Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-07-01
THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE.
A Clear Record On Important Legis-
latiye Measures-Views Of an
Independent.
New York Nation, June II.

New York Nation, June IL
General Garfeld's political career has,
however, been as far as possible removed
from that of the ordinary manager and
machinist. His life in Congress has
really been that of statesman of the
earlier constructive type. We do not
profess to know what it il in his rela-
tions with his district which has ena-
bled him to give SO much of his time to
the proper business of a legislator with
out endangering his political prospects;
but we do know that he is most honora-
bly, associated with every question of i'm
portance which has come up in Congress
during the past twelve years. Every
body who has given even slight atten-
tion to politics knows what his opinions
are on nearly every matter by which
the public mind has been much stirred
since 1868, and We can recall no such
matter on which his opinions were not
sound, or, if not sound according to our
way of thinking, were not defended so
as to show that they had been carefully
and intelligently formed. On the cur
reney question he has never for one
moment gone astray. and never for one
moment concealed his view of the high
est expediency. He never gave any
countenance, as nearly every prominent
Republican politician did, to the plan of
paying the bonds in paper. He opposed
the Silver bill almost alone among the
Republicans, in the teeth of the craze
which was sweeping over the whole
West. especially his own State, on this
subject. He was one of the earliest and
most strenuous advocates Of civil ser
vice reform, even in the sense in which
the Independent Republicans have of
late been preaching it. His position to-
ward the South since the war, which for
time caused him to be frowned on by
the clique who were trying to build up
their personal fortunes by tanning the
flames of civil strife, as a hereto and
blasphemer, has placed him on this sub
ject almost alone among Republican pol
ltieians in the serene air of the highest
craftsmanship.
We have no intention of trying to
present General Garfield as the usual
campaign embodiment of all the virtues.
He has, like the rest of the world, good
many defects and has committed many
errors; but considering the times We
live in and the peculiar condition Of
politics, we think the convention could.
for the purposes of those who entertain
rational expectations of Improvement,
hardly have made better choice.
General Garfield is not speculator, or
jobber, or man bent on enriching him
self, Or with a taste for pecuniary ven-
lures. He is known to be person of
considerable simplicity in money mat
ters, who in times like those of 1873,
when all the financiers in the country
were busy in putting professors, minis
ters, lawyers and doctors up to easy
ways of adding to their incomes, might
readily have been led by friend whose
integrity and kindness he had no reason
to suspect, into transaction which,
harmless enough in itself, his position
as legislator made dangerous or impos-
possible. There is probably no profess
sional man during those years who had
not financial proposals. made to him
which subsequent events lent An aspect
very different from that which they
wore when first presented, and it is easy
enough to see how such man might
readily deny, and deny stoutly and hon.
estly, that the operation which excited
the public indignation was the one to
which he had originally become party.