivered June 16th, 1880. Fellow-Citizens: "While I have looked upon this great array, I believe I have gotten a new idea of the majesty of the American people. Wlien I reflect that wherever von find the sovereie-n power, every reverent heart on earth bows before it, and when I remember that here, for a hundred years, we have denied the sovereignty of any man, and in place of it we have asserted the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before so vast a concourse that it is easy for me to imagine that the rest of the American people are gathered here to-night; and, if they were all here, every man would stand uncovered and in unsandaled feet in the presence of the majesty of the only sovereign power in this Government under Almighty God ; and, therefore, to this great audience I pay the respectful homage that in part belongs to the sovereignty of the people. I thank you for this great and glorious demonstration. I am not for one moment misled into believing that it refers to so poor a thing as any one of our number. I know it means your reverence to your Government, your reverence for its laws, your reverence for its institutions, and your compliment to one wlio is placed for a moment in relations to you of jDeculiar importance. For all these reasons I thank you. I cannot at this time utter a word on the subject of general politics. I would not mar the cordiality of this welcome, to which to some extent all are gathered, by any reference except to the jDresent moment and its significance. But I wish to say that a large portion of this assemblage to-night are my comrades in the late war for the Union. For them I can speak with entire propriety, and can say that these very streets heard the measured tread of your MISCELLANEOUS. 133 disciplined feet years ago, when tlie imperiled Tlepnblic needed your hands and your hearts to sa\'e it, and you came back with your numbers decimated, but those you left behind were immortal and glorified heroes forever, and those yon brought back came carrying under tattered ban- ners and in bronzed hands the ark of the covenant of youi Eepublic in safety out of the bloody baptism of the war, and you brought it in safety to be saved forever by your valor and the wisdom of your brethren who were at home, and by this you were again added to the civil army of the Republic. I greet you, comrades and fellow-soldiers, and the great body of distinguished citizens who are gathered here to-night, who are the strong stay and support of business, ot prosperity, of peace, of civic order, and the glory of the Republic, and I thank you for your welcome to-night. It was said in a welcome to one who came to England to be a part of her glory, and all the nation spoke when it said: Xormans, and Saxons, and Danes are we, But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee. And we say to-night of all the nations, of all the people, soldiers arud civilians, there is one name that welds us all into one. It is the name of an American under the Union and under the glory of the flag that leads us to victory and to peace. " The Member from New York.' Gen. Garfield in his school days used to take the part of "the member from Kew York" in the miniature House of Congress which his elocution class had formed itself into. He Ts said to have enjoyed this exceedingly, and his oratory excelled that of all the others. 134 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIEFD. The Canal Story as Told by the Man Who Employed Young Garfield to Drive on the Tow Path. The gentleman who employed young Garlield to drive on the " Tow path " is still living, and resides in Jersey City. His name is Jonathan Myers. He gives the following full account of " Jim Garfield's " canal labors: " He was a driver for me on the Ohio Canal. I have watched his career ever since he left me, and have felt very much interested in him, and gratified to see what he has achieved. The first time he ran for the Legislature of Ohio he was in my district, and I voted for him. After that I moved East, and that is the only time I ever voted for him. When he left me he did not 'boat ' any more. It is a mistake about his ever having been a steersman. He was not large enough for a steersman. "When he was in my employ he was not more than 13 years of age. I remember when he applied to me for a job on my boat. He was a stout, healthy boy, and his frank, open countenance impressed me so much that I at once employed him. He was always full of fun, and exceedingly good natured. I never saw him mad. He was with me about three months. He was always very attentive to his business. He was also a great boy to read. If he was not busy he was always reading. I scarcely ever saw him idle. One day, as we were going up the canal, he came to me and said he would like to get a place where he could work and attend school. I laiew of a doctor by the name of Robinson who lived near me, who was in need of a boy to attend his horse and do chores about his place. I told " Jim " he had better go up and see the Doctor, and if he had not got a boy he had better get the place. I disliked to part with him, but I saw he was too intelligent a lad to be driving a canal-boat. MISCELLANEOUS. 135 He went up, and the Doctor ' froze ' to him at once. The Doctor was what you might call a minister. He was a Campbellite, and a very good man indeed. During the first winter "Jim" was with the Doctor he got converted, and after he got converted they " froze " to him tighter than ever. "When spring came, " Jim " wanted to get some work to enable him to buy some clothes, and he spoke to the Doctor about it. The Doctor told him he must not leave school — that he must go through now. "Jim" said: " Doctor, but I haven't got any money." The Doctor told hi in that was all right— that he would stand behind him. I remember that he ^^'as a very poor boy, and that 1 was very favorably impressed with him. These canal boys were generally a shiftless lot of fellows, and it was hard work to get a good boy. Our boats were different then from what they are now. We used to have them fitted up nicely to carry passengers as well as freight. My wife used to be on the boat with me, and she thought a good deal of " Jim." The great difficulty we had with the drivers on our boats was that they would lie, but if you got anything from " Jim " you could always rely on it. I never caught him in a lie "^ while he was with me. He was getting $10 a month and his board, and that was considered very big wages. He was born in Orange, Cuyahoga County, O. He came to me as any other boy to hire out. The Turning Point in Garfield's Life, and How It Happened. The following anecdote concerning Garfield's early life shows a critical period of the boy's experience: Garfield was then a queer, awkward boy of IG, and was 136 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. revolving in liis mind tlie feasibility of taking a course of liberal study. He knew that Dr. Eobinson was in town, and bad seen liim at his mother's house, and had confidence in his judgment. He called around, therefore, at the President's house, and asked for Dr. Eobinson. The Doctor was at his dinner, but soon finished, and came out to see what his young friend wanted. " I want to see you alone," said Garfield. "Who are you?" asked the grufi" but kind-hearted Doctor. " My name is James Garfield, from Solon," replied the latter. " Oh ! I know your mother, and knew you when you were a babe in arms; but you had outgi-own my knowledge. I am glad to see you." The young man led the way toward a secluded spot on. the south side of Hiram Hill; and, as they proceeded, the Doctor took a good look at his companion. He was a young man quite shabbily dressed, with coarse satinet pantaloons, which were far outgrown, and did not reach more than half-way down his cowhide boot-tops. His vest did not meet the waistband of his pants, and his arms reached far out through the sleeves of his coat. His head was clothed with a coarse wool hat, which had also seen much wear, and slouched upon his head. " He was wonderfully awkward," said the good Doctor (who tells this story), " and had a sort of independent, go-as- you-please gait. At length we reached a spot that was covered with papaw bushes, and we took a seat on a log. After a little hesitation the young man said: " You are a physician, and know the fibre that is in men. Examine me and tell me with the utmost frankness whether I had better take a course of liberal study. I am con- templating doing so. My desire is in that direction. But, MISCELLANEOUS. 137 if I am to make a failure ofl#, or practically so, I do not desire to begin. If you advise me not to do so, I shall feel content." " I felt tliat I was on my sacred honor, and the young man looked as tliougli lie felt himself on trial. I had had considerable experience as a physician, but here was a case much different from any other I had ever had. I felt it must be handled with great cai-e. I examined his head, and saw that there was a mag- nificent brain there. I sounded his lungs, and found that they were strong and capable of making good blood. I felt his pulse, and saw that there was an engine capable of sending the blood up to the head to feed the brain. I had seen many strong physical systems, with warm feet, but cold, sluggish brain; and those who possessed such systems would simply sit around and doze. Therefore I was anxious to know about the kind of an engine to run that delicate machine, the brain. At the end of a fifteen- minutes' careful examination of this kind, we rose, and I aids: 'Go on, follow the leadings of your ambition, and ever after I am your friend. You have the brain of a Webster, and you have the physical proportions that will back you in the most herculean eftbrts. All you need to do is to work. "Work hard — do not be afraid of over- working — and you will make your mark.'" The Doctor and the General visited the spot made thus sacred as the witness of the turning point in Garfield's life, on the day of the recent Hiram commencement. " I in^Tted the General to come to my house in Bedford, in order that I might talk the matter over more fully with him; and in a short time he did so. The General has often told me that the conversation gave him confidence in him- self, which he had never had before, and he went on with his course, and, as is already known, won for himself the highest honors of his class, and of the world at large. 138 STOBIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. The Methods and Habits of Garfield While a Teacher—How He Played With the Boys, Shook Hands, Lectured, Etc, The Rev, J. L. Darsie, of Danbnry, Conn,, was one of Garfield's pupils in his school days. He thus describes the habits and methods of Professor Garfield: " I attended school at the Western Reserve Eclectic In- stitute when Garfield was Principal, and I recall vividlj^ Gen. Garfield's method of teaching. " He took very kindly to me, and assisted me in various ways, because I was poor and was janitor of the buildings, and swept them out in the morning and built the fires, as he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil at the same scliool. He was full of animal spirits, and he used to run out on the green almost every day and play cricket with us. He was a tall, strong man, but dreadfully awkward. Every now and then he would get a hit on the nose, and he muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing. He was left-handed, too, and that made him seem all the clumsier. But he was most powerful and very quick, and it was easy for us to understand how it was that he had ac- quired the reputation of whipping all the other mule driv- ers on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that thoroughlare when he followed its tow-path ten years earlier. 'No matter how old the pupils were, Garfield always called us by our first names, and kept himself on the most familiar terms with all. He pla^^ed with us freely, scuffled with us sometimes, walked with us in walking too and fro, and we treated him out of the class room jnst about as we did one another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and enforced the rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and confiding manner with a respect for order in a most successful manner. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approba- MISCELLANEOUS. 18» tion, lie would generally manage to get one arm around him and draw him up close to him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, giving a twist to your arm and drawing you right up to him. This sympathetic manner has helped him to advancement. When I was a janitor he used sometimes to stop me and ask my opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising with me. I can see now that my opinion could not have been of any value, and that he probably asked me partly to increase my self-respect, and partly to show me that he felt an interest in me. I certainly was his friend all the firmer for it. I remember once asking him what was the best way to pursue a certain study, and he said: "Use several text-books. Get the views of different authors as you advance. In that way you can plow a broader furrow. I always study in that way." He tried hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He broke out one day with : " Henry, how many posts are there under the building downstairs?" Henry expressed his opinion, and the ques- tion went around the class, hardly one getting it right. He was the keenest observer I ever saw. I think he no- ticed and numbered every button on our coats. A friend of mine was walking with him through Cleve- land one day when Garfield stopped and darted down a cellarway, asking his companion to follow, and briefly pausing to explain himself. The sign " Saws and Files " was over the door, and in the depths was heard a regular clicking sound. "I think this fellow is cutting files," said he, "and I have never seen a file cut." Down they went, and, sure enough, there was a man recutting an old file, and they stayed ten minutes and found out all about the process. 140 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. The Way Garfield Got His Military Education-Using Poles, Blocks, and Grains of Coffee for Drill Purposes. It is a well-known fact that Gen. Garfield never had any militarj education j^revious to his taking command of the Forty-second Eegiment, Ohio Yohmteer Infantry. But the thorough disposition which he had cultivated, both as student and teacher, was with him here. He purchased at the first opportunity a copy of some book on military tactics, and immediately inaugurated an entirely original method of learning the movements of bodies of men. He prepared a large number of blocks, each representing columns of soldiers, and then went through with all the various movements described in the books, often working at the various problems until nearly morning. When he had quite well mastered the rudiments in this way, he began to drill his officers by means of skeleton companies, as he called them. He had prepared long poles, and, giving the ends of these into the hands of the men who were beinn; instructed, the marches, counter-marches and various parades would be gone through with wonderful accuracy and dispatch. " I have carried poles in this way many times," said Capt. C. E. Henry, one of his old officers, " and, if I do say so, we learned the movemeuts as fast as the men of any other regiment, even though the others might have been presided over by West Point officers. " Finally, he mislaid his blocks, and adopted grains of coffee, or corn, and still carried on his military maneuvers. " I have heard West Point officers say that he was as thorough as any officer they ever saw in his knowledge of the common principles of military aff;iirs. I never knew him to make a mistake in giving an order, or to hesitate in giving it." MISCELLANEOUS. 141 The General Taking His Stand on Fugitive Slaves -A Story of the "War. A member of Gen. Sherman's staff is authority for the following incident, which is related as nearly as possible in his words: " One day I noticed a fugitive slave come rushing into camp with a bloody head, and apparently frightened almost to death. He had only passed my tent a moment when a regular bully of a fellow came riding up, and, with a volley of oaths, began to ask after his ' nigger.' " Gen. Garfield was not present, and he passed on to the division-commander. This division-commander was a sym- pathizer with the theory that fugitives should be returned to their masters, and that the Union soldiers should be made the instruments for returning them. He accordingly wrote a mandatory order to Gen. Garfield, in whose com. mand the darky was supposed to be hiding, telling him to hunt out and deliver over the property of the outraged citizen. " 1 stated the case as fully as I could to Gen. Garfield before handing him the order, but did not color my state- ment in any way. He took the order, and deliberately wrote on it the following indorsement: " ' I respectfully, but positively, decline to allow my command to search for, or deliver up, any fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here for quite another purpose. The command is open, and no obstacles will be placed in the way of the search.' " I read the indorsement, and was frightened. I expected that, if returned, the result would be that the General would be court-naartialed. I told him my fears. He simply re]:)lied: '"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Right is right, and I do not propose to mince matters at all. My soldiers are here for far other purposes than hunting and returning fugitive slaves. 142 CHESTER A. ARTHUR. CHESTER A. ARTHTJE. A Sketch of the Life of the Republican Candidate for Vice-President. Chester Allan Arthur is a native of Vermont, having ibeen born at Fairiield, Franklin County, October 15th, 11830. He was the oldest son ot the Eev. William A^rthur, D. D., a Baptist clergyman, and his mother's maiden name was Malvina Stone. His father was a native of the north of Ireland, and a graduate of the College of Belfast. He was a noted scholar and author of several books on philology. The subject of this sketch was fitted for college mainly under his father's instructions, but also studied at Green- wich, "Washington County, N. Y. He entered Union College, and graduated therefrom at the age of eighteen with high honors. He began the study of law soon after leaving college, in the office of the Hon. E. D. Culver, a former member of Congress from Pennsylvania., who was prominent in the anti-slavery struggles of thirty years ago. Gen. Arthur was admitted to the Bar in 1853, and began practice in New York. As a young man he early took great interest in political A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY. 143 matters, and bore an active part in the Free-Soil agitation. He was a delegate from King's County (Brookljm) to the first Republican State Convention held in New York, and gained considerable reputation from his connection with the litigation growing out of slavery and the rights of colored citizens. He was attorney in the celebrated Lemon slave case, in which William M. Evarts acted as counsel, with Charles < J'Conor as opposing counsel for the slaveholder, Jonathan Lemon, of Virginia, who, on his way to Texas, brought slaves with him into New York. This case, involving some of the most important princij)les of personal liberties and the comities of the States, was in the courts for many years, and was finally decided by the Court of Appeals against the slaveholder. Gen. Arthur prepared all the papers in the case and sued out the wi'it of habeas corpus l)y which the case got into court. He was also attorney in the case involving the right of the black man to ride in the cars, in which he was also successful in the Court of las t resort. He continued in the practice of his profession with good success until the breakino- out of the war. Durino^ Gov. Morgan's administration he was for the first two years of the war Inspector and Quartermaster-General of New York. In this position he displayed remarkable organiz- ing capacity in placing the New York troops in the field, and gained a high reputation as an officer. Upon Seymour's election as Governor, Gen. Arthur re- turned to his practice, in which he continued until his ap- ])ointment as Collector of the port of New York, in Novem- ber, 1871. This appointment came to him unsolicited, and was an entire surprise. He discharged the duties of the place with signal ability, and to the entire acceptance of the commercial public. Business men of all parties peti- 144 CHESTER A. ARTHUR. tioned for liis retention in office, and lie was reappointed in 1875, holding the position until his removal by President Hayes under circumstances with which the public is familiar. He is a portly, middle-aged gentleman, with gray hairs and pleasant features, social and amiable, fund of a good dinner, and at home is agreeable company; quite frequently seen on public occasions in Kew York, and very active, but never obtrusive; altogether a public-spirited citizen and typical New York business man; rather slow of speech, but good in substance, and is one of Gen. Grant's intimate iriends and admirers. Mr. Arthur is now engaged in the practice of his profes- sion. He has two children — a son of 14 and a daughter of 8 years of age. He had the misfortune to lose his devoted wife last January, whose death was sTuiden and unexpected. Mrs. Arthur was a daughter of the late Capt. Herndon, of the United States Navy, the intrepid explorer of the river Amazon, who was lost at sea while in command of the steamship Central America on her trip between Havana and New York in 1857. 1 1 \ s ^^ /• i ^ k i :^ r f i^i :r:f<:^^%r'x M4:,MM$^^m%wtfM^V^:i :''>ii<&i^i::^i%v>mif^