Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-06-09
JAMES a. GARFIELD FOR PRESIDENT.

Once more the Republican candidates for
the Presidency have proved too strong for
their own success, and the choice of the
National Convention has fallen, not indeed
upon an unknown man, but upon one
whose ambition had not scared to the place
his merits and services so amply qualify
him to fill. But while there have been
supporters of Blaine, and supporters OF
Grant, and supporters of Sherman and
Washburne and Edmunds, in the ranks of
the Republican party, and while all of them
no doubt sincerely believed that the man
of their choice was the most desirable can
didate, the final choice of the party will be
accepted not only cheerfully, but with COR
dial approval, for all will admit that no
worthier or more gallant standard bearer
than James A. Garfield could have been
called to the van of the Republican hosts.
He unites in himself those attributes which
brave and intelligent and freedom-loving
people most honor and admire. He has
won fame alike in the field and the forum.
Like the noble Baker, whose splendid but
too brief career his own in several points re-
sembles, he threw himself into the service
of his country when rebellion assailed
her, and from the battlefield, where he
won promotion for distinguished bravery,
he returned to the halls of Congress, and
electrified his colleagues with force of
oratory seldom surpassed, and never dedi
Gated to a nobler cause. He entered the
Union army in 1861 as Colonel of the
Twenty second Ohio Volunteers. In 1862
he was raised to the rank of Brigadier-
General. He was appointed Chief of Staff
of the Army of the Cumberland, and
fought at Chickamauga, Shiloh and Co.
rinth. In 1868 he was promoted to the
rank of Major-General. In the fall of the
same year he was elected to the Thirty
eighth Congress from his native State.
And the same year, in a magnificent cut
burst of patriotic eloqueace, he impeached
and denounced Long of Ohio for his
traitorous attempt to aid secession in
the House of Representatives. Having
made his mark as commander, hav-
ing won honors even where not a
few of his comrades had found only
humiliation, his fellow citizens decided
that his future services should be rem
dered to the country in another way,
and their estimate of his value is shown in
the simple record of his Congressional Ca
reer First elected to the Thirty eighth
Congress, he was reelected to the Thirty
ninth, Fortieth, Forty first, Forty second,
Forty third, Forty Fourth, Forty-ffth and
Forty sixth Congresses, and last winter the
Legislature of Ohio chose him to take the
place of Allen G. Thurman in the Senate
of the United States. a young man, being
only in his forty ninth year, Mr. Garfield
has already acquired a distinction which
demonstrates his thorough fitness for the
highest honors the party and the country
can bestow upon him. A man of broad
culture, of liberal tendencies, of unwaver-
ing patriotism, Of high forensic ability
one OF the few magnetic orators OF the age;
a mastery debater sound and thorough |
jurist; possessing genial manners, warm
and generous disposition, and an unsullied |
honor; he must arouse the greatest enthu-
siasm and the strongest sympathies among
Republicans of every shade of opinion.
General Garfield has been content to
abide his time, but it has come much
sooner than he expected lie had every
right, after devoting his mature life to the
service of his country, and after winning
and retaining for SO long a period the I'M
faltering confidence and attachment OF
the people of his State, to look forward to
the honor which has now been rendered
him, and those who observe public men
carefully had long perceived i'll him a
steady strain of greatness which pointed |
him out for promotion. It has sometimes
happened that the result Of such bitter
struggles as that just closed at Chicago,
has been to force upon the party and the
country candidates whose obscuIi5y seemed |
their best Recommendation. 1t is to be |
rejoiced over that this time there is no
need for inquiring as to the antceedents Of
the nominee. No one will have to ask
Who is James A. Garfield? For his name
is already familiar in cur mouths as
household words" When the ranks of
the Republicans were shrinking and dwind-
ling in the House of Representatives under
the Democratic reaction when the Confed-
crate Brigadiers were staggering and boast
ing in the halls OF the Capitol; when the
unreconstructed rebels of the South and the
cowardly Copperheads Of the North were
banding together to tear down the record
of the war and undo the patriotic work of
the preservers of the Union then thevoice
OF James A. Garfield rang out over the land,
and his fierce inyective, his pitiless logic,
his powerful defense of the Constitution,
carried dismay and confusion into the
ranks Of the Democracy, and revived the
dropping spirits of his friends. Again and
again that massive figure has risen to an
swer and refute the sophisms and the dis
Royalties of the Confederates in Congress
nor has he ever been compelled to retire,
or been worsted IN the encounter. lie is
Republican OF the Republicans, in fact,
and man whose whole career is at once
an example and glory to his fellow coun-
trymen. We do not greatly care who the
Democrats nominate at Cincinnati now.
The Republican party has a candidate
upon whom it can and will unite, and the
successor of Rutherford B. Hayes viii be
James a. Garfield.
THE OUTCOME OF The STRUGGLE
If we have warm welcome for the
victor in the contest at Chicago, we must
feel genuine sympathy for the van
pushed statesman who had the earnest
,roo5 ,visbeS of California hut whose s,al