The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-06-09

adjoining county. His mother hads Saved
small sum OF money, which she gave him, to-
gether with a few cooking utensils and a stock
of provisions. He hired a small room and
cooked his own food to make his expenses as
light as possible. He paid his own way Tfter
that, never calling on his mother for sany
more assistance. By working at the carpen-
ter's bench mornings and evenings and vaca-
ton times, and teaching country schools dur
ing the winter, he managed to attend the
academy during the spring and fall terms and
to save a little money towards going to col
1ege. He had excellent health. a robust frame
and capital memory, and the attempt to
combine mental and physical work. which has
broken down many farmer boys ambitious to
get an education, did not hurt him.
GARFIELD AT COLLEGE.
When he was % years of age he concluded
he had got about all there was to be had in the
obscure cross roads academy. He calculated
that he had saved about half enough money to
get through college, provided he could begin,
as he hoped, at the junior year. He got life
insurance policy, and assigned it to gentleman
as security for a loan to make up the amount
he lacked. In the Fall of 1854 he entered the
junior class of Williams college, Massachusetts,
and graduated in 1856 with the metaphysical
honors of his class.
Before he went to college Garfield had con-
nected himself with the Disciples, sect hav-
ing numerous membership in eastern and
southern Ohio West Virginia and Kentucky,
where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had
travelled and preached. The principal peculi-
arities of the denomination are their refusal to
formulate their belief into a creed, the indie
pendence of each congregation the hospitality
orndfr nf 40 mn ,har md fIn
lack of a regular ministry. When Garfield re-
turned to Ohio it was natural that he should
gravitate to the struggling little college of the
young sect at Hiram, Portage county, near his
boyhood's home. He became Professor of Lat
in and Greek and threw himself with the ener-
gy and industry which are leading traits of his
character into the work of building up the in
stituaion. Before he had been two years in his
Professorship he was appointed President of
the college. Hiram is lonesome country vii
lage three miles from railroad built upon a
high hill, overlooking twenty miles of cheese
making country to the southwark. 1t contains
fifty or sixty houses clustered around green,
in the centre of which stands the homely red
brick college structure. Plain living and high
thinking was the order of thing at Hiram COL
lege in those days. The teachers were poor,
the pupils were poor, and the institution was
poor, but there was a great deal of hard, faith
Tul study done, and many ambitious plans
formed. The young President taught, lectured
anu predC0ou, dllu dll tlle llII0 dS Qlll-
gently as any acolyte in the temple of knowl-
edge. He frequently spoke on Sundays in the
churches of the towns in the vicinity to create
an interest in the college. Among the disci-
pies any one can preach who has a mind to,
no ordination being required. From these
Sunday discourses came the story that Gar
field at one time was a minister. He never
considered himself such and never had any in
tention of finding career in the pulpit. His
ambition, if he had any outside of the school,
lay in the direction of law and politics.
HIS MARRIAGE.
During his professorship Garfield married
Miss Lucretia Rudolph, daughter of farmer
in the neighborhood whose acquaintance he had
made while at the academy, where she was
also pupil She was quiet, thoughtful girl
of singularly sweet and refined disposition, fond
of study and reading, possessing a warm heart
and a mind with the capacity of steady growth
The marriage was love affair on both sides
and has been thoroughly happy one. Much
of Gen. Garfelds subsequent success in life
may be attributed to the never-failing sympa-
Thy and intellectual companionship of his wife
and the stimulus of loving home circle. The
young couple bought neat little cottage 'front.'
ing on the college campus and began their
welded life poor and in debt, but with brave
hearts.
In 1859 the college president was elected to
the State Senate from the counties of Portage
and Summit. He did not resign his presiden-
cy, because he looked upon few months in
the legislature as an episode not likely to
change the course of his life. But the war
came to alter his plans During the winter of
1861 he was active in the passage Of measures
for arming the state militia, and his eloquence
and energy made him a conspicuous leader of
the Union party. Early in the summer of
1861 he was elected colonel of an infantry regi-
ment (the forty-second) raised in northern
Ohio many of the soldiers in which had been
students at Hiram. He took the field in east
ern Kentucky, was soon put in command of a
brigade, and by making one of the hardest
marches ever made by recruits, surprised and
routed the rebel forces, under Humphrey
Marshall, at Piketon.
From eastern Kentucky Gen. Garfield was
transferred to Louisville, and from that place
fastened to join the army of Gen. Buell.,
which he reached with his brigade in time to
participate in the second days fighting at
Pittsburg Landing. He took part in the siege
of Corinth and in the operations along the
Memphis and Charleston railroad. In January
1868, he was appointed chief Of staff of the
Army of the Cumberland and bore prominent
share in all the campaigns in Middle Tennes-
see in the spring and summer of that year.
His last conspicuous military service was at
the battle of Chickamauga. For his conduct
in that battle he was promoted to major
generalship. 1t is said that he wrote all the
orders given to the army that day and sub
miuted them to Gen. Rosecrans for approval
save one. The one he did not write was the
fatal order to Gen Wood, which was so
worded as not to correctly convey the meaning
of the commanding general and which caused
the destruction of the right wing of the army.
ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
The Congressional district in which Garfield
lived was the one long made famous by Joshua
R. Giddings. The old anti-slavery champion
grew careless of the arts of politics towards
the end of his career and came to look upon
anomination and reelection as a matter of
course. His over confidence was taken advan-
age of in 1858 by an ambitious lawyer named.
Hutchins to carry convention against him
The friends of Giddings never forgave Hutch
ms, and cast about for means of defeating him.
The old man himself was comfortably quar-
tered in his consulate at Montreal and did not
care to make fight to go back to Congress.
So his supporters made use of the popularity of
Gen. Garfield and nominated him while he
was in the field without asking his consent
That was in 1862. When he heard of the NOM
ination Garfield reflected that it would be fif-
teen months before the Congress to which he
would be elected would meet, and believing, as
did every one else. that the war could not
possibly last year longer, concluded to accept.
On entering Congress, in December, 1868,
Gen. Garfield was placed upon the committee
on military affairs, with Schenck and Farms
worth, who were also fresh from the field. He
took an active part in the debates OF the House
and won a recognition which few new men,
bers succeed in gaining. He was not popular
among his fellow members during his first
term. They thought him something of ned
ant because he sometimes showed his scholar
ship in his speeches. and they were Jealous of
his prominence. His solid attachments and
amiable social qualities enabled him to over
come this prejudice during his second term,
and he became ON terms of close friendship
with the best men in both Houses. His COM
mittee service during his second term was on
the ways and means, which was quite to his
taste, for it gave him an opportunity to prose-
cute the studies in finance and political econo-
my which he had always felt fondness for.
He was hard worker and great reader in
those days, going home with his arms full of
books from the Congressional Library and sit
ting up late nights to read them. 1t was then
that he laid the foundations of the convictions
on the subject of national finance which he has
since held to firmly amid all the storms of DO
litical agitation. He was renominated in 1864.
without opposition, but in 1866 Mr. Hutchins,
whom he had supplanted made an effort to de-
feat him. Hutchins canvassed the district
thoroughly, but the Convention nominated
Garfield by reclamation. He has had no oppo-
rs4s ,x-s.,o III 49, T.