Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-06-24
A Democratic Opinion Of
Garfield.
GATH. IN CINCINNATI ENQUIRER.

kind of man who, deserving to reach the
greatest honors, never would have done
so but for the intricacies of the Amerl-
can Nominating Convention system.
Of him it can truly be said that, ''he
who seeks to lose his life shall save 1t.
The hard work of the party has been
packed on his willing back for fifteen
years, and he has been deceived and his
due evaded by almost all his political
equals and superiOrs till his patience
and devotion have been perceived by
other working men in the party and by
public opinion; and in the deadlock of
this Convention this sympathy discover
ed him sitting among them, and raised
him on their shields. He may remind
the reader of Rudolph of Hapsburg, who
once, as a rough, hospitable Baron in
the Alps, assisted Abbot across to Italy,
who, in course of time, became an Elec-
tor of the the German Empire, and at a
deadlock in the Electoral body, there
sprang the name of Rudolph and made
him Empeor. Garfield's work here for
Sherman. and the speech he made to
nominate that managing Secretary, de-
spite the remembrance Of Sherman put
ting Stanley Matthews in his place as
Senator three years ago, and his defense
of Archibald Campbell, whom COnkling
wanted to throw out of this Convention
for declining to pledge in advance to
support its nominee, ,bro't the whole body
to an impulsive ferver for him when they
saw that neither Edmunds, Washburne
nor Sherman would do. But his sacri-
fees and deserts had previously made
him the choice of the new generation
of Ohio managers who are succeeding
Sherman, the principal of whom are
President Hayes and Gov. Chas. Foster.
He has been the wheel-horse of these
men, and has elected them both by his
services OH the stump. Mr. Sherman is
tritie decayed in Ohio, having been in
of a century. Not popular enough to
be President, but so healthy and steady
of habits as to be candidate for almost
every successive honor, the ambitious
young leaders of Ohio were heartily sick
of him, and made push to get him into
the Presidency this time SO as to trans
plant him and run the State themselves.
They could not succeed, and they ran in
Garfield, whose election will give them
a Senatorship. and probably Foster will
receive it. With their young and acci-
dental candidate planted in the White
House they have one sure to begin a
new era of political domination.
l walked 10 the hall of the Convention
this afternoon with Justice Harlan, of
the Supreme Court of the United States
Cthe same who nominated Bristow in
Convention four years ago, and shifted
the Kencucky vote to Hayes, and he
said:
Hayes is one of the most sensible
and obServant politicians Ohio ever had,
and his influence in this State is seen in
this nomination, and in the new school
of men who are taking the capital of
Ohio and of the country. Garfield is an
example to young politicians to study
hard, and become perfect in public busi-
ness and in general knowledge" "All
that he has got" said the Justice, "has
been obtained by hard work, and absorp-
tion in public oratory and public affairs.
His nomination will produce perfect
unison in the party because he has help
ed everybody when asked, and an
tagonized none. He is only forty-nine
years old, and has slowly worked up
from the constituency to the National
constituency, and it is well for this coun-
try that its candidates are to be of those
who have been educated in the period of
reconstruction and know by taking part
in it the problems Immediately around
u.s." Judge Harlan, then, speaking of
figures in the Convention, said that
there were three great masters of YER
nacular in this country: Jeremiah S.
Black, Henry Ward Beecher and Roscoe
COnkling. The power of COnkling's re-
marks was in the ability to see what his
party wanted, and to give them the best
reasons for his opinions and wants.
The writer has known Gen. Garfield
pretty well for thirteen years. He is a
large, well-fed, hale, ruddy, brown
bearded man, weighing about 22O pounds,
military face, erect figure and shoulders,
large back and thighs, and broad chest,
and evidently bred in the country on a
farm. His large mouth is full of strong
teeth, his nose, chin and brows are
strongly pronounced. A large brain,
with room for play of thought and long
application, rises high above his clear,
discerning, enjoying eyes. He some
times suggests q country Samson
strong beyond his knowledge, but un-
guarded as school boy. He pays little
attention to the affectatiOn by which
some men manage public opinion, and
has one kind of behavior for all callers,
which is the most natural behavior at
hand. Strangers would think him lit
tie cold, and mentally shy. On acqaint-
ance he is seen to be hearty above eve
rything, loving the life around him, his
family, his friends, his State and coun-
try. Loving sympathetic and achieving
people, and with large unprOfessing
sense of the Brotherhood of workers in
the fields of progress, it was the feeling
of sympathy and the desire to impart
which took him for chief; while as to
the pulpit, or on the verge of it, full of
all that he saw and acquired, he painted
to give it forth, after it had passed
through the alembic of his mind. En-
dowed with warm temperament, copi-
Gus expression, large, wide-seeing facul-
ties and superabundant health, he could
study all night and teach or lecture all
day, and it was a providence that his
neighbors discovered he was too mnch
of man to conceal in the pulpit, where
his docility and reverence had almost