GENERAL GARFIELD A3 A STATESMAN AND ORATOR. PARAGRAPHS FROM HIS SPEECHES /:V COA'GRESS AND ON THE STL'MP. NEW YORK: Published bv thp: National Republican Committee. iSSo. GENERAL GARFIELD n AS A STATESMAN AND ORATOR. PARAGRAPHS FROM HIS SPEECHES IiV CONGRESS AND ON THE STUMP. 3 •> > ) NEW YORK : - Published by the National Republican Committee. iSSo. " Tile man ^iio wants to serve liis country must put himself in the line of its leading thought, and that is, the restoration of business, trade, commerce, industry, sound political economy, hard mone3% and honest pa3anent of all obligations, and the man who can add any- thing in the direction of the accomplishment of any of these piirposes is a public benefactor." JAMES A. GARFIELD. West. Bes. Hist. Soc. 1915 PARAGRAPHS FROM General Garmelds Speeches. -•^^ •- THE DEATH OF SLAVERY. [From a Speech in the House, Jan. 13, 1865, on the Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery.] We shall never know why slavery dies so hard in this Republic and in this hall until we know why sin has such longevity and Satan is immortal. With marvellous tenacity of existence, it has outlived the expectations of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It has been declared here and elsewhere to be in all the several stages of mortality — wounded, moribund, dead. The question was raised by my colleague (Mr. Cox) yesterday, whether it was indeed dead or only in a troubled sleep. I know of no better illustration of its condition than is found in Sallust's admirable history of the great conspirator, Catiline, who when his final battle was fought and lost, his army broken and scattered, was found far in advance of his own troops, lying among the dead enemies of Rome, yet breathing a little, but exhibiting in his countenance all that ferocity of spirit which had characterized his life. So, sir, this body of slavery lies before us among the dead enemies, of the Republic, mortally wounded, impotent in its fiendish wickedness, but with its old ferocity of look, bearing the unmistakable marks of its infernal origin. Who does not remember that thirty years ago — a short period in the life of a nation — but little could be said with impunity in these halls on the subject of slavery ? How well do gentlemen here re- member the history of that distinguished predecessor of mine, Joshua R. Giddings, lately gone to his rest, who, with his forlorn hope of faithful men, took his life in his hand, and in the name of justice protested against the great crime, and who stood bravely in 4 GENERAL GARFIELD. his place until his white locks, like the plume of Henry of Navarre, marked where the battle for freedom raged fiercest ! We can hardly realize that this is the same people, and these the same halls, where now scarcely a man can be found who will ven- ture to do more than falter out an apology for slavery, protesting in the same breath that he has no love for the dying tyrant. None I believe, but that man of supernal boldness from the City of New York (Mr. Fernando Wood), has ventured this session to raise his voice in favor of slavery for its own sake. He still sees in its feat- ures the reflection of beauty and divinity, and only he. *' How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations !" Many mighty men have been slain by thee, many proud ones have humbled themselves at thy feet ! All along the coast of our political sea these victims of slavery lie like stranded wrecks, broken on the headlands of freedom. How lately did its advocates, with impious boldness, maintain it as God's own, to be venerated and cherished as divine ! It was another and higher form of civiliza- tion. It was the holy Evangel of America dispensing its mercies to a benighted race, and destined to bear countless blessings to the wilderness of the West. In its mad arrogance it lifted its hand to strike down the fabric of the Union, and since that fatal day it has been a *' fugitive and a vagabond on the earth." Like the spirit Jesus cast out, it has since then been " seeking rest and finding none." It has sought in all the corners of the Republic to find some hid- ing place in which to shelter itself from the death it so richly de- serves. It sought an asylum in the untrodden Territories of the West, but with a whip of scorpions indignant freemen drove it thence. I do not believe that a loyal man can now be found who would consent that it should again enter them. It has no hope of harbor there. It found no protection or favor in the hearts or consciences of the freemen of the Republic, and has fled for its last hope of safety behind the shield of the Constitution. We propose to follow it there, and drive it thence as Satan was exiled from heaven. SUPREMACY OF THE CIVIL LAW. [From an Argument made in the Sujjreme Court, March 6, 1866, in the Indiana Conspiracy Case.] Your decision will mark an era in American history. The just and final settlement of this great question will take a high place among the great achievements which have immortalized this decade. PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES. 5 It will establish forever this truth, of inestimable value to us and to mankind, that a Republic can wield the vast enginery of war without breaking down the safeguards of liberty ; can suppress in- surrection and put down rebellion, however formidable, without destroying the bulwarks of law ; can by the might of its armed mill- ions preserve and defend both nationality and liberty. Victories on the field were of priceless value, for they plucked the life of the Republic out of the hands of its enemies ; but " Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war ;" and if the protection of law shall, by your decision, be extended over every acre of our peaceful territory, you will have rendered the great decision of the century. When Pericles had made Greece immortal in arts and arms, in liberty and law, he invoked the genius of Phidias to devise a monu- ment which should symbolize the beauty and glory of Athens. That artist selected for his theme the tutelar divinity of Athens, the Jove- born goddess, protectress of arts and arms, of industry and law, who typified the Greek conception of composed, majestic, unrelenting force. He erected on the heights of the Acropolis a colossal statue ot Minerva, armed with spear and helmet, which towered in awful majesty above the surrounding temples of the gods. Sailors on far-off ships beheld the crest and spear of the goddess and bowed Avith reverent awe. To every Greek she was the symbol of power and glory. But the Acropolis, with its temples and statues is now a heap of ruins. The visible gods have vanished in the clearer light of modern civilization. We cannot restore the decayed emblems of ancient Greece ; but it is in your power, O judges, to erect in this citadel of our liberties a monument more lasting than brass ; invisi- ble indeed to the eye of flesh, but visible to the eye of the spirit as the awful form and figure of justice, crowning and adorning the Republic ; rising above the storms of political strife, above the din of battle, above the earthquake shock of rebellion ; seen from afar and hailed as protector by the oppressed of all nations ; dispensing equal blessings, and covering with the protecting sheld of law the weakest, the humblest, the meanest, and, until declared by solemn law unworthy of protection, the guiltiest of its citizens. RESTORATION OF THE REBEL STATES. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb, i, 1866.I And first, we must recognize in all our action the stupendous facts of the war. ' In the very crisis of our fate God brought us face to 6 GENERAL GARFIELD. face with the alarming truth that we must lose our own freedom or grant it to the slave. In the extremity of our distress we called upon the black man to help us save the Republic, and amid the very thunder of battle we made a covenant with him, sealed both with his blood and ours, and witnessed by Jehovah, that when the nation was redeemed he should be free and share with us the glories and blessings of freedom. In the solemn words ofthe great proc- lamation of emancipation, we not only declared the slaves forever free, but we pledged the faith of ihe nation " to maintain their free- dom" — mark the words, " to maintain their.freedoDiJ''' The omnis- cient witness will appear in judgment against us if we do not fulfil that covenant. Have we done it ? Have we given freedom to the black man ? What is freedom ? Is it a mere negation — the bare privilege of not being chained, bought and sold, branded and scourged ? If this be all, then freedom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion, and it may well be questioned whether slavery were not better. But liberty is no negation. It is a substantive, tangible reality. It is the realization of those imperishable truths of the Declaration " that all men are created equal," that the sanction of all just gov- ernment is " the consent of the governed." Can these truths be realized until each man has a right be to heard on all matters relat- ing to himself ? Mr. Speaker, we did more than merely to break off the chains of the slaves. The abolition of slavery added four million citizens to the Republic. By the decision of the Supreme Court, by the de- cision of the Attorney-General, by the decision of all the depart- ments of our Government, those men made free are, by the act of freedom, made citizens. As another has said, they must be ' ' four mil lion disfranchised, disarmed, untaught, landless, thriftless, non-pro- ducing, non-consuming, degraded men, or four million land-holding, industrious, arms-bearing, and voting population. Choose between the two !" Mr. Speaker, let us learn a lesson from the dealing of God with the Jewish nation. When his chosen people, led by the pillar of cloud and fire, had crossed the Red Sea and traversed the gloomy wilderness with its thundering Sinai, its bloody battles, disastrous defeats, and glorious victories ; when near the end of their perilous pilgrimage they listened to the last words of blessing and warning from their great leader before he was buried with immortal honors by the angel of the Lord ; when at last the victorious host, sadly joyful, stood on the banks of the Jordan, their enemies drowned in the sea or slain in the wilderness, they paused and made solemn preparation to pass over and possess the land of promise. By the command of God, given through Moses and enforced by his great successor, the ark of the covenant, containing the tables of the law PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES, 7 • and the sacred memorials of their pilgrimage, was borne by chosen men two thousand cubits in advance of the people. On the further shore stood Ebal and Gerizim, the mounts of cursing and blessing, from which, in the hearing of all the people, were pronounced the curses of God against injustice and disobedience, and his blessing upon justice and obedience. On the shore, between the mountains and in the midsl. of the people, a monument was eiected, and on it were written the words of the law, " to be a memorial unto the chil- dren of Israel forever and ever." Let us learn wisdom from this illustrious example. We have passed the Red Sea of slaughter ; our garments are yet wet with its crimson spray. We have crossed the fearful wilderness of war, and have led our four hundred thou- sand heroes to sleep beside the dead enemies of the Republic. We have heard the voice of God amid the thunders of battle command- ing us to wash our hands of iniquity, to " proclaim liberty through- out all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." When we spurned his counsels we were defeated, and the gulfs of ruin yawned before us. When we obeyed his voice, he gave us victory. And now at last we have reached the confines of the wilderness. Before us is the land of promise, the land of hope, the land of peace, filled with possibilities of greatness and glory too vast for the grasp of the imagination. Are we worthy to enter it ? On what condition may it be ours to enjoy and transmit to our children's children ? Let us pause and make deliberate and solemn preparation. Let us, as representatives of the people, whose servants we are, bear in advance the sacred ark of republican liberty, with its tables of the law inscribed with the " irreversible guaranties" of liberty. Let us here build a monument on which shall be written not only the curses of the law against treason, disloyalty, and oppression, but also an everlasting covenant of peace and blessing with loyalty, liberty, and obedience ; and all the people will say, Amen. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, [Remarks at the Memorial Services in the House of Representatives, April 14, 1865.] It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln ; it was the em- bodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that struck him down, in the moment of the nation's suprcmest joy. Sir, there are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity, and m,en from their God, that they can almost hear the beatings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. 8 GENERAL GARFIELD. Through such a time has this nation passed. - When two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the field of honor, through, that thin veil, to the presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the martyr President to the com- pany of these dead heroes of the Republic, the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by the children of men. Awe stricken by his voice, the American people knelt in tearful reverence and made a solemn covenant vn\\v him and with each other, that this nation should be saved from Its enemies, that all its glories should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason the temples of justice and freedom should be built and should sur- vive forever. It remains for us, consecrated by that great event and under a covenant wilh God, to keep that faith, to go forward in the great work until it shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and obeying the higher behests of God, let us remember that " He has sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call retreat : He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat. Be swift my soul to answer Him, be jubilant my feet ; For God is marching on." PUBLIC DEBT AND SPECIE PAYMENTS. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, March i6, 1866.] I PROPOSE, sir, to let the House take the responsibility of adopt- ing or rejecting this measure. On the one side it is proposed to return to solid and honest values ; on the other, to float on the boundless and shoreless sea ot paper money, with all its dishonesty and broken pledges. We leave it to the House to decide which alternative it will choose. Choose the one, and you float away into an unknown sea of paper money that shall know no decrease until you take just such a measure as is now proposed to bring us back again to solid values. Delay the measure, and it will cost the country dear. Adopt it now, and with a little depression in busi- ness and a little strigency in the money market the worst will be over, and we shall have reached the solid earth. Sooner or later such a measure must be adopted. Go on as you are now going on, and a financial crisis worse than that of 1837 will bring us to the bottom. I for one am unwilling that my name shall be linked to the fate of a paper currency. I believe that any party which com- mits itself to paper money will go down amid the general disaster, " covered with the curses of a ruined people. PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES. g Mr, Speaker, I remember that on the monument of Queen Eliza- beth, where \1kr glories were recited and her honors 'summed up, among the last and the highest, recorded as the climax of her honors, was this—that she had restored the money of her king- dom to Its just value. And when this House shall have done its work, when it shall have brought back values to their proper stand- ard, it will deserve a monument. A NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, June 8, 1866.] When the history of the Thirty-ninth Congress is written it will be recorded that two great ideas inspired it, and made their impress upon all its efforts, viz., to build up free States on the ruins of slavery, and to extend to every inhabitant of the United States the rights and privileges of citizenship. Before the divine Architect builded order out of chaos, he said, " Let there be light." Shall we commit the fatal mistake of building up free States without first expelling the darkness in which slavery had shrouded their people ? Shall we enlarge the boundaries of citizenship and make no provision to increase the intelligence of the citizen ? I share most fully in the aspirations of this Congress, and give my most cordial support to its policy ; but I believe its work will prove a disastrous failure unless it makes the schoolmas- ter its ally, and aids him in preparing the children of the United States to perfect the work now begun. The stork is a sacred bird in Holland, and is protected by her laws, because it destroys those insects which would undermine the dikes and let the sea again overwhelm the rich fields of the Nether- lands. Shall this Government do nothing to foster and strengthen those educational agencies which alone can shield the coming gen- eration from ignorance and vice, and make it the impregnable bul- wark of liberty and law ? REFUSAL TO RETURN FUGITIVE SLAVES. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 8, 1867.] I CANNOT forget that less than five years ago I received an order from my superior officer in the army commanding me to search my camp for a fugitive slave, and if found to deliver him up to a Ken- tucky captain, who claimed him as his property, and I had the honor to be perhaps the first ofliccr in the army who peremptorily refused 10 GENERAL GARFIELD. to obey such an order. We were then trying to save the Union without hurting slavery. I remember, sir, that when we undertook to agitate in the army the question of putting arms into the hands of tlie slaves, it was said, " Such a step will be fatal ; it will alienate half our army and lose us Kentucky." By and by, when our neces- sities were imperious, we ventured to let the negroes dig in the trenches, but it would not do to put muskets into their hands. We ventured to let the negro drive a mule team, but it would not do to have a white man or a mulatto just in front of him, or behind him ; all must be negroes in that train : you must not disgrace a white soldier by putting him in such company. " By and by," some one said, " rebel guerillas may capture the mules ; so for the sake of the mules let us put a few muskets in the wagons, and let the negroes shoot the guerillas if they come." So for the sake of the mules we enlarged the limits of liberty a little. By and by we allowed the negroes to build fortifications and armed them. TAXATION OF UNITED STATES BONDS. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, July 5, 1868.] There was a declaration made by an old English gentleman in the days of Charles the Second which does honor to human nature. He said he was willing, at any time, to give his life for the good of his country, but he would not do a mean thing to save his coun- try from ruin. So. sir. ought a citizen to feel in regard to our finan- cial affairs. The people of the United States can afford to make any sacrifice for their country, and the historj^ of the last war has proved their willingness ; but the humblest citizen cannot afford to do a mean or dishonorable thing to save even this glorious Republic. For my own part I will consent to no act of dishonor. And I look upon this proposition — though I cannot think the gentleman meant it to be so — as having in itself the very essence of dishonor. I shall, therefore, to the utmost of my ability, resist it. Mr. Speaker, I desire to say, in conclusion, that in my opinion all these efforts to pursue a doubtful and unusual, if not dishonora- ble policy in reference to our public debt, spring from a lack of faith in the intelligence and conscience of the American people. Hardly an hour passes when we do not hear it whispered that some such policy as this must be adopted, or the people will by and by repudiate the debt. For my own part I do not share that distrust. The people of this country have shown by the highest proofs human nature can give that, wherever the path of honor and duty inay lead, however steep and rugged it may be, they are ready to walk in it. They feel the burden of the public debt, but they re- PARAGRAPHS PROM SPEECHES, ii member that it is the price of blood — the precious blood of half a million brave men who died to save to us all that makes life desir- able or property secure. I believe they will, after a full hearing, discard all methods of payinp^ their debts by sleight of hand, or by any scheme which crooked wisdom may devise If public morality did not protest against any such plan, enlightened public selfishness would refuse its sanction. Let us be true to our trust a few years longer, and the next generation will lie here with its seventy five millions of population and its sixty billions of wealth To them the debt that then remains will be a light burden. They will pay the last bond according to the letter and spirit of the contract, with the same sense of grateful duty with which they will j)ay the pen- sions of the few surviving soldiers of the great war for the Union. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, April 4, 1871.] Now, Mr. Speaker, to review briefly the ground travelled over : The changes wrought in theConstitution by the last three amendments in regard to the individual rights of citizens are these : that no per- son within the United States shall be made a slave ; that no citizen shall be denied the right of suffrage because of his color or because he was once a slave ; that no State, by its legislation or the enforce- ment thereof, shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; that no State shall, without due process of law, disturb the life, liberty, or property of any person within its jurisdiction ; and finally, that no State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Thanks to the wisdom and patriotism of the American people, these great and beneficent provisions are now imperishable ele- ments of the Constitution, and will, I trust, remain forever among the irreversible guaranties of liberty. THE TARIFF. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, April i, 1570.'] I STAND novv where I have always stood since I have been a member of this House. I take the liberty of quoting, from the Congressional Globe of 1866. the following remarks which I then made on the subject of the tarifT : 12 GENERAL GARFIELD. " We have seen that one extreme school of economists would place the price of all manufactured articles in the hands of foreign producers by rendering it impossible for our manufacturers to com- pete with them : while the other extreme school, by making it im- possible for the foreigner to sell his competing waies in our market, would give the people no immediate check upon the prices which our manufacturers might fix for their products. I disagree with both these extremes. I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign products is the best gauge by which to regulate international trade. Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they please. This is my doctrine of protection. If Congress pursues this line of policy steadily, we shall, year by year, approach more nearly to the basis of free trade, because we shall be more nearly able to compete with other nations on equal terms. I am for a protection which leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection." Mr. Chairman, examining thus the possibilities of the situation, I believe that the true course for the friends of protection to pursue is to reduce the rates on imports wherever we can justly and safely do so, and, accepting neither of the extreme doctrines urged on this floor, endeavor to establish a stable policy that will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people. DEMOCRATIC RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, March 14, 1870.] My friend from Indiana (Mr. Niblack) is not himself an extreme partisan. But he has said some things just now which deserve an answer. He says that if the glory of the war belongs to the Repub- lican party, then the results of the war, the expenditures of the war, and the burdens laid upon the people in consequence of the war, fall also to our share. A part of this statement I indorse. But, Mr. Chairman, I desire to ask that gentleman and his party a ques- tion. Suppose that in the year 1861. every Democrat north of the Potomac and the Ohio had followed the lead of Grant, and Douglas, and Dickinson, and Tod, and all the other great lights of the Dem- ocratic party, had thrown away the Democratic name and said that they would be Democrats no longer, as we said we would be Re- publicans no longer, but all would be Union men, and stand to- gether around the flag until the tebellion had been put under our rARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES. 13 feet. I desire to ask the gentlemen, if these things had happened, how long the war would have lasted, how much the war would have cost? I do not hesitate to say that it could not have lasted a month, and the expenditures of the war would never have exceeded $10,000,000. I say, as a mailer of current history, that it was the great hope of the rebels of the South that the assistance of the Democratic party of the North would divide our forces and over- come all our efforts ; that at the ballot-box the Democrats at home would help the cause which they were mainiaining in the field. It was that, and that alone, which protracted the war and created our innnense debt. I come, therefore, to the door of your party, gentlemen on the other side, and I lay down at your threshold every dollar of the debt, every item of the stupendous total which expresses the great cost of the war ; and I say if you had followed Douglas there would have been no debt, no blood, no burden. THE WOMAN QUESTION. [From an Address before the Business College, Washington, D. C, June 20, 1869.] Laugh at it as we may, put it aside as a jest if we will, keep it out of Congress or political campaigns, still, the woman question is rising in our horizon larger than the size of a man's hand ; and some solution, erelong, that question must find. I have> not yet committed my mind to any formula that embraces the whole ques- tion. I halt on the threshold of so great a problem ; but there is one point on which I have reached a conclusion, and that is. that this nation must open up new avenues of work and usefulness to the women of the country, so that everywhere they may have some- thing to do. This is. just now, infinitely more valuable to them than the platform or the ballot-box. Whatever conclusion shall be reached on that subject by and by, at present the most valuable gift which can be bestowed on women is something to do. which they can do well and worthily, and thereby maintain themselves. There- fore I say that every thoughtful statesman will look with satisfaction upon such business colleges as are opening a career for our young Avomen. On that score we have special rcasoh to be thankful for the establishment of these institutions. 14 GENERAL GARFIELD. BANK-NOTES AND GREENBACKS. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives June 7, 1870.] In the first place, it is the experience of all nations, and it is the almost unanimous opinion of all eminent statesmen and financial writers, that no nation can safely undertake to supply its people with a paper currency issued directly by the government. And, to apply that principle to our own country, let me ask if gentlemen thmk it safe to subject any political party who may be in power in this gov- ernment to the great temptation of overissues of paper money in lieu of taxation ? In times of high political excitement, and on the eve of a general election, when there might be a deficiency in the rev- enues of the country, and Congress should find it necessary to levy additional taxes, the temptation would be overwhelming to supply the deficit by an increased issue of paper money. Thus the whole business of the country, the value of all contracts, the prices of all commodities, the wages of labor, would depend upon a vote in Congress. For one, I dare not trust the great industrial interests of this country to such uncertain and hazardous chances. But even if Congress and the administration should be always superior to such political temptations, still I affirm, in the second place, that no human legislature is wise enough to determine how much currency the wants of this country require. Test it in this House to-day. Let every member mark down the amount which he believes the business of the country requires, and who does not know that the amounts will vary by hundreds of millions ? But a third objection, stronger even than the last, is this : that such a currency possesses no power of adapting itself to the busi- ness of the country. Suppose the total issues should be five hun- dred millions, or seven hundred millons, or any amount you please ; it might be abundant for spring and summer, and yet when the great body of agricultural products were moving off to market in the fall that amount might be totally insufficient. Fix any volume you please, and if it be just sufficient at one period it may be re- dundant at another, or insufficient at another. No currency can meet the wants of this country unless it is founded directly upon the demands of business, and not upon the caprice, the ignorance, the political selfishness of the party in power. What regulates now the loans and discounts and credits of our national banks ? The business of the country. The amount in- creases or decreases, or remains stationary, as business is fluctuat- ing or steady. This is a natural form of exchange, based upon the business of the country and regulated by its changes. And when that happy day arrives when the vvhole volume of our currency is redeemable in gold at the will of the holder, and recognized by all I'ARACRAPHS /'ROM SPEECHES. 15 nations as equal to money, then the whole business of banking, the whole volume of currency, the whole amount of credits, whether in the form of checks, drafts, or bills, will be rep^JhUed by the same gen- eral law, the business of the country. The business of the country is like the level of the ocean, from which all measurements are made of heights and depths. Though tides and currents may for a time disturb, and tempests vex and toss its surface, still, through calm and storm the grand level rules all its waves and lays its meas- uring-lines on every shore. So the business of the country, which, in the aggregated demands of the people for exchange of values, maiks the ebb and flow, the rise and fall of the currents of trade, and forms the base line from which to measure all our financial leg- islation, is the only safe rule by which the volume of our cur- rency can be determined. A NON-EXPORTABLE CURRENCY. [From a Speech in House of Representatives, June 15, 1870.] Could anything but a predetermined purpose to defend, main- tain, and increase our irredeemal:)]e paper money lead so able and distinguished a statesman as the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kelley] to say, as he did the other day, concerning the green- back currency : " Beyond the sea, in foreign lands, it fortunately is not money ; but, sir, when have we had such a long and unbroken career of prosperity in business as since we adopted this non-exportable cur- rency ?" It is reported of an Englishman who was wrecked on a strange shore that, wandering along the coast, he came to a gallows with a victim hanging upon it. and that he fell down on his knees and thanked God that he at last beheld a sign of civilization. But this is the first time I ever heard a financial philosopher express his grati- tude that we have a currency of such bad repute that other nations will not receive it ; he is thankful that it is not exportable. We have a great many commodities in such a condition, that they are not exportable. Mouldy flour, rusty wheat, rancid butter, damaged cotton, addled eggs, and spoiled goods generally arc not export- able. But it never occurred to me to be thankful for this putres- cence. It is related in a quaint German book of hurtior, that the inhabitants of Schildcbcrg, finding that other towns, with more pub- lic spirit than their own, had erected gibbets wiiliin their precincts, resolved that the town of Schildcbcrg should also have a gallows ; and one patriotic member of the town council offered a resolution l6 GENERAL GAR EI ELD. that the benefits of this gallows should be reserved exclusively for the inhabitants of Schildeberg. The gentleman from Pennsylvania would reserve for our exclu- sive benefit all the blessings of a fluctuating, uncertain, and dishon- ored paper currency. In his view this irredeemable, non-exportable currency is so full of virtue that for the want of it California is falling into decay. That misguided State has seen fit to cling to the money that all nations receive, and ruin impends over her golden shores. I doubt if the business men of California will ask my friend to prescribe for their financial maladies. Quite in keep- ing with the gentleman's other opinions on this subject is the fol- lowing. He says " the volume of currency does not, as has often been asserted, regulate the price of commodities." According to this we have not only a non- exportable currency, but one regulated by some trick of magic, so as to defy the universal laws of value, of supply and demand, and that neither the increase or decrease of its volume can affect the price of commodities. Argument on such a doctrine is useless. A FIXED STANDARD OF VALUE. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, April 8, 1874.] WlTTi what care has our government protected its standards ! The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] sneeringly asked. Why does not some one argue in favor of redeeming the yard-stick, the quart-pot, or the Fairbanks scales ? In that paragraph he uses words without significance. We do not redeem these standards, but we do in regard to them what is analogous to the redemption of our standard of value. Our yard-stick is a metallic bar copied from the standard yard of England, which is nearly three hundred years old. It is deposited in the ofl^ce of the Coast Survey, and is sacredly guarded from diminution or injury. The best efforts of science have been brought to bear to make the yard-stick as little liable as possible to mutilation or change. Two methods have been adopted by Science to test the accuracy of the standard and preserve it from loss. One is to find a pendu- lum which, swinging in 7'acuo, will make one vibration a second, at a given altitude from the level of the sea ; the other was a method adopted by France, when in the last century she sent her surveyors to measure six hundred miles of a meridian line, from Dunkirk to Barcelona. Thus she made her metre a given aliquot part of the earth's circumference, so that should her standard be lost the meas- ure of the globe itself would furnish the means of restoring it. Both these standards are deposited in the Coast Survey, and together PARAGRAniS FROM SPEECH KS. 17 with the standard measures of capacity are furnished to ilic several States as the standards to which all our Stale and nuinicipal laws refer. Every contract for the sale and delivery of anything that can be weighed or measured is based upon these stanelards. and the citizen who changes the weight or the measurement commits a mis- demeanor for which he is punished by the law. The hilse weight and balance are still an abomination. Sir. we do not redeem our yard-stick ; but we preserve it, and by the solemn sanctions of the law demand that it shall be applied to all transactions where extension is an element. Let us with equal care restore and preserve our standard of value, which must be applied to every exchange of property between man and man. An uncertain and fluctuating standard is an evil whose magnitude is too vast for measurement. THE BATTLE OF HISTORY. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, August 4, 1876. 1 Peace from the shock of battle ; the higher peace of our streets, of our homes, of our equal rights, we must make secure by making the conquering ideas of the war everywhere dominant and perma- nent. With all my heart I join with the gentleman in rejoicing that the war-drums throb no longer and the baltle-llags are furled ; and I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave people, one in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that the darkness through which we have passed was a part of that stern but beneficent discipline by which the Great Disposer of events has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national lil'e. But such a result can be reached only by comprehending the whole meaning of the revolution through ahich we have passed and are still passing. I say still passing ; for I remember that after the battle of arms comes the battle of history. The cause that tri- umphs in the field does not always triumph in history. And those who carried the war for union and equal and universal freedom to a victorious issue can never safely relax their vigilance until the ideas for which they fought have become embodied in the enduring forms of individual and national life. Has this been done ? Not yet. I ask the gentleman, in all plain- ness of speech, and yet in all kindness, Ls he correct in his statement that the conquered party accept the results of the war? Lven if they do, I remind the gentleman that accept is not a very strong word. I go further : I ask him if the Democratic party have adopted the results of the war ? Is it not asking loo much of human nature 1 8 GENERAL GARFIELD. to expect such unparalleled changes to be not only accepted, but in so short a time adopted by men of strong and independent opin- ions ? The antagonisms which gave rise to the war and grew out of it were not born in a day, nor can they vanish in a night. THE EVIL GENIUS OF THE SOUTH. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, August 4, 1876.] I HOPE my public life has given proof that I do not cherish a spirit of malice or bitterness toward the South, Perhaps they will say I have no right to advise them ; but at the risk of being considered impertinent I will express my conviction that the bane oi the South- ern people, for the last twenty- five years, has been that they have trusted the advice of the Democratic party. The very remedy which the gentleman from Mississippi offers for the ills of his peo- ple has been and still is their bane. The Democratic party has been the evil genius of the South in all these years. They yielded their own consciences .to you on the slavery question, and led you to believe that the North would always yield. They made you believe that if we ever dared to cross the Potomac or Ohio to put down your rebellion, we could only do so across the dead bodies of many hundred thousands of Northern Democrats. They made you believe that the war would begin in the streets of our Northern cities ; that we were a community of shopkeepers, of sordid money- getters, and would not stand against your fiery chivalry. You thought us cold, slow, lethargic ; and in some respects we are. There are some differences between us that spring from origin and influences of climate — differences not unlike the description of the poet, that " Bright and fierce and fickle is the South, And dark and true and tender is the North" — differences that kept us from a good understanding. You thought that our coldness, our slowness, indicated a lack of spirit and of patriotism, and you were encouraged in that belief by most of the Northern Democracy ; but not by all. They warned you at Charleston in i860. And when the great hour struck there were many noble Demo- crats in the North who lifted the flag of the Union far above the flag of party ; but there was a residuum of Democracy, called in the slang of the time " copperheads," who were your evil genius from the beginning of the war till its close, and ever since. Some of them sat in these seats, and never rejoiced when we won a victory, and never grieved when we lost one. They were the men v/ho sent PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES. 19 your Vallandighams to give counsel and encouragement to your re- bellion, and to buoy you up with the false hope that at last you would conquer by the aid of their treachery. I honor }ou, gentlemen of the South, ten thousand times more than I honor such Democrats of the North. NO STEPS BACKWARD. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, Aug. 4, 1876.] I WILL close by calling your attention again to the great problem before us. Over this vast horizon of interest North and South, above all party prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for and lost, is the grand onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate its glory, to save liberty alive, to pre- serve exact and equal justice to all, to protect and foster all these- priceless principles, until they shall have crystallized into the form of enduring law, and become inwrought into the life and habits of our people. And until these great results are accomplished it is not safe to take one step backward. It is still more unsafe to trust interests of such measureless value in the hands of an organization whose mem bers have never comprehended their epoch, have never been in sympathy with its great movements, who have resisted every step of its progress, and whose principal function has been " To lie in cold obstruction" across the pathway of the nation. It is most unsafe of all to trust that organization, when for the first time since the war it puts forward for the first and second place of honor and command men who in our days of greatest danger esteemed party above country, and felt not one throb of patriotic ardor for the triumph of imperilled Union, but from the beginning to the end hated the war and hated those who carried our eagles to victory. No, no, gentlemen ; our enlightened and patriotic people will not follow such leaders in the rearward march. Their myriad faces are turned the other way, and along their serried lines still rings the cheering cry, " Forward ! till our great work is fully and worthily accomplished." 20 GENERAL GARFIELD. REBELLION IN THE REAR. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, Jan, 12, 1876.] And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began. Toward those men who gallantly fought on the field I cherish the kindest feeling. I feel a sincere reverence for the soldierly qualities they displayed on many a well-fought battle-field. I hope the day will come when their swords and ours will be crossed over many a doorway of our children, who will remember the glory of their ancestors v/ith pride. The high qualities displayed in that conflict now belong to the whole nation. Let them be consecrated to the Union and its future peace and glory. I shall hail that consecration as a pledge and symbol of our perpetuity. But there is a class of men referred to in the speech of the gentle- man yesterday, for whom I have never yet gained the Christian grace necessary to say the same thing. The gentleman said that amid the thunder of battle, through its dim smoke and above its roar, they heard a voice from this side, saying, " Brothers, come." I do not know whether he meant the same thing, but I heard that voice behind us. I heard that voice, and I recollect that I sent one of those who uttered it through our lines — a voice owned by~Vallan- digham. General Scott said, in the early days of the war, " When this war is over, it will require all the physical and moral power of the Government to restrain the rage and fury of the non-coinbatantsy It was that non-combatant voice behind us that cried " Halloo ?" to the other side ; that always gave cheer and encouragement to the enemy in our hour of darkness, I have never forgotten and have not yet forgiven those Democrats of the North whose hearts were not warmed by the grand inspirations of the Union, but who stood back finding fault, always crying disaster, rejoicing at our defeat, never glorying in our victory. If these are the voices the gentleman heard, I am sorry he is now united with those who uttered them. But to those most noble men, Democrats and Repub- licans, who together fought for the Union, I commend all the les- sons of charity that the wisest and most beneficent men have taught. I join you all in every aspiration that you may express to stay in this Union, to heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to forget the evils and the bitternesses of the past ; but do not for the sake of the three hundred thousand heroic men who, maimed and bruised, drag out their weary lives, many of them carrying in their hearts horrible memories of what they suffered in the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put back into power that man who was the cause nf their suffering — that man still unaneled, unshrived, unforgiven, undefended. PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES, 2: POPULAR SUFFRAGE MADE SAFE BY EDUCATION. [From an Address on the Future of the Republic, delivered before the Literary Societies of Hudson College.] We are apt to be deluded into false security by political catch- words, devised to flatter rather than instruct. We have happily escaped the dogma of the divine right of kings. Let us not fall into the equally pernicious error that multitude is divine because it is a multitude. The words of our great publicist, the late Dr. Lieber, whose faith in republican liberty was undoubted, should never be forgotten. In discussing the doctrine of " Vox populi, vox Dei," he said : " Woe to the country in which political hypocrisy first calls the people almighty, then teaches that the voice of the people is divine, then pretends to take a mere clamor for the true voice of the people, and lastly, gets up the desired clamor." This sentence ought to be read in every political caucus. It would make an interesting and significant preamble to most of our political platforms. It is only when the people speak truth and justice that their voice can be called " the voice of God." Our faith in the democratic principle rests upon the belief that intelli- gent men will see that their highest political good is in liberty, regulated by just and equal laws ; and that in the distribution of political power it is safe to follow the maxim, " Each for all, and all for each," We confront the dangers of the suffrage by the bless- ings of universal education. We believe that ihe strength of the state is the aggregate strength of its individual citizens ; and that the suffrage is the link, that binds in a bond of mutual interest and responsibility, the fortunes of the citizen to the fortunes of the state. Hence, as popular suffrage is the broadest base ; so, when coupled with intelligence and virtue it becomes the strongest, the most en- during base on which to build the superstructure of government. THE DEMOCRACY CONVICTED OF A REVOLUTIOXARY PURPOSE. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, April a6, 1879.] Gentlemen, I took upon myself a very grave responsibility in the opening of this debate when I quoted the declarations of lead- ing members on the other side and said thai the programme was revolution and, if not abandoned, would result in the destruction of this Government. I declared that you had entered upon a scheme 22 GENERAL GARFIELD. which if persisted in would starve the Government to death. I say that I took a great risk when I made this charge against you, as a party. I put myself in your power, gentlemen. If I had misconceived your purposes and misrepresented your motives, it was in your power to prove me a false accuser. It was in your power to ruin me in the estimation of fair-minded, patriotic men, by the utterance of one'sen- tence. The humblest or the greatest of you could have over- whelmed me with shame and confusion in one short sentence. You could have said, " We wish to pass our measures of legislation in reference to elections, juries, and the use of the army ; and we will, if we can do so constitutionally ; but if we cannot get these meas- ures in accordance with the Constitution we will pass the appropri- ation bills like loyal representatives ; and then go home and appeal to the people." If any man, speaking for the majority, had made that declaration, uttered that sentence, he would have ruined me in the estimation of fair-minded men, and set me down as a false accuser and slanderer. Forty-five of you have spoken. Forty-five of you have deluged the ear of ihis country with defeat ; but that sentence has not been spoken by any one of you. On the contrary, by your silence, as well as by your afl5rmation, you have made my accusation over- whelmingly true. A PARTY OF POSITIVE IDEAS. [From a Debate with Geo. H. Pendleton, at Springfield, Ohio, Sept. 27, 1877.] And now, in looking over this long discussion, let me say that the Republican party, though it has made mistakes, has been a party of great courage, a party of great faith. It has had positive ideas- ideas it was willing to stand up by, and, if need be, die by. It believed in the Union ; it believed in the public faith ; it believed in a public trust ; it believed in enlarging the borders of liberty ; it believed in paying the public obligations, and it believes now in sustaining all it has so worthily achieved. It dares appeal to the country, as it is deserving of the confidence of the country. It dares appeal to the country as against a vacillating and uncertain and unwise and in many cases the unpatriotic spirit of the Demo- cratic party. PARAGRAPHS PROiU SPEECHES. 23 THE DEMOCRATIC CREED. [From a Speech at London, Ohio, Sept. ig, 1877.] There was a time when the Democratic party was a party of ideas. No party ever did any good unless it was a party of ideas. While it had Ideas the Democratic party prospered. But twenty years ago an explosion occurred in its camp. From then until the present time it has not been a party of ideas. For twenty years it has been a party simply of opposition, of obstruction. Its creed may be summed up in one little word of two letters — No! The Democratic party for twenty years has said no. It has built nothing, but against all progress it has pulled back and snarled its opposition No. The Republican party is a party that builds something ; it is a party of aggressive ideas ; it believes in the Union and its perpetu- ity ; it believes in freedom against slavery ; it believes in the equality of all against class ; it believes in the public faith, in the public credit, in the payment of the public debt. It is the exponent of all great national things that make our country respected and prosper- ous. And to all this there has come one grumbling voice — No — from the Democracy. I hold myself open 10 debate this assertion with any Democratic speaker in Ohio. The Democracy have not in twenty years advanced one great national idea of public polity that they have held to (or three consecutive years. Like an army build- ing a bridge and burning each span behind it, they have builded and burned until at last they stand out isolated in the swamp, unable to get to either shore. THE SAVINGS OF THE PEOPLE. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, Nov. 16, 1877.] Gentlemen assail the bondholders of the country as the rich men who oppress the poor. Do they know how vast an amount of the public securities are held by poor people ? I took occasion, a few years since, to ask the officers of a bank in one of the coutitics of my district — a rural district — to show me the number of holders and amounts held of United States bonds on which they collected the interest. The total amount was ij^4Tr),ooo. And how many people held them? One hundred and ninety six. Of these, just eight men held from $15,000 to $20,000 each ; the other one hun- dred and eighty-eight ranged from .$50 up to 1^2500. I found in that list, fifteen orphan children and sixty widows, who had a little left them from their fathers' or husbands' estates, and had made the nation their guardian. And I found one hundred and twenty-one 24 - GENERAL GAREIELD. laborers, mechanics, ministers, men of slender means, who had saved their earnings and put them in the hands of the United States that they might be safe. And they were the bloated " bondhold- ers," against whom so much eloquence is fulminated in this House. There is another Avay in which poor men dispose of their money. A man says, I can keep my wife and babies from starving while I live and have my health ; but if I die they may be compelled to go over the hill to the poorhouse ; and, agonized by that thought, he saves of his hard earnings enough to takeout and keep alive a small life-insurance policy, so that, if he dies, there may be something left, provided the insurance company to which he intrusts his money is honest enough to keep its pledges. And how many men do you think have done that in the United States ? I do not know the number for the whole country ; but I do knovv' this, that from a late report of the insurance commissioners of the State of New York it appears that the companies doing business in that State had 774,625 policies in force, and the face value of these policies was $1,922,000,000. I find, by looking over the returns, that in my State there are 55,000 policies outstanding ; in Pennsylvania, 74,000 ; in Maine, 17,000 ; m Maryland, 25,000, and in the State of New York, 160.000. There are, of course, some rich men insured in these com- panies, but the majority are poor people, for the policies do not average more than $2200 each. What is done with the assets of these companies, which amount to $445,000,000 ? They are loaned out. Here again the creditor class is the poor, and the insurance companies are the agents of the poor to lend their money for them. It would be dishonorable for Congress to legislate either for the debtor class or for the creditor class alone. We ought to legislate for the whole country. Rut when gentlemen attempt to manufacture sentiment against the Resumption act, by saying it will help the rich and hurt the poor, they are overwhelmingly answered by the facts. Suppose you undo the w^ork that Congress has attempted — to resume specie payment — what will result? You will depreciate the value of the greenback. Suppose it falls ten cents on the dollar. You will have destroyed ten per cent of the value of every deposit in the savings-banks, ten per cent of every life-insurance policy and fire-insurance policy, of every pension to the soldier, and of every day's wages of every laborer in the nation. THE DEMOCRATIC PROGRAMME OF COERCING THE PRESIDENT. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, March eg, 1S79.] OtTR theory of law is free consent. That is the granite founda- tion of our whole superstructure. Nothing in this Republic can be PARAGRAPHS J ROM SPEECHES. 25 law without consent — the free consent of the House, the free con- sent of the Senate, the free consent of the Excciuivc, or, if lie refuse it, the free consent of two tliirds of these bodies. Will anv man deny that ? Will any man challenge a line of the statement that free consent is the foundation of all our institutions ? And yet the prop^ramme announced two weeks ago was that, if the Senate re- fused to consent to the demand of the House, tiie Government should stop. And the proposition was then, and the programme is now, that, although there is not a Senate to be coerced, there is still a third independent branch in the legislative power of the Government whose consent is to be coerced at the peril of the destruction of this Government ; that is, if the President, in the discharge of his duty, shall exercise his plain constitutional right to refuse his con- sent to this proposed legislation, the Congress will so use its volun- tary powers as to destroy the Government. This is the proposition v/hich we confront ; and we denounce it as revolution. It makes no difference. Mr. Chairman, what the issue is. If it were the simplest and most inoffensive proposition in the world, yet if you demand, as a measure of coercion, that it shall be adopted against the free consent prescribed in the Constitution, every fair- minded man in America is bound to resist you as much as though his own life depended upon his resistance. Let it be understood that I am not arguing the merits of any one of the three amendments. I am discussing the proposed method of legislation ; and I declare that it is against the Constitution of our country. It is revolutionary to the core, and is destructive of the fundamental prmciple of American liberty, the free consent of all the powers that unite to make laws. In opening this debate I challenge all comers to show a single instance in our history where this consent has been thus coerced. This is the great, the paramount issue which dwarfs all others into insignificance. EFFECTS OF RESUMPTION. [From an Address in Chicago, Jun. 2, 1079.] SUCCESSFUI, resumption will greatly aid in bringing into the rnurky sky of our politics v/hat the signal service people call "clearing weather." It puts an end to a score of controversies which have long vexed the public mintl, and wrought mischief to business. It ends the angry contention over the difference between the money of the bondholder and the money of the plough-holder. It relieves enterprising Congressmen of the necessity of introducing twenty-five or thirty bills a session to furnish the people with cheap 26 GENERAL GAR EI ELD. money, to prevent gold-gambling, and to make custom duties pay- able in greenbacks. It will dismiss to the limbo of things forgotten such Utopian schemes as a currency based upon the magic circle of interconvertibility of two different forms of irredeemable paper, and the schemes of a currency "based on the public faith," and secured by " all the resources of the nation" in general, but upon no particular part of them. We shall still hear echoes of the old conflict, such as " the barbarism and cowardice of gold and silver," and the virtues of " fiat money ;" but the theories which gave them birth will linger among us like belated ghosts, and soon find rest in the political grave of dead issues. All these will take their places in history alongside of the resolution of Vansittart, in i8n, that " British'paper had not fallen, but gold had risen in value," and the declaration of Castlereagh, in the House of Commons, that " the money standard is a sense of value in reference to currency as compared with commodities," and the opinion of another member, who declared that *' the standard is neither gold nor silver, hwlsome- tliiuiT set up in the imagination to be regulated by public opinion." When we have fully awakened from these vague dreams, public opinion will resume its old channels, and the wisdom and experi- ence of the fathers of our Constitution will again be acknowledged and followed. We shall agree, as our fathers did, that the yard-stick shall have length, the pound must have weight, and the dollar must have value in itself, and that neither length, nor weight, nor value can be created by the fiat of law. Congress, relieved of the arduous task of regulating and managing all the business of our people, will address itself to the humbler but more important work of preserv- ing the public peace, and managing wisely the revenues and ex- penditures of the Government. Industry will no longer wait for the legislature to discover easy roads to sudden wealth, but will begin again to rely upon labor and frugality as the only certain road to riches. Prosperity, which has long been waiting, is now ready to come. If we do not rudely repulse her she will soon revisit our people, and will stay until another periodical craze shall drive her away. THE ABSURDITY OF FIAT MONEY. [From a Speech at Flint, Michigan, Oct. 22, 1878.] Now. fellow-citizens, to sum up all I have tried to say thus far, when you can have more cloth by shortening your yard-stick ; when you can have more wheat by reducing the size of your bushel ; when you can have more land by changing the figures of your deed, and paraCraphs from speeches. 27 havins: it read " 200" where it read " too ;" when vour dairyman can make more butter and cheese by watering his milk — then, and not till then, can you make wealth in this country by printing pieces of paper and calling them dollars. Why, I met a gentleman on your streets to-day, a man hardly past middle age, that told me he was here when there were but two log-cabins in this place. And I say that this beautiful city, with its beautiful gardens and its circling river, with its homes and happiness — I say that all that has been done here since the time that man first came, has been done by the hard struggling and earnest toil of courageous men, who hav'^e for a gen- eration back battled with the wilderness and brought it up to the glory of to-day. Well, friends, what fools these people were, to speak plainly, to have endured so much when they might have set up a printing-press and just printed themselves rich, if this idea of fiat money be true. Why, fellow-citizens, do you really believe that if Ave should in Washington print pieces of paper saying, " This is $1,000,000," and send one to each man, woman, and child in the United States, that we should all in fact be rnillionaries the ne.xt morning? Now does anybody believe that? It is the wildest hal- lucination that ever struck upon a people. It is wholly wild, and wholly without foundation. A REPLY TO THE DEMOC'RATIC THREAT TO DE- STROY THE ARMY. [Remarks in the House of Representatives, April 4, 1879.] I SAY, if the gentleman from Virginia puts that proposition before the American people, we will debate it in the forum of every patriotic heart, and will abide the result. If the party which, after eighteen years' banishment from power, has come back, as the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Blackburn] said yesterday, to its " birthright of power," or " heritage," as it is recorded in the record of this morning, is to signalize its return by striking down the gallant and faithful army of the United States, the people of this country will not be slow to understand that there are reminiscences of that army which these gentlemen would willingly forget, by burying both the army and the memories of its great service to the Union in one grave. We do not seek to revive the unhappy memories of the war ; but we are unwilling to see the army perish at the hands of Congress, even if its continued existence should occasionally awaken the memory of its former glories. Now, let it be understood, once for all, that we do not deny, we 28 GENERAL GARFIELD. have never denied your right to make such rules for this House as you please. Under those rules, as you 4nake or construe them, you may put all your legislation upon these bills as " riders." But we say that, whatever your rules may be, you must make or repeal a law in accordance with the Constitution, by the triple consent to , which I referred the other day. or you must do it by violence. Now, as rny friend from Connecticut [Mr. Hawley] well said, if you can elect a President and a Congress in iSSo, you have only to wait two years, and you have the three consents. You can then, without revolution, tear down this statute and all the rest. You can follow out the programme which some of your members have sug- gested, and tear out one by one the records of the last eighteen years. Some of them are glorious with the unquenchable light of liberty ; some of them stand as the noblest trophies of freedom. With full power in your hands, you can destroy them. But we ask you to restrain you rage against them until you have the lawful power to smite them down. PROTECTION OF THE NATIONAL BALLOT-BOX. [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, March sg, 1879.] Let it be remembered that the avowed object of this new revolu- tion is to destroy all the defences which the nation has placed around its ballot-box to guard the fountain of its own life. You say that the United States shall not employ even its civil power to keep peace at the polls. You say that the marshals shall have no power either to arrest rioters or criminals v/ho seek to destroy the freedom and purity of the ballot-box. I remind you that you have not always shown this great zeal in keeping the civil officers of the General Government out of the States. Only six years before the war your law authorized marshals of the United States to enter all our hamlets and households to hunt for fugitives slaves. Not only that, it empowered the marshals to summon the posse comitahts, to command all bystanders to join in the chase and aid in remanding to eternal bondage the fleeing slave. And your Democratic Attorney-General, in his opinion published in 1854, declared that the marshal of the United States might sum- mon to his aid the whole able-bodied force of his precinct, all by- standers, including not only the citizens generally, " but any and all organized armed forces, whether militia of the State, or officers, soldiers, sailors, and marines of the United States," to join in the chase and hunt down the fugitive. Now, gentlemen, if, for the pur- pose of making eternal slavery the lot of an American, you could send your marshals, summon your posse, and use the armed force PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES. 29 of the United States, with what face or grace can you tell us that this Government cannot lawfully employ the same marshals with their armed /t'.f.rt- of citizens, to maintain the purity of our own elec- tions and keep the peace at or own polls. You have made the issue and we have accepted it. In the name of the Constitution and on behalf of good government and public justice, we make the appeal to our common sovereign. THE NEW REBELLION". [From a Speech in the House of Representatives, March 29, 1879. "J Let it be understood that I am not discussing the merits of this law. I have merely turned aside from the line of my argument to show the inconsistency of the other side in proposing to stop the Government if they cannot force the repeal of a law which they themselves made. I am discussing a method of revolution against the Constitution now proposed by this House, and to that issue I hold gentlemen in this debate, and challenge them to reply. And now, Mr. Chairman, I ask the forbearance of gentlemen on the other side while I offer a suggestion, which I make with reluc- tance. They will bear me witness that I have, in many wavs, shown my desire that the wounds of the war should be healed ; that the grass which has grown green over the graves of the dead of both armies might symbolize the returning spring of friendship and peace between citizens who were lately in arms against each other. But I am compelled by the conduct of the oihor side to refer to a chapter of our recent history. The last act of Democratic domina- tion in this Capitol, eighteen years ago, was striking and dramatic, perhaps heroic. Then the Democratic party said to the Republi- cans, "If you elect the man of your choice as President of the United States Vv^e will shoot your Government to death ;" but the people of this country, refusing to be coerced by threats or violence, voted as they pleased, and lawfully elected Abraham Lincoln as President of the United Slates. Then your leaders, though holding a majority in the other branch of Congress, were heroic enough to withdraw'from their seats and fling down the gage of mortal battle. We called it rebellion ; but we recognized it as courageous and manly to avow your purpose, take all the risks, and fight it out in the open field. Notwithstand- ing your utmost efforts to destroy it, tlie Government was saved. Year by year, since the war ended, those who resisted you have 30 GENERAL GARFIELD. come to believe that you have finally renounced your purpose to destroy, and are willing to maintain the Government. In that belief you have been permitted to return to power in the two Houses. To-day, after eighteen years of defeat, the book of your domina- tion is again opened, and your first act awakens every unhappy memory, and threatens to destroy the confidence which your pro- fessions of patriotism inspired. You turned down a leaf of the his- tory that recorded your last act of power in 1861, and you have now signalized your return to power by beginning a second chapter at the same page, not this time by a heroic act that declares war on the battle-field, but you say, if all the legislative powers of the Gov- ernment do not consent to let you tear certain laws out of the stat- ute-book, you will not shoot our Government to death as you tried to do in the first chapter, but you declare that if we do not consent against our will, if you cannot coerce an independent branch of this Government, against its will to allow you to tear from the statute- book some laws put there by the will of the people, you will starve the Government to deadi. [Great applause on the Republican side.] Between death on the field and death by starvation 1 do not know that the American people will see any great dift'erence. The end if successfully reached, would be death in either case. Gentle- men, you have it in your power to kill this Government ; you have it in your power, by withholding these two bills, to smite the nerve- centres of our Constitution with the paralysis of death ; and you have declared your purpose to do this, if you cannot break down Ihat fundamental principle of free consent which, up to this hour, has always ruled in the legislation of this Government. AN APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN. [From a Speech at Cleveland, on the Saturday evening before the Ohio election of 1879.] Now, fellow-citizens, a word before I leave you, on the very eve of the holy day of God — a fit moment to consecrate ourselves finally to the great work of next Tuesday morning. 1 see in this great audi- ence to-night a great many young men — young men who are about to cast their first vote. I want to give you a word of suggestion and advice. 1 heard a verj/ brilliant thing said by a boy the other day, up in one of our northwestern counties. He said to me, " General, 1 have a great mind to vote the Democratic ticket." That was not the brilliant thing. I said to him, "Why?" "Why," said he, " my father is a Republican, and my brothers are Republi- cans, and I am a Republican all over ; but I want to be an inde- pendent man, and I don't want anybody to say, * That fellow votes PARAGRAPHS FROM SPEECHES. 31 the Republican ticket just because his dad does,' and I have half a mind to vote the Democratic ticket just to prove my indepen- dence." I did not like the thing the boy suggested, but 1 did admire the spirit of ihe boy that wanted to have some independence of his own. Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Republican ticket just because your father votes it. Don't vole the Democratic ticket, even, if he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are about to pitch your tent in one of the great po- litical camps. Your life is lull and buoyant with hope now, and I beg you, when you pitch your tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at all inclined to pitch it among the Democratic people and with that party, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground wliere I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than like a camp for the living. Look at it ! It is billowed all over with the graves of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of disgraced doctrines. You cannot live in comfort in such a place. Why, look here ! Here is a little double mound. 1 look down on it and I read, " Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott Decision." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has been dead fifteen years— died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you. But look a little further. Here is another monument, a black tomb, and .beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a monument of four million pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of slaves, and I read on its little headstone this : " Sacred to the memory of Human Slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic party taught that it was divine — God's institution. They defended it, they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as a mourner. But here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln ; dead by the power of the Republican party ; dead by the justice of Almighty God. Don't camp there, young man. But here is another — a little brimstone tomb — and I read across its yellow face, in lurid, bloody lines, these words : " Sacred to the memory of State Sovereignty and Secession." Twelve millions of Democrats mustered around it in arms to keep it alive ; but here it lies, shot to death by the million guns of the Republic. Here it lies, its shrine burned to ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It is dead ! I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night air, to look at such a place. But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little mound — short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around I see torn pieces of paper with the word " fiat" on them, 32 GENERAL GARFIELD'S SPEECHES. and I look down in curiosity, wondering vvliat the little grave is, and 1 read on it : " Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby ;" nursed in the brain of all the fanaticism of the world ; rocked by Thomas Ewing, George H. Pendleton, Samuel Gary, and a few others throughout the land. But it died on the ist of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty milions of gold that God made, and not fiat power, lie upon its little carcass to keep it down forever. Oh, young man, come out of that ! That is no place in which to put your young life. Come out, and come over into this camp of liberty, of order, of law, of justice, of freedom, of all that is glori- ous under these nigl.l clars. Is there any death here in our camp ? Yes ! yes ! Three hun- dred and fifty thousand soldiers, the noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty for- ever. But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead ideas here. Hang out our banner from under the blue sky this night, until it shall sweep the green turf under your feet. It hangs over our camp. Read away up under the stars the inscription we have written on it, lo ! these twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to liberty, and this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. ^ A worthily married pair love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the day of their first espousals ; and we are truer to liberty to- day and dearer to God than we were when we spoke our first word of liberty. Read away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we uttered twenty-five years ago I What was it ? " Slavery shall never extend over another foot of the territory of the great West. " Is that dead or alive? Alive, thank God, for- evermore ! And truer to-night than it was the hour it was written. Then it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To night it is equal with the stars — immortal history and immortal truth. Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have made we have vindicated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the ground, and it touches the stars. Come here, young man, and put in your young life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but the heroes that defended it. 1 think these young men will do that. The foregoing pages are taken from " The Republican Manual for 1880 : History, Principles, and Victories of the Republican Party, with Biographical Sketches of its Candidates." By E. V. Smalley. Published by the American Book Exchange, Tribune Building, New York. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 763 285 8