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A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 
 
 TO 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 
 
 FROM 
 
 The Literary Society of Washington 
 
 TO ITS LATE PRESIDENT 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 Proceedings of a meeting of the Society held 
 
 November 19 1881 
 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 1882 
 
PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the 
 1 Literary Society held on Monday, November 7, 
 [881, the death of James Abram Garfield, President 
 of the Society, was announced by the Vice-President. 
 
 It was unanimously resolved by the Committee to 
 hold a special meeting of the Society in memory of 
 its late President on the evening of November 19, the 
 fiftieth anniversary of his birth. 
 
 On the appointed evening the Society assembled 
 at the residence of its Vice-President, Dr. Gallaudet, 
 on Kendall Green. There were also present a num- 
 ber of invited guests, including prominent represent- 
 atives of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial 
 Departments of the Government. 
 
At nine o'clock the meeting was called to order, and 
 the exercises were opened with the following addre 
 by the Vice-President : 
 
 Address of Vice-President Gallaudi 
 
 " How pure at heart, how sound at head ; 
 With what divine affection bold, 
 Should be the man whose thought would h 
 An hour's communion with the dead.'' 
 
 Felloiv members of the Literary Society. 
 
 I need not tell you that we arc assembled foi "an 
 hour's communion" witli one whom we delighted t<> 
 honor while he was yet among us. 
 
 That we have, towards him who is gone, that purity 
 at heart, that soundness at head, that boldness ol 
 divine affection which the poet demands of those who 
 would hold such communion, I believe. 
 
 We are here as loving heirs entering upon the 
 possession of a precious herita. 
 
 Our friend is no longer ours "to have or t<> hold,'* 
 but he is still ours "to remember;" and it is for us to 
 enjoy, through the years that remain, the rich legacy 
 he has left us in the record of a life, all the aims of 
 which challenge our highest admiration. 
 
 Though we cannot have, hereafter, his presence in 
 our meetings as a fountain ever flowing with refresh- 
 ment to mind and heart, the memory of his true 
 
eloquence will linger, and in imagination we shall 
 often see and hear him, as on those occasions 
 
 " When forth 
 He sent from his full lungs his mighty voice, 
 And words came like a fall of winter snow." 
 
 With the public life of our late President, the mem- 
 bers of the Literary Society, as such, have little con- 
 cern. 
 
 It will be for others to tell of his work as a teacher, 
 to recount his deeds in arms, to describe his career as 
 a legislator, and to record the events of his brief term 
 as Chief Magistrate of the Nation. 
 
 Our privilege is to fill a page in his history which 
 may show him to have been a man of letters: a student 
 of books as well as of men, a promoter of the fine arts, 
 as well as the arts of war and of government. 
 
 Before entering upon a consideration of the char- 
 acter of our late President from these points of view, 
 it will not, I trust, be thought out of place to present, 
 briefly, the story of his connection with our Society. 
 This I have been requested to prepare, and I beg 
 leave to place it, as my humble offering, on the shrine 
 before which we now stand with reverent heads and 
 loving hearts. 
 
 General Garfield's membership in our Society 
 covered a period of five years and seven months. The 
 day of the mouth on which he entered our ranks was 
 the same as that which marks the days of his birth and 
 
death. He was announced as a member at Mrs. Ad- 
 miral Dahlgren's, on the 19th of February, 1876, at the 
 same time with General Albert J. Myer, Mr. Char';. 
 Nordhoff, and Miss Annie W. Story. 
 
 The literary exercises on that occasion consisted 
 a paper on the Life, Character, and Art Work of the 
 late Horatio Stone, by Miss E. B. Johnston, an essay on 
 the Indian Character and Characteristics, by Dr. 
 Elliott Cones, a dissertation on An and Art Techni< 
 by Mr. Theodor Kaufmann, and a lecture upon Mole- 
 cules and the Molecular Theory, by Prof. Wm. 
 Harkness. 
 
 The pressure of General Garfield's public duties did 
 not allow him to attend all the meetings of the Society, 
 and during the winter of [8; 1 as able t<> be 
 
 present so rarely that a note was sent him by the 
 Secretary, Mrs. Long, calling his attention to Arti* 
 XII of the Constitution, relating to the forfeiture <>l 
 membership by unexplained absent om three con- 
 
 secutive meetings, and inquiring if he desired to hold 
 his place as a member. The following repl\ was re- 
 ceived : 
 
 House of Representativi 
 
 February 8. 
 
 Dear Mrs. Long : 
 
 Your note of the nth inst. came duly to hand. I 
 greatly regret that overwork has kept me from the 
 meetings of the Society. I have earnestly desired 
 
to attend them, but I am unwilling to be an ob- 
 stacle to its progress, and unless I can give it more 
 attention in the future, I think the Society had better 
 drop me from its rolls. Please inform me when and 
 where the next meeting will be held, and, if possible, 
 I will be there either for apology or resignation. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 J. A. GARFIELD. 
 Mrs. R. Cary Long, 
 
 1530 I street. 
 
 At the next meeting, which was held at Dr. N. S. 
 Lincoln's a week later, General Garfield was present 
 and made some interesting comments on a paper by 
 Mr. Peter Baumgras, concerning the habits of the 
 aeronaut spider ; and thereafter his presence at meet- 
 ings was sufficiently frequent to secure him an im- 
 munity from further discipline. 
 
 General Garfield is recorded as having spoken at 
 eleven meetings : and he was present on many occa- 
 sions when he took no part in the discussions. Three 
 times the Society met at his house, and during the 
 first year of his presidency, when, owing to some ad- 
 verse circumstances the successful continuance of 
 the Society was a matter of no little uncertainty, he 
 showed his interest in its welfare by presiding at six 
 o( the meetings. 
 
 The first occasion on which General Garfield's voice 
 was heard in the formal exercises of the Society was 
 
8 
 
 at Judge S. W. Johnston's, on the evening of April 29, 
 1876, when he read some extracts from Byron's 
 "Waterloo," the present speaker rendering them in 
 the language of signs at the same time. 
 
 On the 13th of May following, General Garfield 
 entertained the Society at his residence The ques- 
 tion discussed at this meeting \\ 'Who were the 
 five chief promoters of American independent 
 The subject was debated by Mrs. Long, Messrs. 
 Garfield, Chief-Justice Drake, J. Q. Howard, and 
 Dr. C. C. Cox. 
 
 On the evening of Washington's birthday, in the 
 year 1879, one of the most interesting meetings of the 
 Society was held at the residence of Mrs. Admiral 
 Dahlgren. On this occasion the principal feature was 
 an address by General Garfield on G< 1 \A hir 
 ton, in which the speaker confined himself chiefly to 
 consideration of the wonderful character <>t the revolu- 
 tionary career of the Father of his Country, taken in 
 connection with the preceding circumstances ol his 
 life. 
 
 Four weeks later, on the 226. of March, the Society 
 met for the second time at General Garfield's. The 
 literary entertainment for the evening was furnished 
 by Dr. C. C. Cox, who read an article on the Latin 
 hymns of the church, giving original translations of 
 several. 
 
 General Garfield commented on this paper in a most 
 
discriminating manner, showing his lively and appre- 
 ciative interest in the classics. 
 
 It was on the 16th of December, 1879, at a meeting 
 of the Executive Committee, held at Mrs. F. W. 
 Lander's, that General Garfield was elected President 
 of the Society. 
 
 The Committee consisted of Mrs. Lander, Miss E. B. 
 Johnston, Dr. J. M. Toner, Dr. C. W. Hoffman, and 
 Col. I. Edwards Clarke, all of whom were present at 
 the meeting. 
 
 On being informed of his election by one of the 
 lady members of the Committee, General Garfield ex- 
 pressed doubt as to the propriety of his accepting the 
 office, for he feared that his many engagements would 
 prevent his fulfilling properly the duties of the posi- 
 tion. But on being assured that his acceptance of the 
 presidency was a matter of great moment to the 
 Society at that particular juncture, he consented to 
 serve, and promised to do all in his power to advance 
 the Society's interests. Upon which the lady member 
 of the committee, who was communicating with him, 
 laughingly remarked : " Well, General, this thing of 
 being President is a matter of habit. I would not 
 bribe you, but, by way of reward, I will have you 
 nominated for President of the United States at the 
 next convention of your party." 
 
 The first literary meeting of the Society, for the 
 season of 1879-80, was held at Mrs. F. W. Lander's, 
 on the 27th of December. 
 
IO 
 
 General Garfield presided, and on taking the chair 
 spoke of the value of such associations as ours in keep- 
 ing up a love for literature, and in forcing us, as it 
 were, to renew our vows. 
 
 He said, further, that for himself, he had found, in 
 the reunions of this Society, great pleasure and com- 
 fort. From the busy whirl of public affairs, in which 
 he was compelled to move from day to day, he can 
 the " Literary," as men return from their wan 
 in the world to the homes of their childh 
 
 The literary exercises at this meeting were, a 
 entitled " First Cables," by General Benjamin rd, 
 
 three poems by Mrs. R. Cary Long, and an ess; oil 
 the "Gesture Language of Mankind," by Col. Garrick 
 Mallery. 
 
 At the second meeting for the n, held at 
 
 residence of Judge Johnston, on the [oth of J 
 1880, General Garfield presided. 
 
 The subject for consideration was " The > 
 merits of the Prose Writers and Poets of America" 
 
 At the commencement of the discussion, the Pr< 
 dent announced his intention to make som 
 at the close, but the time allotted to debate \v 
 than filled by the members of the Society, leaving him 
 no opportunity to speak. 
 
 The third meeting for the season was held 
 General Garfield's residence on the 24th of Januai 
 the host for the evening occupying the chair. 
 
 The literary exercises consisted of a translation from 
 
II 
 
 the German of a curious story entitled, The Greatest 
 Man in the World, by Mrs. Chapman Coleman, and a 
 paper on The Poetry of the Deaf, by the present 
 speaker. 
 
 The President made interesting comments on both 
 these papers. 
 
 The fourth occasion on which General Garfield pre- 
 sided was at the residence of the speaker, on the 
 evening of February 21, 1880. 
 
 The discussion, which was upon incidents in the 
 history of General Washington, was closed by the 
 President. In the course of his remarks General Gar- 
 field called attention to the remarkable fecundity of 
 Virginia in great men about the Revolutionary period, 
 and named seven of her sons who were eminent in 
 various capacities, viz: Patrick Henry as orator, Lee as 
 cavalry leader, Madison as constitutional expounder, 
 Marshall as jurist, Mason as parliamentary debater, 
 Jefferson as philosophical statesman, and Washington 
 as soldier, statesman, and patriot. 
 
 General Garfield suggested that an inquiry as to 
 the causes of this unusual wealth of talent, found in 
 one State at one epoch, might furnish the Society an 
 interesting subject for discussion at some future meet- 
 ing. 
 
 Those who were present at Judge Johnston's on the 
 evening of February 26, 1881, will remember what 
 pleasure and profit the consideration of this question 
 afforded the Society. 
 
12 
 
 General Garfield presided for the fifth time at the 
 residence of Governor Win. Claflin, on the evening 
 of the 3d of April, 1880. 
 
 At that meeting a paper by Airs. Claflin on The 
 Life and Character of John Greenleaf Whit tier was 
 read, and the question, What desirable social elements 
 are endangered by a too rapid advance of civilization 
 was discussed. 
 
 In closing the debate the President referred to an 
 occasion when, being hindered for some hours on a 
 railway train by a heavy fall of snow, he was led to 
 reflect as to what was to be done, or had been done, 
 with the leisure made available to mankind by the 
 many labor-saving inventions of the present century. 
 
 From these remarks came the suggestion of a sub- 
 ject, the discussion of which, it will be remembei 
 occupied the evening at Mr. Charles Nordhoft's, on the 
 15th of January, of the present year. 
 
 Our late President occupied the chair for the last 
 time at Dr. C. W. Hoffman's residence, on the evening 
 of May 1 st, 1880. 
 
 The night was warm, and the windows were open. 
 At the conclusion of the reading of the minutes of the 
 previous meeting the sound of lively music in the 
 street interfered with the proceedings. Immediately 
 some one remarked u It is the circus." General Gar- 
 field, with that boyish impulsiveness of manner which 
 was not unusual with him, exclaimed, "The circus? 
 come, then, friends, we will suspend for a few minutes. 
 
13 
 
 and go and see it pass by." So the Society crowded 
 the windows and front steps until the circus had 
 passed. 
 
 The literary exercises for that evening consisted of 
 two poems, by Mrs. R. Cary Long, one a translation 
 from the French of Victor Hugo, and an essay on the 
 " Relation of Poetry to Art," by Mr. E. H. Miller. 
 
 The President made pertinent remarks on all the 
 literary contributions, and recited a poem by Mrs. 
 Browning, of which, he said, he was reminded by Mrs. 
 Long's translation from Victor Hugo. 
 
 The record of General Garfield's presence with the 
 Society would be incomplete without mention of the 
 reception given in his honor by Miss E. B. Johnston, 
 at the residence of her brother, on the 17th of June, 
 
 1880. 
 
 Those who were present on that occasion, ever to be 
 remembered, will not soon forget with what simplicity 
 and modesty he bore himself, and how plainly he ex- 
 pressed distrust of his fitness for the high position in 
 which his party had placed him. 
 
 Nor will the memory soon fade away of the cordial 
 warmth with which he met his old friends on that day, 
 and the evident pleasure he felt at being able to come 
 from the heated arena of politics into what he was 
 wont to call his literary home. 
 
 The pressure of his official duties as President of 
 the United States, and the event of Mrs. Garfield's ill- 
 ness, which followed his inauguration by only a few 
 
14 
 
 weeks, prevented General Garfield from attendir 
 any of the meetings of the Society during the last sea- 
 son. But assurances of his continued interest were 
 not lacking. Flowers were sent from the Bxecutive 
 Mansion on more than one occasion to attest his re- 
 membrance of the Society. 
 
 To one of our lady members he said, not many days 
 before the final meeting for the season, at Chief-Jus- 
 tice Drake's, on the 2ist of May: "I will try and be 
 there — I think I might come home- and addin 
 
 " It will be the appropriate thing tor the President of 
 the United States to preside when the character and 
 services of Lafayette are di ed." Then, a 
 
 pressing his great regret that he had not been able t<> 
 attend the recent meetings, he s.iid : "You have no 
 idea of the burden of each hour — I think of the S< 
 as a rest." 
 
 It is not easy to measure the extenl or weigh! of the 
 influence which has been and which will ' ed 
 
 on our Society by the membership of General Garfield. 
 
 The magnetism of his personal presence at a meet- 
 ing was sufficient to gild a dull hour into brilliam 
 
 The utterances of his thought upon any subji I 
 flowed as from a full resenoir, and were invariably 
 stimulating and suggesti- 
 
 His example, as one who, in spite of the many - 
 mands of public life, still found time to work as a 
 student, and to keep himself fresh in general litera- 
 
*5 
 
 ture, was a standing rebuke to many a less ardent de- 
 votee of letters. 
 
 Marked and strong as was the impress of his in- 
 fluence on the current of thought and action in the 
 Society while he remained a member, no prophetic 
 vision is needed to foresee that the future results of 
 his connection with it may exceed many fold those of 
 the past. 
 
 The fact in its history of having once had such a 
 President must surely incite members to strive for the 
 highest possible standard of literary excellence in 
 their individual work, as well as in the work of the 
 Society. 
 
 And if the result of such effort should be to secure 
 for the Society a recognition in the world of letters as 
 an organization well deserving to bear the name it 
 has assumed, then will he be honored, in deed, to 
 whose memory we would give all possible honor in 
 word and thought to-night. 
 
 At the conclusion of the Vice-President's address, Mr. Theodore 
 F. Dwight, the Secretary of the Society, announced Mr. Ainsworth R. 
 Spofford as the next speaker. 
 
 THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER AND METHODS OE 
 
 GARFIELD. 
 
 By AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD. 
 
 I have been requested to give to the Society some 
 account of the intellectual life of our late President, 
 
i6 
 
 the books lie read, the subjects of thought which in- 
 terested him, with his methods of study and of prepa- 
 ration for his public utterances. 
 
 Among the men whom I have known whose lives 
 were engrossed in public affairs, President Garfield 
 was one of the most extensive readers. Not that he 
 absolutely travelled through more books than some 
 others, but he used a multitude of authors by way 
 hints, suggestions, or authorities. It was the habit of 
 his mind, apparently very early formed, t< aerali 
 to seek for great leading principles, and to push his 
 investigations of a subject until he had covered all the 
 ground that time permitted, before putting his own 
 ideas into form. To this end he read rapidly, seizing 
 with quick intuition the portions of a book which had 
 anything to his purpose, and throwing aside as quickly 
 those which yielded nothing. His perceptive faculth 
 were of the highest order; his mind was comprehen- 
 sive, and his tendency was to take the largest view of 
 every subject. His fair-mindedness made him reco 
 nize the merit often of opposing views, and his unfail- 
 ing courtesy and suavity of manner made him a gen- 
 eral favorite. He was never chary of asking tance 
 in laying out the materials for any work he had to do. 
 He made no mystery of what he was about ; concealed 
 nothing of his purposes or methods; drew freely upon 
 his friends for suggestions; used his family, secre- 
 taries, and librarians to look up authorities, or, if he 
 found the time, he looked them up himself. When 
 
17 
 
 he had examined the field as thoroughly as he was 
 able, he organized his subject in his own mind, and, 
 if the speech was to be in Congress, he seldom wrote 
 more than a few of its leading outlines, leaving the 
 substance, as well as the diction, to the occasion. He 
 sometimes memorized, but many of his finest utter- 
 ances were struck out in the white heat of debate. He 
 had a genuine love of discussion, and the activity of 
 his intellect was such as to give him rare advantages 
 in extemporaneous discourse. You, who have heard 
 him speak, recall the vivid force of his utterance, the 
 solidity of his matter, the clear logic of his reasoning, 
 the occasional beauty of his imagery or illustrations, 
 the sympathetic and persuasive tones of his voice, and 
 the electric energy with which he marched through 
 his subject with the bearing of a master. His audi- 
 ences, though composed, as regards most of his public 
 utterances, of the most difficult — not to say critical — 
 elements in America, (a body of lawyers, orators, and 
 politicians,) were often held spellbound to the close. 
 No man who has spoken in that forum during the last 
 quarter of a century has succeeded better in holding 
 that proverbially unwilling and often impervious organ, 
 known as "the ear of the House." No man who ever 
 spoke in that trying auditorium has more impressed 
 his auditors as fulfilling the Demosthenean rule of 
 eloquence — that its first, its second, and its third con- 
 dition is earnestness. 
 
 Conjoined with this intensity, both of conviction and 
 
i8 
 
 of expression, was a uniform and unfailing courtesy to- 
 wards his opponents, which marked the inherent fair- 
 mindedness of the man. Amidst all the animosities of 
 the fiercest political warfare he always kept his tem- 
 per. He kept, too, in a degree which is too rare among 
 public men, the respect and the friendship of his 
 political adversaries. That gentle suavity of demeanor 
 which combined with his evident sincerity to make 
 every one his friend, made him a chivalrous opponent 
 and a generous foe. He impugned no man's motives ; 
 he scorned the petty personalities of debate ; respect- 
 ing himself, he had an abiding respect for the honesty 
 and rectitude of purpose of those who differed from 
 him. Though an ardent partisan, believing in the 
 necessity and recognising the benefits of parties in the 
 State, he would not resist the recognition of merit in 
 opposing views, and his nature was far too catholic to 
 be bound by the blind and dogged bigotry of party. 
 Hence he sometimes drew down upon himself the cen- 
 sure of his more radical brethren, for yielding points to 
 the adversary. The facts were that Garfield had the 
 insight to see, and the honesty to acknowledge, that his 
 party was fallible; that it might make, and had made 
 mistakes, and that, to persist in defending errors, was 
 not the road either to truth or to permanent party 
 ascendancy. He had the manliness to go before the 
 Supreme Court in March, 1866, in defence of the in- 
 defeasible right of the citizen to civil process and jury 
 trial in States which were not the immediate theatre 
 
19 
 
 of war. His argument in the case of Milligan and 
 others, tried by court-martial in Indiana, and denied 
 the benefit of habeas corpus, was a cogent and power- 
 ful appeal in behalf of the muniments of civil liberty, 
 against the violence and the passion of party. The 
 epoch was near the flood-tide of the great Union senti- 
 ment which swept away all barriers, and crushed out, 
 not only the rebellion, but every apology or extenua- 
 tion of it that found voice in any part of the land. To 
 be a Copperhead or the defender of Copperheads was 
 to run the risk of unpopularity or of ostracism. Gar- 
 field ran that risk, in obedience to his sense of duty, 
 and his calm and manly plea, fortified as it was by the 
 best precedents and the most impressive dicta of 
 writers on public law, and closing with that classic 
 peroration in which he invoked the judges to erect the 
 shrine of impartial justice in the Capitol, was sustained 
 by the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court. 
 His course on this occasion, being as he was the repre- 
 sentative of the most intensly radical anti-slavery dis- 
 trict in the Union, showed him capable of seeing both 
 sides of a question. It provoked much hostile criti- 
 cism, and he told his constituents that he did it "in 
 defence of what appeared to me a most vital and im- 
 portant principle : that in no part of our civil com- 
 munity must the military be exalted above the civil 
 authority." It is to the credit of his constituents that 
 they honored him for his independence, and returned 
 him continuously to Congress until he was chosen 
 
20 
 
 Senator. In this important case he neither expected 
 nor received any compensation. Those who have 
 found Garfield guilty of a fatal want of moral coura 
 would do well to study, under the fierce light of the 
 time when it was done, what he did on that occasion. 
 
 The history of Garfield's mind was a continuous 
 growth, from very crude beginnings until lie became 
 one of the best equipped men in public life. His 
 early culture was so deficient that, when Ik- began 
 with a fixed resolve to get an education, he had many 
 obstacles to overcome. But he mastered them all, and 
 was an eager student of books before he had yet 
 learned their true and highest uses. As he wrote of 
 Abraham Lincoln, so was it true of himself: 'The few- 
 books that came within his reach he devoured with 
 the divine hunger of genius." When away from dic- 
 tionaries and cyclopaedias, he would make notes of all 
 the words and allusions which he did not comprehend 
 in the books he read, and looked them up as soon as 
 opportunity could be found. His early experience as 
 a teacher helped him, as it has helped many othei 
 both to acquire and to arrange clearly his know! 
 for immediate use. He wrote copiously at all periods 
 of his life, and at college in [856 he was chosen one of 
 the editors of the "Williams Quarterly," in which 
 appeared essays from his pen on the Province of His- 
 tory, the writings of the German lyric poet, Korner, a 
 parody on Tennyson, etc. He was also elected Presi- 
 dent of the Philologian Society — a debating club in 
 
21 
 
 which the students exercised their powers, arguing 
 many of the questions that divided opinion in history, 
 literature, politics, and social life. 
 
 His early style, before he acquired that refined taste 
 which conies from familiarity with the classic models, 
 and especially from the Greek, was somewhat crude 
 and declamatory. In fact, he never quite got over a 
 certain exuberance and effusion which came from his 
 large, free, gushing nature and ardent temperament. 
 He strove to check this tendency, and in sober compo- 
 sition he succeeded well in doing so. He was con- 
 scious of the defects which spoil most of our public 
 speaking for any permanent effect or place in literature. 
 But he was conscious, too, of the possession of great 
 faculties for impressing men, and he passionately loved 
 the power and the opportunities of the public orator. 
 Given a theme of patriotic interest, and a great sym- 
 pathetic audience, and he delighted in the exercise of 
 his gift of speech, as a strong man to run a race. 
 There he would let out the whole volume of that sono- 
 rous voice, whose tones swayed and stirred the audi- 
 ence like the sound of a trumpet, while the sledge- 
 hammer blows of his powerful left arm "(almost his 
 only gesture) enforced his utterances. The upturned 
 sea of faces before him gazed with intent look, almost 
 as absorbed as he, while the fervid orator, with head 
 thrown far back — a head like that of the Olympian 
 j 0V e — drove home the strong points of his argument. 
 Then would come, ever and anon, a volley of applause ; 
 
22 
 
 and when he closed, the ringing shouts and cheers 
 broke forth, for the multitude idolized Garfield. 
 
 Of the effect of much stump speaking upon his 
 modes of thinking, Garfield thus wrote to a friend : 
 
 " I have no doubt that it induces a looseness and 
 superficiality of thought and an extravagance of ex- 
 pression ; but, on the other hand, it has some compen- 
 sations." 
 
 It will readily be gathered, by those who know the 
 exacting nature of public station at Washington, that 
 Garfield had little time for discursive reading. Yet he 
 was never without a quantity of books on hand, upon 
 which he drew at odd intervals. When travelling he 
 generally took a book with him, and in the vacations 
 of Congress he read and studied much. While the 
 majority of the works for which lie drew upon the 
 Library were books of fact and of reference, he had a 
 wide range and a catholic taste in the realm of litera- 
 ture that lay outside ot these. He read, first and last, 
 a great deal of history, and was nearly as familiar with 
 the history of England as with that of our own country. 
 Biographies he did not specially affect, but read only 
 a few, and those of the great leading name For 
 mere narratives of travel he cared but little, and sea 
 voyages lost their charm quite early for him. But for 
 the researches and discoveries on the sites of ancient 
 cities — Troy, Ephesus, Cyprus, and Mycenae — he had 
 a keen appetite. Of metaphysics proper he read little 
 or nothing; but the masters of thinking, who apply 
 
23 
 
 logic and the science of mind to great social and polit- 
 ical problems, lie held in high regard. For Carlyle 
 he once had a great enthusiasm, but in later years he 
 read him little. Emerson he read and re-read with 
 ever fresh admiration. He was interested in natural 
 science, and loved to trace out natural laws, in the 
 genesis and growth of plants, in geology, in heredity, 
 etc. He studied political economy much, and had 
 read nearly all the leading writers. He was one of 
 the few men in politics who had an}- clear conception 
 of the functions of money and the laws of finance. 
 He was interested in genealogy and in his own family 
 history. I remember his satisfaction at finding in the 
 Visitation of Middlesex that there was one Abraham 
 Garfield enrolled two centuries ago among the vast 
 population of London. He delighted in tracing out 
 etymologies, and in running words home to their roots 
 in Greek, Latin, German, or Anglo-Saxon. His own 
 name he found to be from field and the Saxon Gaer, 
 a field- watcher, which, freely rendered, is "a wide- 
 awake farmer," and such, in the estimation of his rural 
 neighbors at Mentor, Garfield certainly was. One of 
 his latest searches, in June last, was to trace through 
 various town histories of Massachusetts his own ances- 
 try, with its collateral branches, and that of his wife. 
 
 His taste for the classics, early imbibed, appeared to 
 lose no zest with the advance of age or of cares. He 
 was never too busy to quote Horace, or to come to the 
 library after a half-remembered passage in Virgil. 
 
24 
 
 In the midst of one of the busiest sessions of Congress, 
 he struck off one day " in the rough," as he termed it, 
 a metrical translation of the fine ode of Horace, "To 
 the ship which carried Virgil to Athens." I can give 
 only a \ erse or two: 
 
 .iv the powerful p Cyprus, 
 
 may the brother! H .i.-n,to»i wt 
 
 • temp. 
 R . :ning all others, .save only l.r. 
 
 •' Guide thee, 
 To Attica's . \ -gil trusted CO tl 
 
 I pray thee restore him, in safer) ! him, 
 
 i saving him, save me the il." 
 
 lie used frequently to lament his failure to pur- 
 chase, from want of money, a fine set of Lemaire's 
 
 Latin Classics, which he saw on one of the quays 
 of Paris on occasion of his only visit to Europe. 
 
 One of his special studies, taken up by him in ri 
 and pursued with his customary zeal, was an investi- 
 gation as to the Sabine farm of Horace, where the 
 great poet raised wine and olives, its locality, soil, and 
 other characteristics. This he pursued through many 
 volumes, gleaning everything that could throw the 
 faintest light upon the subject. At another time he- 
 made a careful study of Goethe and his leading ecu- 
 temporaries in Germany, and wrote out for himself 
 (not for publication) an extended sketch of the intel- 
 lectual life of Europe at the beginning and at the 
 close of Goethe's career. 
 
25 
 
 His favorite poet, next to Shakespeare and Horace, 
 was Tennyson ; and next, I think, Elizabeth Brown- 
 ing. Of the best novels he never tired, and his 
 prime favorites he read over and over again. I well 
 remember his questioning the dictum of some critic 
 that George Eliot's Romola was the most perfect work 
 of fiction ever written. When asked his own prefer- 
 ence, he unhesitatingly gave the palm to Thackeray, 
 but could not quite make up his mind which of that 
 author's works was the finest as a master-piece of fiction. 
 He intensely enjoyed the exquisite fun of Dickens — 
 unlike the late Charles Sumner, who seldom read a 
 novel, and had almost no sense of humor. Garfield 
 has been sometimes compared with Sumner as a man 
 of letters, but between the two men there were far 
 more striking contrasts than points of resemblance. 
 
 Garfield's library motto was " inter folia fructus" — 
 fruit among the leaves; and a rare gatherer of the 
 sweet fruits of literature was he. His interest in 
 libraries was great, and he made the Library at the 
 Capitol the recipient of his large annual collection of 
 pamphlets. After he was President he continued his 
 visits to the Library, always accompanied by his wife, 
 whose intellectual gifts were a noble complement to 
 his own. His entrance into the Library, no matter on 
 how serious an errand, was always like a gleam of 
 sunshine. 
 
 Of the writings of Garfield, the most numerous 
 were his speeches and occasional addresses. Many 
 
26 
 
 of these bear the marks of the most careful prepara- 
 tion. He was ever most solicitous to verify every 
 fact and quotation, and, after speaking ex tempore, he 
 was anxious until he had carefully corrected the 
 proofs. Among the notably excellent of his addre! i s 
 were his speech at the Burns festival in Washington ; 
 the Commemorative address on Decoration Day at 
 Arlington Cemetery; his .jth of July oration in 1N60 
 at Ravenna, Ohio ; his Faneuil Hall speech in 1873; 
 his address before the American Social Science 0- 
 
 ciation ; his eulogy on Gen. George II. Thomas at 
 Cleveland in 1S70; his discourse on College Edu< 
 tion at Hiram, Ohio ; his address on the Future of the 
 Republic, and his speech on the occasion of the 
 acceptance by Congress of the statues from Massa- 
 chusetts of Winthrop and Adams in the National 
 Memorial Hall. Even into that dreary desert of 
 obituary addresses which burden the I ressional 
 Record, Garfield threw a gleam of human interest 
 by his fine eulogies pronounced upon Starkweather 
 and Morton. His contributions to the Atlantic 
 Monthly and to the North American A',: 
 become widely known. One of his articles but little 
 known is the elaborate paper upon the census, ancient 
 and modern, contributed by him to the first volume of 
 Johnsons Universal Cyclopaedia in 1872. This is a 
 performance which would do credit to the most care- 
 ful scholar. 
 
 Out of the writings of our departed brother let us 
 
27 
 
 take a few — a very few — examples of his thought, 
 which are here jotted down quite at random : 
 
 " Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture." 
 
 " The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have 
 been greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some 
 work relating to others." 
 
 " If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written 
 upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old." 
 
 " True art is but the antitype of nature — the embodiment of discovered 
 beauty in utility." 
 
 " There is nothing to me in this world so inspiring as the possibilities 
 that lie locked up in the head and breast of a young man." 
 
 " The possession of great powers no doubt carries with it a contempt 
 for mere external show." 
 
 " The right of private judgment is absolute in every American citizen." 
 
 " We have happily escaped the dogma of the divine right of kings. 
 Let us not fall into the equally pernicious error that multitude is divine 
 because it is a multitude." 
 
 '• Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In 
 legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be understood that 
 we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws." 
 
 " Ideas are the only things in this universe that are immortal." 
 
 " There is nothing on all the earth that you and I can do for the dead. 
 They do not need us, but forever and forever more we need them." 
 
 " We no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of 
 Adam, but to bad nursing and ignorance." 
 
 " Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up." 
 
 To sum up, for the alluring theme must not tempt 
 me on, I think you will concur with me in the judg- 
 ment that there have been few characters, indeed, 
 who have united in themselves so much at once of the 
 
28 
 
 strength and the sweetness of human nature. A man 
 of marked individuality — of robust intellect as well as 
 of robust physical frame, he yet had rare refinements 
 of taste, and rare gentleness of temper. The only 
 faults that he ever had came from his too great softness 
 of nature. There were many who envied him his 
 splendid animal spirits, his sunny temperament, his 
 frank, hearty, and cheerful way — in short, what seemed 
 to be his genuine delight in living, [f sometimes in 
 later years, when worn down with care and severe 
 labor, he was weary or melancholy, he quickly re- 
 covered himself. He delighted in the fresh, un- 
 hackneyed ways of children, and in the perennial 
 charm of youth. Even in the midst of that fearfully 
 trying ordeal of the Presidential campaign of [88 . 
 when the venom of a thousand Guiteaus poured from a 
 thousand pens upon him, and the long campaign of 
 slander bore witness to the unutterable brutality 
 our politics, he kept the serenity of his temper. 
 
 Would you see an example of a strong and healthy 
 nature, improved but not spoiled by the refinements of 
 culture? You will find it in Garfield. Would yon 
 look for a scholar of lofty ideals and instinctive habits 
 of investigation, the law of whose mind was progr< 
 forever more ? You will discover him in ( Airfield. I ><> 
 you seek for a patriot full of enthusiasm for the K 
 public, growing continually in political wisdom, and 
 rising from a politician into a statesman? Lo 
 Garfield. Are there those in foreign lands who would 
 
2 9 
 
 study our free institutions and the men they breed, 
 and find out the typical American ? Behold him in 
 Garfield ! 
 
 But he is gone. We shall no more see that beam- 
 ing face; the tones of that cheery voice we shall hear 
 no more forever. No more will his lips utter for us 
 those wise and thoughtful sayings to which we were 
 wont to listen. Since we last met together a tragedy 
 more pathetic than the pages of antiquity record has 
 taken away at once the head of this Society and the 
 head of the Nation. To many here present the sense 
 of public calamity is overshadowed by a private grief 
 too profound and sacred to be expressed in words. In 
 the fine elegiac verse of Shakespeare : 
 
 " Fear no more the lightning flash, 
 
 Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone : 
 Fear not slander, censure rash ; 
 
 Thou hast finished joy and moan : 
 Quiet consummation have, 
 And renowned be thy grave. 
 
 " Fear no more the heat of the sun, 
 
 Nor the furious winter's rages ; 
 
 Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
 
 Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages." 
 
 Into that unknown home of the immortals our eyes 
 cannot follow him. But there is left to us the ex- 
 ample of his achievements, the benign memory of his 
 person and character, the consolation that he has well 
 done his work in the world, and that the world is the 
 better that he has lived in it. 
 
30 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Spofford's address, the Vice-President called 
 attention to the life-size three-quarter length study of General Garfield, 
 in oils, which had been especially prepared for this meeting, within the 
 past week, by Mr. E. F. Andrews: also to a head of the late President, 
 in crayon, by Mr. E. H. Miller. There was also exhibited a drawing 
 by Mr. Miller after the design of Miss E. B.Johnston for a National Gar- 
 field Medal, submitted by her to the United States Senate and referred by 
 that body to the Joint Committee on the Library. 
 
 Attention was also called to photographs of Garfield when a boy and 
 when in the army, sent by Mrs. C. Adele Fassett, who was unable to be 
 present. 
 
 The Secretary then read a letter from Mr. Horace B. Scudder, of 
 Cambridge, Mass., a college friend of General Garfield, expressing 
 regret at his inability to be present ; also the following letter from Mrs. 
 Garfield : 
 
 Cleveland, ( >hio, Nov. y, 1SS1. 
 
 Prof. E. M. Gallaudet, 
 
 Vice-President of tht Literary Sot it ty : 
 
 My Dear Friend: Yours of the ~\\\ inst. is re- 
 ceived, and I thank you for all your kind words of 
 sympathy with us iu this great sorrow. All you say of 
 my husband is especially precious to me. That he 
 will preside again — in the memory of him which will 
 fill all your hearts on the anniversary night — "the 
 fiftieth" — is to me a dear thought. I wish I were able 
 to contribute something to your paper in the way of 
 reminiscence, but the blinding darkness of the night 
 which has fallen upon my life seems to have turned 
 me back upon chaos, and all memories seem to have 
 been swallowed up in the one overwhelming thought, 
 " I have loved and lost !" 
 
 I know how interested General Garfield was in all 
 
3i 
 
 3 7 our work, and I shall always remember 3 t ou all with 
 tenderest love. 
 
 Our mother is not here just now, but I know she 
 would send to you kindest remembrances. 
 
 With sincerest affection to Mrs. Gallaudet, I remain, 
 Most truly your friend, 
 
 LUCRETIA R. GARFIELD. 
 
 The Vice-President then announced Col Mallery as the next speaker. 
 THE RELATIONS OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD TO SCIENCE. 
 
 By Col. GARRICK. MALLERY, U S A 
 
 The laws of science are deduced only from the cor- 
 rect classification of ascertained facts. For the estab- 
 lishment of those laws the world is indebted to three 
 classes of men. Some can observe the facts, and even 
 classify them for their own use, without the power of 
 formulation to the public ; others can express in dis- 
 tinct and attractive style either their own ideas or 
 those of more originative minds ; but the progress of 
 both classes would be slow and uncertain without the 
 aid of a third, which provides the means requisite for 
 observation and publication. History tells us how 
 much has been gained through the substantial contri- 
 butions of the mere dilletanti and the avaricious, in 
 their support of true workers ; but more deserving of 
 gratitude than the aid derived from vanity and greed 
 is that produced by purely benevolent personal exer- 
 tion, wholly impersonal regarding considerations of 
 
32 
 
 reward. In this respect science recognizes its endur- 
 ing obligation to James A. Garfield. 
 
 In his short life of busy action there was little time 
 for the full fruitage of original scientific research, yet 
 from his character of mind and methods of work it is 
 not to be doubted that if lie had been spared to the 
 dignified leisure properly succeeding Presidential ser- 
 vice he would have exhibited in that direction also an 
 inestimable result from his eeaseless and well-ordered 
 studies. In spite of all distractions, he had already 
 accumulated the necessary facts with orderly arrangi 
 ment, and only time was wanting for the comprehen- 
 sive discovery and formal expression oi principh 
 in fields even wider than statesmanship. It is obvious 
 that he ever chafed against that limitation, and his 
 characteristic energy in progressive self-development 
 would, with the opportunities of riper years, ha 
 mounted far above it — 
 
 " To follow knowledge, like a sinking star. 
 Beyond the utmost bound of human thought." 
 
 That his reflections had for years been turned in 
 the direction indicated may be shown by his criticism 
 on the ordinary collegiate curriculum. Notwithstand- 
 ing his own keen personal enjoyment of the classics 
 and joyous appreciation of even the lighter forms of 
 literature, his conviction of the paramount importance 
 of practical science must have been cogent when he 
 could speak as follows ; 
 
33 
 
 " Our educational forces are so wielded as to teach our children to ad- 
 mire most that which is foreign and fabulous and dead. Our American 
 children must know all the classic rivers, from the Scamander to the 
 yellow Tiber, must tell you the length of the Appian Way, and of the 
 canal over which Horace and Virgil sailed on their journey to Brundusium ; 
 but he may be crowned with baccalaureate honors without having heard, 
 since his first moment of Freshman life, one word concerning the 122,000 
 miles of coast and river navigation, the 6,000 miles of canal, and the 
 35,000 miles of railroad, which indicate both the prosperity and the pos- 
 sibilities of his own country. 
 
 ********* 
 
 " A finished education is supposed to consist mainly of literary culture. 
 The story of the forges of the Cyclops, where the thunderbolts of Jove 
 were fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully 
 than those sturdy truths which are preaching to this generation in the 
 wonders of the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron 
 mills, and the other innumerable industries which, more than all other 
 human agencies, have made our civilization what it is, and are destined to 
 achieve wonders yet undreamed of. This generation is beginning to 
 understand that education should not be forever divorced from industry ; 
 that the highest results can be reached only when science guides the hand 
 of labor. With what eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing every truth 
 of science and putting it in harness!" 
 
 From these passages it is obvious that the expe- 
 rience of the statesman supplemented the enthusiasm 
 of the scholar. He knew that the present criterion of 
 a nation's status in civilization is its advance in 
 science. His studies had taught him that even the 
 most civilized of the ancient peoples had no concep- 
 tion of progress in science ; indeed, until quite modern 
 times the newest thought was the ultimate thought, 
 not as now understood, but another step toward com- 
 plete knowledge, a step taken with humble confession 
 of the little yet accomplished. 
 
34 
 
 All the great scientific institutions connected with 
 our Government, which shed lustre on our national 
 name while assuring the growth of industrial re- 
 sources to our citizens, were fostered into strength, 
 and nearly all originated, during General Garfield's 
 Congressional career, and with his active participation 
 and direction in the several capacities he filled, but 
 more markedly shown while chairman of the Com- 
 mittee of Appropriations of the House of Representa- 
 tives. The annual appropriations, direct and indirect, 
 for these institutions now amount to the magnificent 
 sum of ten millions of dollars — an investment hearing 
 noble interest. Whatever may be the final outcome 
 of our cis-Atlautic experiment in government, and of 
 our wondrous racial amalgam, our certain triumph will 
 be the rapid subjugation of a vast continent to man's 
 beneficial use through the practical application of 
 scientific laws now in process of enunciation. That 
 without governmental recognition, these would have 
 been indefinitely delayed, General Garfield fully 
 appreciated, and his lame is inseparably connected 
 with them. Had he accomplished nan- lit more-, he 
 would thus have raised for himself an enduring 
 monument in contrast to the ruck of legislators, who 
 depend only on the fugitive notoriety of Congressional 
 records and the dubious dignity of returning board 
 certificates. He supported with his eloquence and 
 energy the Light-House Board; the Coast and Geo- 
 detic Survey; the several geologic and geographical 
 
35 
 
 surveys and their concentration into the present 
 systematized United States Geological Survey ; the 
 Department of Agriculture ; the Fish and the En- 
 tomological Commissions; the Bureau of Ethnology; 
 the National Museum, and the Smithsonian Institu- 
 tion, of which he was an elected Regent. He was the 
 father of the Bureau of Education, the active advocate 
 for fifteen years of the National Deaf-Mute College, 
 and to my knowledge the most efficient friend of the 
 meteorological division of the Signal Service from its 
 meagre and tentative commencement. As chairman 
 of the Committee on the Census of 1870 he specially 
 showed a full understanding of scientific methods, and 
 a determination that they should be applied in the 
 thorough and accurate collection, not merely of the 
 numbers of inhabitants, but of all social, political, and 
 physical facts attainable. He saw that the aggrega- 
 tion and classification of these facts would bring forth 
 the laws constituting science, and therefore establish 
 true principles of national legislation. To quote his 
 own language : 
 
 "Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing 
 or evading results. Statistical science is indispensable to modern states- 
 manship. In legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be 
 understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their 
 laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national 
 will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics." 
 
 A parallel might well be drawn between him and 
 Edmund Burke, not as regards the immediate sway of 
 their oratory upon an audience, in which the American 
 
36 
 
 surpassed the British statesman, but including the 
 preparation for that oratory and its lasting effect. 
 They each excelled all contemporaries by marvellous 
 industry in gathering facts and numbers, and by philo- 
 sophic selection and marshalling of them, to serve 
 equally well for practical use and for poetic illustra- 
 tion. By the electrolysis of their genius figures of 
 statistics became for a time figures of rhetoric, with 
 capacity of reverting to their original powers. 
 
 But he did not grant his approval to every scheme 
 for subsidizing even attractive and interesting lines of 
 scientific research. His judicious and discriminating 
 reflections upon the true relations of the Government 
 to science require an extended quotation : 
 
 " It is of the utmost importance that whatever t lie United States un 
 takes to do in reference to science shall he done upon some well-under- 
 stood, well-reasoned, and well-defined system. * * ■ It is a safe 
 and wise rule to follow in all legislation, that whatever the people can 
 without legislation will be better done than by the intervention 
 the State or the Nation. 
 
 "This leads me to inquire what ought to be the relation of the Ni 
 tional Government to science ? What, if anything, ought we to do in the 
 way of promoting science? For example, if we have the power, would 
 it be wise for Congress to appropriate money out of the Treasury to em- 
 ploy naturalists to find out all that is to be known of our American bir.: 
 Ornithology is a delightful and useful study; but would it be wi 
 Congress to make an appropriation for the advancement of that scicn- 
 In my judgment, manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored 
 class of men the rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private w 
 following the bent of their genius, may be working out the re 
 science in that field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out of our 
 Treasury for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advancement 
 
37 
 
 ot science, just as an appropriation to establish a church would work in- 
 jury to religion. 
 
 " Generally the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone; to work 
 in free competition with all the scientific men of the world; to develop 
 their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to 
 have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise. 
 
 " As a general principle, therefore, the United States ought not to in- 
 terfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the free, 
 voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves. 
 
 " In this non-interference theory of the Government I do not go to the 
 extent of saying that we should do nothing for education — for primary 
 education. That comes under another consideration — the necessity of the 
 nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and wiser 
 to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of the 
 higher sciences. 
 
 " To the general principle I have stated there are a few obvious excep- 
 tions which should be clearlv understood when we legislate on the sub- 
 ject. In the first place the Government should aid all sorts of scientific 
 inquiry that are necessary to the intelligent exercise of its own functions. 
 
 " For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution and compelled 
 by necessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish 
 fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in refer- 
 ence to light and its laws, sound and its laws — to do whatever in the way 
 of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting our coasts and 
 warning our mariners of danger. So, when we are building iron-clads for 
 our Navy or casting guns for our Army, we ought to know all that is 
 scientifically possible to be known about the strength of materials and the 
 laws of mechanics which apply to such structures. In short, wherever in 
 exercising any of the necessary functions of the Government scientific 
 inquiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest extent, and at the public 
 expense. 
 
 " There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the 
 voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, 
 affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, imperatively 
 need scientific investigation, and private enterprise cannot accomplish it, 
 .we may wisely intervene and help where the Constitution gives us 
 authority. For example, in discovering the origin of yellow fever and 
 the methods of preventing its ravages the nation should do, for the good 
 of all, what neither the States nor individuals can accomplish. I might, 
 
38 
 
 perhaps, include in a third exception those inquiries which, in conse- 
 quence of their great magnitude and cost, cannot he successfully made by 
 private individuals. Outside these three classes of inquiries, the Govern- 
 ment ought to keep its hands off, and leave scientific experiment and 
 inquiry to the free competition of those bright, intelligent men whose 
 genius leads them into the fields of research." 
 
 It might not have been expected that he would 
 have been able to use his influence concerning the 
 
 Army when chairman of the Committee on Military 
 Affairs, or at other times, to directly advance scieni 
 and general knowledge, yet this he achieved. In- 
 effectively encouraged the employment of the leisure 
 and talent of military officers, during peace, for study, 
 experiment, and action in works of civilization pend- 
 ing the occasions when arts of destruction should 
 claim them. The Army and Navy were to him not 
 merely reserved forces, to remain latent except in war. 
 He considered, too, that whatever is nol useful is 
 hurtful, and that the Army could only be dangerous in 
 time of peace when through either neglect or com- 
 pulsion it became idle. He therefore stimulated the 
 interest of officers in other directions than guard- 
 mounting and dress-parades, knowing that besides the 
 actual production of good work they would be better 
 officers as well as better men when not mere .lists, 
 
 but devoting their time and energies to acquire and 
 extend scientific information. For this object he 
 steadily contended against the petty jealousy of mar- 
 tinets in high rank, whose sole mode of fabricating 
 their own loftiness was by depressing all but such 
 
39 
 
 flunkies as were willing to be mere extensions of 
 their master's plumes and bullion. 
 
 It was my privilege, in connection with duty in the 
 Signal Service, to be present at several of the sessions 
 of the Committee on Appropriations during General 
 Garfield's chairmanship, and to observe his methods of 
 work. It is well known that he was absolutely 
 thorough in his mastery of every detail concerning 
 measures introduced by or presented to him, often 
 more so than the officers in charge of the institutions 
 to be benefited; but I was struck by the skillful 
 manner in which, with his unsatiable thirst for all 
 useful knowledge, he would cross-examine all well- 
 informed persons appearing before him until they 
 yielded up the whole that he desired to know. Fre- 
 quently he would retain such persons after the formal 
 sessions, or make appointments to meet them socially, 
 and having obtained additional suggestions would 
 pursue or verify them through many volumes and 
 documents. What was thus ascertained was, by dicta- 
 tion or transcription, placed in permanent form, always 
 thereafter accessible, so that his auspicious motto inter 
 folia fructus was observed to the letter. 
 
 It may not be germane to the present theme to dwell 
 upon Garfield's noble independence of the bare preju- 
 dices of constituents, or upon his conception of a 
 higher fealty than that paid to the shifting gusts of 
 party clamor. It is, however, proper to notice that his 
 distaste for limited politics, as distinct from statesman- 
 
40 
 
 ship, was shown in the admiration, mingled with long- 
 ing, with which he contemplated the serene vocations 
 of scientists and educators. This is expressed in his 
 
 eulogy of Joseph Henry : 
 
 " During all the years of his sojourn among us there has hcen one spot 
 in this city across which the shadow of partisan politics has never (alien, 
 and that was the ground of the Smithsonian Institution." 
 
 The thought was repeated in his last important 
 public address, that on May 4, 1881, the Presentation 
 Day of the National Deaf-Mute College : 
 
 "I would like to sav another thing: that during these many 
 public service I have loved to look upon this ,h a neutral ground, where, 
 from all our political bickerings and differences, we come under the white 
 flag of truce that should be raised over every school-house and college in 
 the land." 
 
 I can best close by quoting our late- President's con- 
 siderations on the objects attained by science-: 
 
 "The scientific spirit has cast out the demons and presented us with 
 Nature, clothed in her right mind and living under the reign of law. It 
 has givn us for the sorceries of the alchemist the beautiful \a 
 chemistry ; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths 
 astronomy ; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records of 
 geology ; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of G 
 
 At the conclusion of Col. Mallery's ad.!- . the Vice-President 
 announced as the next speaker Mr. Chief-Justice Drake, who was General 
 Garfield's predecessor as President of the Soci 
 
 REMARKS OF CHIEF-JUSTICE DRAB 
 
 After the carefully prepared and excellent pa] 
 which have been read, I can venture but a few words. 
 
4i 
 
 I shall refer to General Garfield as an orator, in 
 which character he was, I think, one of the foremost 
 men that this country has produced. What I have to 
 say refers principally to an address he made soon after 
 his nomination for the Presidency, on the occasion of 
 the unveiling- of a monument at Painesville, Ohio, to 
 the soldiers from that place who had given their lives 
 for their country in the war of the rebellion. I cannot 
 repeat his words, but I remember that he set out to 
 tell the assembled multitude what that monument 
 taught; and he drew from it, I think, three lessons. 
 When I read the first, it was so elevated in tone, so 
 striking in thought, and so inspiring in sentiment, that 
 it seemed to me there was little more to be said. 
 When he set forth the second lesson, he stepped up to 
 a higher plane, and as my mind followed him I found 
 myself wondering how he would come down from there. 
 But he did come down safely and gracefully. As he 
 pointed to the third lesson he rose into a still more 
 elevated region, and as I read his grand words the 
 feeling came over me that he could not get down 
 from that height without a fall. But I mistook the 
 man. The difference between him and many other 
 orators was, that he was always a thinking man. His 
 loftiest efforts never took him where he was not sus- 
 tained by " the power of thought — the magic of the 
 mind." He therefore ventured to no height where he 
 would lose his head. Thought was, indeed, a dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic of his oratory on all occa- 
 
42 
 
 sions, great or small. It came from his mind to yours 
 like a powerful current from a galvanic battery, and 
 left the impression of there ever being more of it in re- 
 serve. Even in the little speeches he made from rail- 
 road cars to the people, none of them perhaps t' 
 minutes long, there was usually a striking thought, 
 which many of his hearers stored in memory. Hut 
 it is not my wish to drift into an essay on Gen- 
 eral Garfield as an orator. I used the Painesville 
 speech for a double purpose — to illustrate his power as 
 an orator, and to introduce an anecdote which, I think, 
 will interest the friends here present. 
 
 Immediately after reading that speech I yielded to 
 the impulse of the moment, and wrote a letter to Mrs. 
 Garfield, in which I said that if. she did not stop 1 l 
 husband's making such speeches as that, it would 
 make Republicans wish that he might be defeated lor 
 the Presidency, where his mouth would be i I, and 
 
 go to the Senate, where his eloquence would continue 
 to be heard by the country. I really did not expect 
 the good lady to answer the letter, but after the la] 
 of some time there came from her the note I shall 
 now read, and which, I am sure, all present will be 
 glad to hear : 
 
 " Mentor, Ohio, July /«s\ / S 
 
 "My Dear Judge: Your letter, so complimentary 
 to General Garfield, was duly received, and a thankful 
 response flew away to you, but since it only went upon 
 
43 
 
 the wings of the wind, I will now fasten it down to a 
 more substantial vehicle, with a hope that you may 
 have forgotten how long ago you wrote to me. 
 
 " The world is getting ahead of me all the while, 
 now-a-days, but the tortoise's gait may yet bring me 
 up. 
 
 " General Garfield joins me in thanks to you and 
 very kind regards. 
 
 " Cordially your friend, 
 
 "LUCRETIA R. GARFIELD. 
 " Hon. C. D. Drake." 
 
 All who hear me can understand how highly 
 I would esteem such a letter from such a lady as Mrs. 
 Garfield ; but the dreadful event which has darkened 
 her days has given this note a tenfold value to me ; 
 for that event has disclosed to the world that she is 
 more, far more, than the world had known, or indeed 
 supposed. 
 
 Friends, have you ever dwelt upon the thought how 
 seldom in the history of the world a great man has had 
 a great woman for his wife ? This country is no ex- 
 ception to the general proposition. When, therefore, 
 a great man appears on the stage of public action, and 
 at his side stands a great woman as his wife, it is a cir- 
 cumstance to be noted as glorifying at once his career, 
 her sex, and their country. Such a woman, in my 
 opinion, came with James A. Garfield from the modest 
 walk of life, where they joined their lives together, 
 
44 
 
 to the high position of a Representative in Con- 
 gress, and thence to the most exalted station which 
 this nation can bestow on one of its citizens. Ia>ng 
 before he was nominated for the Presidency I bad 
 observed in her the refined repose of manner, the 
 self-possessed dignity of deportment, the gentle tone of 
 voice, the frank but undemonstrative graciousne 
 which was observed equally by all who enjoyed lier 
 society; but what drew my observation mi ire closely 
 was the intelligent, steady, sincere eye, telling bettor 
 than w r ords the earnest, pure, and brave spirit within, 
 and appealing to the best in every one around h< 
 But though I observed all this, I did not then see that 
 under it all w-as the mind and soul of a great woman. 
 Now r , to this mourning nation, through the fire of her 
 unspeakable affliction, is revealed what .she really was; 
 and the American people — yes, the people of all the 
 civilized world — see in her a woman who, beginning 
 life in humble circumstances, rose with her husband 
 hand in hand, step by step, from height to height, up 
 to the supreme station in which she became, officially, 
 the representative woman of a nation, of more th.ui 
 fifty million people ; and from first to last, at every 
 step, was found equal to every demand of her every 
 position, and, at last, most equal when strained the 
 most. To be and to do all this, in my view, entitles 
 her to be recorded in history as a great woman. 
 Henceforth let American women point with pride 
 her as a great wife of a great American. 
 
45 
 
 The Vice-President then announced Dr. Charles W. Hoffman, Vice- 
 President of the Society during the first year of General Garfield's Presi- 
 dency, as the next speaker. 
 
 REMARKS OF DR. HOFFMAN. 
 
 I propose, Mr Chairman, to speak this evening of 
 but one of the prominent qualities of the literary 
 character of General Garfield. 
 
 He was so often at the Law Library that I never 
 secured his autograph in my book kept for the pur- 
 pose. He was there at home, and it did not occur to 
 me to register names of the members of the household 
 with those of visitors. His investigations, however, 
 were generally rather in the line of questions relating 
 to political economy and the history and philosophy of 
 law. Of course, he conducted cases in the Supreme 
 Court, but his legislative duties did not allow him 
 much leisure to attend to the work of the forum. 
 
 But I was often impressed with his great devotion to 
 and accomplishment in classical literature. One of the 
 most notable occasions of his expression of this talent 
 is, perhaps, bright in the memory of many here present. 
 It was at a meeting of the Literary Society, at his own 
 house, when the evening's entertainment included a 
 paper from that fine scholar, Dr. C. C. Cox, on the 
 Latin hymns of the church. After remarks from 
 others, the General said he had always had an 
 especial admiration for the Latin language, which 
 having been the outgrowth of a nation of warriors, 
 rude, rough, and unused to the polish of the arts, was 
 
46 
 
 first thought to be as harsh, unwieldy, and incapable 
 of modulation as the civilization under which it was 
 developed. But in later times it showed a power of 
 adaptation, that had made it a fitting vehicle tor the 
 expression of every human thought, and it had thus 
 become the language of the learned world. In its 
 progress to this eminence it had first exhibited its flexi- 
 bility and harmony in the poetry of the Augustan age ; 
 next, its precision and conciseness in the codes oi law ; 
 and, thirdly, its force and depth of feeling in the t 
 pression of the emotions of religion. In the latter 
 capacity, he said, it nowhere shone more conspicuously 
 than in the Ivynius of the church ; such .splendid com- 
 positions as the Dies Jr«\ the Stabat MaUr K and the 
 Vent, Sanctc Spiritus having been the delight of the 
 learned and pious in all subsequent a] lid having 
 
 exercised the talents of the most eminent musical com- 
 posers and of innumerable translators in every lan- 
 guage. He had always especially delighted in them, 
 and one composition, though of much later date, yet 
 written in the same style, had been such a favorite with 
 him that he begged permission to repeat it. He then 
 recited the well-known prayer of Mary, Queen oi 
 Scots, O Domine Deus, after which he closed his I 
 marks with an animated apostrophe to the spirit of 
 poetry, in its power to gild and soften the rough wa 
 of life and illumine even the dark paths of the blind; 
 and then turning to Dr. Gallandet, he asked if the 
 deaf-mutes ever wrote poetry. The result of that 
 
47 
 
 question was the paper on that subject, afterwards read 
 by the Doctor before the Society. 
 
 After the literary exercises had ended, I said to him 
 I was very glad to notice his continued fondness for the 
 classics, and his vivid memory of them. He replied 
 he had not seen the lines he had repeated for twenty 
 years. I then remarked I feared that, like most men 
 with such superior acquirements, they would give him 
 so much else to do that he would hud no leisure to 
 transmit the same culture to his children. He an- 
 swered that in that regard he was exceptionally 
 fortunate, as, to use his own words, " when I kept 
 school I taught my wife Latin, and now she teaches 
 the boys. Go and ask Mrs. Garfield about it, and she 
 will show you the lesson they have had in Caesar to- 
 day." 
 
 I have learned from an authentic source an anec- 
 dote which forcibly illustrates his love for classical 
 learning. When Mr. Evarts was about to start for 
 Europe, as a member of the Monetary Commission, 
 he asked the President if he could not bring him back 
 some memento of his journey. General Garfield re- 
 plied that perhaps in his travels he might find some 
 rare or interesting book, which would be a most 
 acceptable token of remembrance. In Paris, Mr. 
 Evarts happened to come across a fine edition of 
 Horace, which, knowing the President's tastes, he 
 secured and sent to him. It chanced to arrive at the 
 White House when the General lay in the last dark 
 
4 8 
 
 days of danger and distress. In some brighter in- 
 terval during his long ordeal of pain and weakness, it 
 was thought well to try and interest him in whatever 
 might best serve to divert his attention from his sad 
 condition. The book was brought to him, and opening 
 at random, he read a passage and attempted a trans- 
 lation. It was but a feeble effort, but it showed lmu 
 "even in our ashes glow our wonted tires." 
 thoughts, as we know, in those last sorrowful moments 
 were turning towards his home, the home of his youth 
 in those early golden days, when lie first made his 
 acquaintance with the classics, days which to all form 
 the brightest spot in memory's waste. 
 
 " Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." 
 
 In his researches among the Latin poets, he DO 
 doubt, in common with all scholars, often dwelt with 
 delight on that splendid passage in the Tenth Satire of 
 Juvenal, where the career of Hannibal is drawn in 
 such vivid colors, and his last dire fate is delineated 
 as the exemplar of too many of the world's illustrious 
 men in all ages. But it was not the destiny of our 
 President to add another to the long list of such e 
 amples. Not in adversity and defeat, not in obscurity 
 or dishonor, did he pass away, but in the zenith of his 
 fame, with the accomplishment of all that makes 1: 
 valuable or noble, we are called to see 
 
 "A final triumph, and a closing scene, 
 Where gazing nations watch the hero's mien, 
 As undismayed, amidst the tears of all, 
 He folds his mantle, regally to fall." 
 
49 
 
 At the conclusion of Dr. Hoffman's remarks, the Vice-President intro- 
 duced President James C. Welling, the first President of the Society, who 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 REMARKS OF PRESIDENT WELLING. 
 
 My knowledge of Geri. Garfield's devotion to 
 classical learning, from being general became special 
 and personal about two years ago, when, through a 
 friend, (I believe it was President Gallaudet,) he made 
 application to the principal of our Preparatory School 
 for a teacher competent to give advanced instruction 
 in Greek and Latin to his two sons, who were pre- 
 paring for college. This application was referred to 
 Professor Montague, Adjunct Professor of the Latin 
 language and literature in the Columbian College. 
 
 On entering upon his duties as private tutor, Prof. 
 Montague found that, under the guidance and instruc- 
 tion of their accomplished mother, the Garfield boys 
 had been thoroughly initiated, not only in the elements, 
 but in the structure, syntax, and prosody of the Latin 
 tongue. At the time when he was called to assist in 
 their classical education they were already reading, 
 and reading intelligently, in the Metamorphoses of 
 Ovid, insomuch that it only remained for Prof. Mon- 
 tague to carry on and to supplement the Latin instruc- 
 tions of their mother, and to add to those instructions 
 some special disciplines in the Greek language and 
 literature. 
 
 I am able to attest, from frequent conversations with 
 Prof. Montague, that he found a great delight in the 
 
5o 
 
 office of private instructor to the Garfield boys, because 
 of the intelligence and scholarly sympathy with which 
 his instructions were sustained by the father as well as 
 the mother. General Garfield kept himself constantly 
 advised of the studies which his sons were- pursuin 
 and closely followed their progress from day to day in 
 every Latin or Greek author whom they were reading. 
 His familiarity with both of these languages made this 
 supervision of their studies an easy task — I should 
 rather say, a pleasure — to which he brought the affec- 
 tion of a father combined with the enthusiasm of the 
 classical scholar. 
 
 He showed this enthusiasm by the genuine love in 
 which he held the choicest among the classical writers, 
 a love which embraced in its scope all the refinements 
 of classical editorship as brought to bear on the form in 
 which his choicest authors had been published. Re- 
 cognizing with Milton that "a good book is the 
 precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed and 
 treasured up on purpose to a life beyond lii lie 
 deemed nothing unimportant which related t<> the form 
 or the substance of his favorite authors in the Greek 
 and the Latin tongues. Slienstone was not fonder of 
 the flowers which adorned the parterres of his garden 
 than Garfield of the good books, in good editions, 
 which adorned the shelves of his library. 
 
 For ten years after his entrance in Conj r he 
 made it a habit to read some Greek and Latin « 
 day before he went from his home to the Capitol. And 
 
5 1 
 
 his readings in the classics were not inspired by the 
 dilettantism of the pedant or by the ambition of the 
 rhetorician. It was not to garnish his speeches with 
 scraps of Greek and Latin lore, stolen from a " feast of 
 languages," that he pored by day and by night over the 
 great writers of antiquity. It was for their instruction 
 as well as for their literary discipline that he familiar- 
 ized himself with their contents, and, that he might 
 miss nothing of their contents, he studied them dili- 
 gently in their original forms. General Garfield saw 
 that education, in the true and full sense of that word, 
 consists in so training our faculties and in so 
 widening the range of our knowledge, that the mind 
 of the individual shall be brought into organic rela- 
 tion and conscious correspondence with the best minds 
 of the whole human race. And hence it is that the 
 thoughts and feelings of the living age pulsed through 
 his heart and brain with a momentum which took force 
 and direction from all that is wisest and best in the 
 collective mind of man. And hence, too, it is that 
 among all his contemporaries in public life he became 
 the best exemplar of " the scholar in politics," and 
 knew how not only to speak well but to act well for 
 the Republic. 
 
 The Vice-President announced as the closing exercise of the evening 
 a poem by Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, which was then read by the 
 author. 
 
52 
 
 MRS. BURNETT'S POK.M. 
 
 BY THE SEA— SEPTEMBER iy, 1881. 
 
 Watchman! What of the night ? 
 
 '* The sky is dark, my friend ; 
 
 And we, in heavy grief, await the end. 
 
 A light is burning in a silent room, 
 
 But we, — we have no light in all the gloom." 
 
 Watchman ! What of the night ? 
 
 " Friend, strong men watch the light 
 With the strange mist of tears before their sight, 
 And women, at each hearthstone, sob and prav 
 That the great darkness end at last in 
 
 Watchman ! How goes the night ? 
 
 " Wearily, friend, for him ; 
 
 Yet his heart quails not, though the light burns dim. 
 
 As bravely as he fought the field of Life 
 
 He bears himself in this the final stri: 
 
 Watchman! What of the night ? 
 
 " Friend, we are left no word 
 
 To tell of all the bitter sorrow stirred 
 
 In our sad souls. We stand and rail at Fate 
 
 Who leaves hands empty and hearts desolate. 
 
 ' Are pure, great souls so many in the land, 
 
 That we should lose the chosen of the band .' * 
 
 We cry ; but he who suffers lies 
 
 Meeting sharp-weaponed pain with steadfast eye . 
 
 And makes no plaint, while on the threshold Death 
 
 Halt draws his keen sword from its glittering sheath, 
 
 And looking inward, pauses — lingering long 
 
 Faltering — himself the weak before the strong." 
 
 Watchman ! How goes the night ? 
 
 " In tears, my friend, and praise 
 
 Of his high truth and generous trusting v\ 
 
53 
 
 Of his warm love and buoyant hope and faith, 
 Which passed life's fires free from all blight or scath. 
 Strange ! We forget the laurel wreath we gave, 
 And only love him standing near his grave." 
 
 Watchman ! What of the night ? 
 
 " Friend, when it is past, 
 
 We wonder what our grief can bring at last 
 
 To lay upon his broad, true, tender breast, 
 
 What flower, whose sweetness will outlast the rest; 
 
 And this we set from all the bloom apart, — 
 
 He woke new faith and love in every heart." 
 
 Watchman! What of the night ! 
 
 " Would God that it were gone, 
 
 And we could see once more the rising dawn. 
 
 The darkness deeper grows— the light burns low, 
 
 There sweeps o'er land and sea a cry of woe." 
 
 Watchman ! What now ? What now ? 
 " Hush, friend ! We may not say, 
 Only that all the pain has passed away." 
 
The Literary Society of Washington 
 1882 
 
 / 'resiJcnt 
 Edward Miner Gallaudel 
 
 / Resident 
 ( rarrick M 
 
 Secret 1 
 Theodore Frelinghuyscn D wight 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 Elizabeth Bryant [ohnston 
 Jean M. Davenport Lander 
 Samuel Haj s Kauffmann 
 Theodore Frelingl: D ^ht 
 
 Joseph Meredith Toner 
 
 Honorary Associates 
 
 Lucretia Rudolph Garfield 
 Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren 
 Mary Bucklin Claflin 
 James Clarke Welling 
 Alexander Graham Bell 
 Edward Clark 
 Clare Hanson Mohun 
 
Members 
 
 Benjamin Alvord 
 Eliphalet Frazer Andrews 
 Frances Hodgson Burnett 
 Louise Keller Camp 
 Issac Edwards Clarke 
 Mary Clemmer 
 Ann M. Crittenden Coleman 
 Herbert Pelham Curtis 
 Anna Laurens Dawes 
 Ella Loraine Dorsey 
 Charles Daniel Drake 
 Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight 
 Cornelia Adele Fassett 
 Stephen Johnson Field 
 Edward Miner Gallaudet 
 Randall Lee Gibson 
 Theodore Nicholas Gill 
 Joseph Roswell Hawley 
 Charles William Hoffman 
 Annie Bell Irish 
 Elizabeth Bryant Johnston 
 Samuel Hays Kauffmann 
 George Kennan 
 Caroline Elizabeth Knox 
 |ean M. Davenport Lander 
 Jeanie T. Gould Lincoln 
 Elizabeth Walker Long 
 Garrick Mallery 
 Edmund Clarence Messer 
 Lida Miller 
 
 Eleazar Hutchinson Miller 
 Imogene Robinson Morrell 
 Martin Ferdinand Morris 
 John George Nicolay 
 Charles Nordhoff 
 Almon Ferdinand Rockwell 
 Ainsworth Rand Spofford 
 Rebecca Ruter Springer 
 Joseph Meredith Toner 
 Henry Ulke 
 
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