Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-06-17
From the New York Nation June 9Th.
General GarfieId's Speech on
The Currency.

1t must be admitted that the fear.
which many people entertained aftei
the war was over touching the promI
nence in our legislative bodies which
successful soldiers would probably &C
lquire, have been proved groundless il
a very striking way by the facts. 1t il
remarkable but true almost without
exception. that the military temper
impetuosity, impatience of discussion
or delay, love OF arbitrary procedure,
contempt for study and experience
has been shown during the last three
years by civilians, or by nominal soldiers.
who did little or none of soldiers
work. properly so-called. The real
soldiers, men who hsd wen distinction
in the battlefield and on the march,
have, in the great majority Of cases
where they have been called into po-
litical life, shown the possession of the
political sense in very high degree.
and have brought to the treatment of
political questions not only as much
knowledge as the civilians, but q
judgment and discretion to which most
active as legislators can lay no claim.
OF this class of soldiers whose serV-
ices in the field seem to have prepared
rather than spoiled them for political
life, General Garfield, of Ohio, is an
excellent specimen.
Bred a lawyer, he was. at the time
he entered the service, at the head of
8 college in Ohio, in the district rep
resented for twenty years before by
Joshua r. Giddings. At the time of
his unsolicited nomination and election
for he was absent in the field-the
doubt entered many minds whether he
could hold the position in Congress in
the place which his predecessor had so
Eorthily filled. But this doubt is set
at rest. True upon all the questions of
re construction and of equal rights,
General Garfield has, since his entrance
into Congress, recognized the fact that
the great question looming up in the
future-the rock on which we might
yet be stranded-Was the great fiscal
question, the question of currency and
taxation, and to this he has applied
himself with indomitable industry. |
In his speech upon "The Currency"
delivered on the 18th of May. he has
proved his power to become a leader Of
constituents upon this matter; and /
although q majority of them may have
been deluded by the arguments of
politicians of the Butler stamp, or
disheartened and confused by the weak
ness of their own Senator Sherman
(who of all men should have stood
irm.l yet we doubt not that before the
for the autumn campaign
they will be glad to continue their
good practice of retaining an able and /
an honest man as their representative, II
rs they did his predecessors, one for
sixteen, the other for twenty years.
Although he is without practical ex- {
Derience in financial matters, General
iarheld's speech is not the speech of
/ mere theorist or doctrinaire. He
ioes not attribute all our difficulties to {
/ bad money system, as many of our
o-called fiHaneiers are apt to do, but he
has recognized the need of "patient
of facts, and careful study
If principles which do not always ap-
,ear on the surface, and which involve 9
he most difficult problems of econo- 8
he exhibits that wisdom so rare d
Imong the people of this country. of I
'eing willing to consent to be instruc-
ed by the experienced other nations"
We shall give a short sketch of mis- r,
peech, advising any reader of the 8.
Vation to write to him for full COPY. 81
ie first proves that our so-called hard el
ines bear no comparison to the diff d