Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-11-01
A Talk by Gen. Garfield.
SPEAKING TO HIS OLD COLLEGE FRIENDS AND
CoSsrIruESTs-APLE pleasant INFoRNAL AZ
FAIR.

MENTOR, Ohio. Oct. 2s.-One of the pleas
ATTEST of the many agreeable calls on Gener-
al Garfield was that made by about 200 OF MS
old college and other friends and constlfu-
ents from Portage county this afternoon.
There were present many men of local prom
inence. Col. Kent. a member of Governor
Fosters staff. being among them. A number
of ladies. all of whom had long been person
all acauaintances of Mrs. Garfield, were also
present.
The scene when General Garfield was in
troduced by Judge Luther Day, of Ravenna,
was impressive Judge Days words were d.
recty to the point in relation TO the political
situation After General Garfield had re-
spoaded, the interchange of well wishes and
congratulations was much more earnest and
cordial than on occasions of this kind A.
ter music hv the old Garfield College Glee
Club. The company gave three rousng cheers
and left the grounds for the train, being ac-
companied part of the way by the Gen
eral Following is General Gsrfeld's speech
TO the Portage county people
JUICE DAY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: |
once read of "A man who tried 10 wear the
arnor and WELD the sword of some ancient
ancestor. but found them too large for his stat
ure and strength. If should try at this mo-
ment to wear and sway the memories which
your presence awakens, should be over
whelmed and wholly unable to marshal and
muster the quick coming throng of memories
which this semcrcie of old friends and
I'LL has Oh va
schoolfellows of twenty eight years here are
men and women who were my pupils a quar-
ter of Il century ago; here are venerable
men. who, twenty-one years ago in the town
of Kent. launched me upon the stormy sea
of political life l see others who were sol
diers in the old regiment which had the hon.
or to command, and how could listen to the
touching and thoughtful words of my friend,
the venerable late Chief-Justice of Ohio, who
has just spoken, without remembering that
evening in 1861, of which he spoke too mod
estly, when he and ! stood together in the
old church at Hiram, and called upon the
young men to go forth to battle for the Union
and be enlisted before they slept, and thus
laid the foundation of the 42d regiment?
How can forget all these things and all
that has followed? How can forget that
twenty-five years of my life were so braided
and intertwined with the lives of the people
of Portage county, when see men and wOm-
en- from all its townships standing at my
door? cannot forget these things while life
and consciousness remain. No other period
of my life can be like that. The freshness of
youth, the very springtide of life, the bright
ening on toward MONDAY, all were with you
and of you, my neghbors, my friends, my
cherished comrades. In all the relations of
social, student, military and political life and
fr,a hnrn nDlN TO Lnnr
that cannot trust myself to an attempt to
marshal these memories with anything like
conference. To know that my neighbors and
friends in Portage county, since the first day
of my Congressional life, have never sent to
any convention delegate who was hostile to
me; that through all the storm of detraction
that roared around me, the members of the
old guard of Portage county have never wav-
cred in their faith and friendship, but have
stood an unbroken phalanx with their locked
shields above my head, and have given me
their hearts in every contest-if man can
carry in his memory a jewel more precious
than this, l am sure Judge Day has never
heard what it is.
Well, gentlemen, on the eve of great events,
closing a great campaign, l look into your
faces and draw from you such consolation as
even you cannot understand. Whatever the
event may be. our past is secure; and what
ever may befall me hereafter, if | can sue
coed in keeping the hearts of Portage county
near to me, shall know that do not go far
wrong in anything. For they are men who
love the truth for truths sake far more than
they love any man.
Ladies and gentlemen, all the doors of my
house are open to yOu the hand of every
member of my family is outstretched to you
our hearts greet you, and we ask you to come
in