Famous American Statesmen Part 23

"'Wal, I will think on it. He wants to come back bad enough, and I guess I'll have to let him. I never thought of it that way afore.'

"I knew I was safe. It was the financial question that troubled the old gentleman, and I knew that would be overcome when Henry got to teaching, and could earn his money himself. He would then be so far along, too, that he could fight his own battles. He came all right the next fall, and, after finis.h.i.+ng at Hiram, graduated at an eastern college."

One secret of Garfield's success in teaching was his deep interest in the young. He said, "I feel a profounder reverence for a boy than for a man. I never meet a ragged boy of the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be b.u.t.toned up under his shabby coat. When I meet you in the full flush of mature life, I see nearly all there is of you; but among these boys are the great men of the future, the heroes of the next generation, the philosophers, the statesmen, the philanthropists, the great reformers and moulders of the next age. Therefore, I say, there is a peculiar charm to me in the exhibitions of young people engaged in the business of an education."

He made himself a student with his students. He said: "I shall give you a series of lectures upon history, beginning next week. I do this not alone to a.s.sist you; the preparation for the lectures will _compel_ me to study history."

He was always a worker. "When I get into a place that I can easily fill, I always feel like shoving out of it into one that requires of me more exertion."

His active mind was not content with teaching. He delivered lectures in the neighboring towns on geology, ill.u.s.trated by charts of his own making; upon "Walter Scott;" Carlyle's "Frederick the Great;" the "Character of the German People;" government, and the topics of the times. He preached almost every Sabbath in some Disciple church. A year after his return from Williams he was promoted to the presidency of Hiram College.

In 1858, when he was twenty-seven, he married Lucretia Rudolph, whom he had known at Geauga Seminary, and who was his pupil in Latin and Greek at Hiram. He had been engaged to her four years previously, when he entered Williams, she being a year his junior. She was his companion in study, as well as domestic life, and helped him onward in his great career.

This same year, 1858, he entered his name as a student at law, with a Cleveland firm, carrying on his studies at home, and fitted himself for the bar in the usual time devoted by those who have no other work in hand.

The following year, having taken an active part in the Republican campaign for John C. Fremont for the presidency, Garfield was chosen State senator. The same year Williams College invited him to deliver the master's oration on Commencement day. On the journey thither, he visited Quebec, taking with his wife their first pleasure trip. Only eight years before this he was ringing the bell at Hiram. Promotion had come rapidly, but deservedly.

In the Legislature he naturally took a prominent part. Lincoln had been elected and had issued his call for seventy-five thousand men. Garfield, in an eloquent speech, moved, "That Ohio contribute twenty thousand men, and three million dollars, as the quota of the State." The motion was enthusiastically carried.

Governor Dennison appointed Garfield colonel of the Forty-second Ohio Regiment, and he left the Senate for the battlefield, nearly one hundred Hiram students enlisting under him. At once he began to study military tactics in earnest. He organized a school among the officers, and kept the men at drill till they were efficient in the art of war. January 10, 1862, he fought the battle of Middle Creek, with eleven hundred men, driving General Marshall out of Eastern Kentucky, with five thousand men. The battle raged for five hours, sometimes a desperate hand-to-hand fight. General Buell said in his official report of Garfield and his regiment: "They have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of the country, the condition of the roads, and the inclemency of the season, and, without artillery, have in several engagements, terminating in the battle of Middle Creek, driven the enemy from his intrenched positions and forced him back into the mountains, with the loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many of his men killed and captured. These services have called into action the highest qualities of a soldier--fort.i.tude, perseverance, and courage." After this battle, President Lincoln made Garfield a brigadier-general.

Says Mr. Bundy: "Having cleared out Humphrey Marshall's forces, Garfield moved his command to Piketon, one hundred and twenty miles above the mouth of the Big Sandy, from which place he covered the whole region about with expeditions, breaking up rebel camps and perfecting his work.

Finally, in that poor and wretched country, his supplies gave out, and, as usual, taking care of the most important matter himself, he went to the Ohio River for supplies, got them, seized a steamer, and loaded it.

But there was an unprecedented freshet, navigation was very perilous, and no captain or pilot could be induced to take charge of the boat.

Garfield at once availed himself of his ca.n.a.l-boat experience, took charge of the boat, stood at the helm for forty out of forty-eight hours, piloted the steamer through an untried channel full of dangerous eddies and wild currents, and saved his command from starvation."

Later, Garfield became chief of General Rosecrans' staff, was in the dreadful battle of Chickamauga, and was made major-general "for gallant and meritorious services" in that battle. Rosecrans said: "All my staff merited my warm approbation for ability, zeal, and devotion to duty; but I am sure they will not consider it invidious if I especially mention Brigadier-General Garfield, ever active, prudent, and sagacious. I feel much indebted to him for both counsel and a.s.sistance in the administration of this army. He possesses the energy and the instinct of a great commander."

In the summer of 1862 the Nineteenth Congressional District of Ohio elected Garfield to Congress. He hesitated about leaving the army, but, being urged by his friends that it was his duty to serve his country in the House of Representatives, he took his seat December, 1863. Among such men as Colfax, Washburn, Conkling, Allison, and others, he at once took an honorable position. He was made chairman of military affairs, then of banking and currency, of appropriations, and other committees.

On the slavery question he had always been outspoken. He said, on the const.i.tutional amendment abolis.h.i.+ng slavery: "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 G.o.d's own; to be venerated and cherished as divine! It was another and higher form of civilization. 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 in the earth.' Like the spirit that Jesus cast out, it has, since then, been 'seeking rest and finding none.' It has sought in all the corners of the republic to find some hiding-place in which to shelter itself from the death it so richly deserves. 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 s.h.i.+eld of the Const.i.tution. We propose to follow it there, and drive it thence, as Satan was exiled from heaven.... To me it is a matter of great surprise that gentlemen on the other side should wish to delay the death of slavery. I can only account for it on the ground of long continued familiarity and friends.h.i.+p.... Has she not betrayed and slain men enough? Are they not strewn over a thousand battle-fields? Is not this Moloch already gorged with the b.l.o.o.d.y feast? Its best friends know that its final hour is fast approaching. The avenging G.o.ds are on its track. Their feet are not now, as of old, shod with wool, nor slow and stately stepping, but winged like Mercury's to bear the swift message of vengeance. No human power can avert the final catastrophe."

On the currency he spoke repeatedly and earnestly. He carefully studied English financial history, and mastered the French and German languages that he might study their works on political economy and finance. Says Captain F. H. Mason, late of the Forty-second Ohio Regiment, in his sketch of Garfield, "In May, 1868, when the country was rapidly drifting into a hopeless confusion of ideas on financial subjects, and when several prominent statesmen had come forward with specious plans for creating 'absolute money' by putting the government stamp upon bank notes, and for paying off with this false currency the bonds which the nation had solemnly agreed to pay in gold, General Garfield stood up almost single-handed and faced the current with a speech which any statesman of this century might be proud to have written on his monument. It embraced twenty-three distinct but concurrent topics, and occupied in delivering an entire day's session of the House."

"For my own part," he said, "my course is taken. In view of all the facts of our situation, of all the terrible experiences of the past, both at home and abroad, and of the united testimony of the wisest and bravest statesmen who have lived and labored during the past century, it is my firm conviction that any considerable increase of the volume of our inconvertible paper money will shatter public credit, will paralyze public industry, and oppress the poor; and that the gradual restoration of our ancient standard of value will lead us by the safest and surest paths to national prosperity and the steady pursuits of peace."

Again he said: "I for one am not willing that my name shall be linked to the fate of a paper currency. I believe that any party which commits itself to paper money will go down amid the general disaster, covered with the curses of a ruined people.

"Mr. Speaker, I remember that on the monument of Queen Elizabeth, where her glories were recited and her honors summed up, among the last and the highest recorded as the climax of her honors was this: that she had restored the money of her kingdom to its just value. And when this House shall have done its work, when it shall have brought back values to their proper standard, it will deserve a monument."

On the tariff question, General Garfield took the side of protection, yet was no extremist. His oft reiterated belief was, "As an abstract theory, the doctrine of free trade seems to be universally true, but as a question of practicability, under a government like ours, the protective system seems to be indispensable."

He said in Congress: "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 compete with them; while the other extreme school, by making it impossible for the foreigner to sell his competing wares 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 compet.i.tion 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.... If all the kingdoms of the world should become the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, then I admit that universal free trade ought to prevail. But that blessed era is yet too remote to be made the basis of the practical legislation of to-day. We are not yet members of 'the parliament of man, the federation of the world.' For the present, the world is divided into separate nationalities; and that other divine command still applies to our situation, 'He that provideth not for his own household has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel,' and until that latter era arrives patriotism must supply the place of universal brotherhood."

Again he said: "Those arts that enable our nation to rise in the scale of civilization bring their blessings to all, and patriotic citizens will cheerfully bear a fair share of the burden necessary to make their country great and self-sustaining. I will defend a tariff that is national in its aims, that protects and sustains those interests without which the nation cannot become great and self-sustaining.... So important, in my view, is the ability of the nation to manufacture all these articles necessary to arm, equip, and clothe our people, that if it could not be secured in any other way I would vote to pay money out of the federal treasury to maintain government iron and steel, woollen and cotton mills, at whatever cost. Were we to neglect these great interests and depend upon other nations, in what a condition of helplessness would we find ourselves when we should be again involved in war with the very nations on whom we were depending to furnish us these supplies? The system adopted by our fathers is wiser, for it so encourages the great national industries as to make it possible at all times for our people to equip themselves for war, and at the same time increase their intelligence and skill so as to make them better fitted for all the duties of citizens.h.i.+p in war and in peace. _We provide for the common defence by a system which promotes the general welfare...._ I believe that we ought to seek that point of stable equilibrium somewhere between a prohibitory tariff on the one hand and a tariff that gives no protection on the other. What is that point of stable equilibrium? In my judgment, it is this; a rate so high that foreign producers cannot flood our markets and break down our home manufacturers, but not so high as to keep them altogether out, enabling our manufacturers to combine and raise the prices, nor so high as to stimulate an unnatural and unhealthy growth of manufactures.

"In other words, I would have the duty so adjusted that every great American industry can fairly live and make fair profits, and yet so low that, if our manufacturers attempted to put up prices unreasonably, the compet.i.tion from abroad would come in and bring down prices to a fair rate."

On special occasions, such as his eulogies on Lincoln and General Thomas, and on Decoration Day at Arlington Heights, Garfield was very eloquent. At the latter place, he said: "If silence is ever golden, it must be here, beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem the music of which can never be sung. With words, we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept; plighted faith may be broken; and vaunted virtue may be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.

"For the n.o.blest man that lives there still remains a conflict. He must still withstand the a.s.saults of time and fortune; must still be a.s.sailed with temptations before which lofty natures have fallen. But with _these_, the conflict ended, the victory was won, when death stamped on them the great seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years can never blot."

Professor B. A. Hinsdale, the intimate friend of Garfield, says, in his "Hiram College Memorial," "General Garfield's readiness on all occasions has often been remarked. Probably some have attributed this readiness to the inspiration of genius. The explanation lies partly in his genius, but much more in his indefatigable work. He treasured up knowledge of all kinds. 'You never know,' he would say, 'how soon you will need it.'

Then he forecasted occasions, and got ready to meet them. One hot day in July, 1876, he brought to his Was.h.i.+ngton house an old copy of _The Congressional Globe_. Questioned, he said, 'I have been told, confidentially, that Mr. Lamar is going to make a speech in the House on general politics, to influence the presidential canva.s.s. If he does, I shall reply to him. Mr. Lamar was a member of the House before the war; and I am going to read some of his old speeches, and get into his mind.'

Mr. Lamar made his speech August 2, and Mr. Garfield replied August 4.

Men expressed surprise at the fulness and completeness of the reply, delivered on such short notice. But to one knowing his habits of mind, especially to one who had the aforesaid conversation with him, the whole matter was as light as day. His genius was emphatically the genius of preparation."

Both in Congress and in the army Garfield gave a portion of each day to the cla.s.sics, especially to his favorite, Horace. He was always an omnivorous reader.

In 1880, he was elected United States senator. After the election he said, "During the twenty years that I have been in public life, almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States, I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my convictions, at whatever personal cost to myself. I have represented for many years a district in Congress whose approbation I greatly desired; but, though it may seem, perhaps, a little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person, and his name was Garfield. He is the only man that I am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and live with, and die with; and if I could not have his approbation I should have had bad companions.h.i.+p."

All these years the home life had been helpful and beautiful. Of his seven children, two were sleeping in the Hiram church-yard. Five, Harry, James, Mollie, Irvin, and Abram, made the Was.h.i.+ngton home a place of cheer in winter, and the summer home, at Mentor, Ohio, a few miles from Hiram, a place of rest and pleasure. Here Garfield, beloved by his neighbors, ploughed and sewed and reaped, as when a boy. His mother lived in his family, happy in his success.

When the national Republican convention met in June, 1880, at Chicago, the names of several presidential candidates came before the people,--Grant, Blaine, and others. Garfield nominated John Sherman, of Ohio, in a chaste and eloquent speech. He said: "I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and n.o.ble character; but, as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean in a tempest.

"I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has pa.s.sed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyor takes the level from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths.

"Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm has pa.s.sed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find that calm level of public opinion, below the storm, from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which their final action will be determined. Not here in this brilliant circle, where fifteen thousand men and women are a.s.sembled, is the destiny of the Republican party to be decreed. Not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of seven hundred and fifty-six delegates, waiting to cast their votes into the urn and determine the choice of the republic, but by four million Republican firesides, where the thoughtful voters, with wives and children about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the future, and reverence for the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by burning in their hearts,--_there_ G.o.d prepares the verdict which will determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the ballot-boxes of the republic, in the quiet of November, after the silence of deliberate judgment, will this question be settled."

The thousands were at fever-heat hour after hour, in their intense excitement. After thirty-four ineffectual ballots, on the thirty-fifth, fifty votes were given for Garfield. The tide had turned at last. The delegates of State after State gathered around the man from Ohio, holding their flags over him, while the bands played, "Rally round the flag, boys," and fifteen thousand people shouted their thanksgiving for the happy choice. Outside the great hall, cannons were fired, and the crowded streets sent up their cheers. From that moment Garfield belonged to the nation, and was its idol.

On March 4, 1881, in the presence of a hundred thousand people, the boy born in the Orange wilderness was inaugurated President of the United States. None of us who were present will ever forget the beauty of his address from the steps of the national Capitol, or the kiss given to white-haired mother and devoted wife at the close. Afterward, the great procession, three hours in pa.s.sing a given point, was reviewed by President Garfield from a stand erected in front of the White House.

Four months after this scene, on July 2, 1881, the nation was thrilled with sorrow. As General Garfield and his Secretary of State, James G.

Blaine, arm in arm, were entering the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad depot, two pistol shots were fired; one pa.s.sing through Garfield's coat-sleeve, the other into his body. He fell heavily to the floor, and was borne to the White House. The a.s.sa.s.sin was Charles Guiteau, a half-crazed aspirant for office, entirely unknown to the President. The man was hanged.

Through four long months the nation prayed, and hoped, and agonized for the life of its beloved President. Gifts poured in from every part of the Union, but gifts were of no avail. On September 5, Garfield was carried to Elberon, Long Branch, New Jersey, where, in the Francklyn Cottage, he seemed to revive as he looked out upon the sea, the sea he had longed for in his boyhood. The nation took heart. But two weeks later, at thirty-five minutes past ten, on the evening of September 19, the anniversary of the battle of Chickamauga, the President pa.s.sed from an unconscious state to the consciousness of immortality. At ten minutes past ten he had said to General Swaim, who was standing beside him, as he put his hand upon his heart, "I have great pain here."

The whole world sympathized with America in her great sorrow. Queen Victoria telegraphed to Mrs. Garfield: "Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you at this terrible moment. May G.o.d support and comfort you, as he alone can."

On September 21, the body of the President was taken to Was.h.i.+ngton. At the Princeton Station, three hundred students from the college, with uncovered heads, strewed the track and covered the funeral car with flowers. At the Capitol, where he had so recently listened to the cheers of the people at his inauguration, one hundred thousand pa.s.sed in silence before his open coffin. The casket was covered with flowers; one wreath bearing a card from England's queen, with the words: "Queen Victoria, to the memory of the late President Garfield, an expression of her sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. Garfield and the American nation."

The body was borne to Cleveland, the whole train of cars being draped in black. Fifty thousand persons a.s.sembled at the station, and followed the casket to a catafalque on the public square. During the Sabbath, an almost countless throng pa.s.sed beside the beloved dead. On Monday, September 26, through beautiful Euclid Avenue, the body was borne six miles, to its final resting-place. Every house was draped in mourning.

Streets were arched with exquisite flowers on a background of black. One city alone, Cincinnati, sent two carloads of flowers. Among the many floral designs was a ladder of white immortelles, with eleven rounds, bearing the words: "Chester," "Hiram," "Williams," "Ohio Senate,"

"Colonel," "General," "Congress," "United States Senate," "President,"

"Martyr."

After appropriate exercises, the sermon being preached by Rev. Isaac Errett, D.D., of Cincinnati, according to a promise made years before, the casket, followed by a procession five miles long, was carried to the cemetery. It was estimated that a quarter of a million people were gathered along the streets; not idle sight-seers, but men and women who loved the boy, and revered the man who had come to distinguished honor in their midst.

Not only in Cleveland were memorial services held. The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke touching words in London. In Liverpool, in Manchester, in Glasgow, and hundreds of other cities, public services were held.

Messages of condolence were sent from many of the crowned heads of Europe.

Under the white stone monument in Lake View Cemetery, the statesman has been laid to rest. For centuries the tomb will tell to the thousands upon thousands who visit it the story of struggle and success; of work, of hope, of courage, of devotion to duty. Like Abraham Lincoln, Garfield was born in a log cabin, battled with poverty, was honest, great-hearted, a lover of America, and, like him, a martyr to the republic. To the world both deaths seemed unbearable calamities, but nations, like individuals, are chastened by sorrow, and learn great lessons through great trials. "Now we know in part; but then shall we know even as also we are known."