Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-06-16
Sketch of the Candidates for Pres
ident and Vice President.

1uCut duO vlJC lOciuOAu
James Abraham Garfield, the Repub-
Iican candidate for the Presidency of
the United States, has . splendid rec
o.d, both IS loyal soldier and states
man whose purity Is unsullied. He was
born in the little village Of Orange,
Cuyahogo county, Ohio, November 20,
1881, and lost his father, Abraham Gar
field, when two years old. Both pa
rents we're New Englanders, the Gar
fields being Massachusetts family, and
the Generals mother, Eliza Ballou, be-
ing the niece of Rev. Hosea Ballou,
the disting uished Universalist preacher,
and coming from New Hampshire.
Abraham Garfield left his family with
little farm, where James, the young
est, worked with the three older chill
dren till he was sixteen years old, at
tending the village school in winter,
and also learning the carpenters trade.
sELF-MADE MAN.
His excellent mother, one OF the
heroiBes of poverty, gave him start
in the world, which has resulted in SO
high an honor, and taught him to work
until be seemed to like work. He was
ambitious to get an education, and find
ing his carpenters trade promised him
no future, at sixteen he became tow
path driver on rhe Ohio canal, and soon
pilot Of canal boat. He was about to
ship as a sailor on the lakes, when an
attack of fever and aguc prevented,
and when be recovered, he determined
10 go to Geauga Academy, in the next
county. His mother had saved little
money, and she gave it to him to 60 to
school with. At school he rented lit
tie room and did his own cooking; he
worked at his trade morning and even
ing, continuing to attend country schools
in winter, SO that he could attend the
academy in the spring and fall terms.
The indomitable energy required to ed
ucate himself under these disadvan-
tages was sustained by the excellence
Of his health, and from this time he re-
solved to cause no more expense to his
mother.
GARFIELD, THE CARPENTER.
When be began to feel at home in
the academy be sought out the village
carpenters for odd jobs of work, which
be did on Saturdays and in other inter-
walls Of leisure or holidays, saving al
most every cent be earned to 60 to
college with. When eighteen be taught
q district school in the winter, studied
ard worked again in the summer. taught
again when winter came, and then at
tended the Hiram Institute till be be-
came the "brag scholar" of that insti-
tuition, and was then twenty three years
old. Such career is enough to en-
courage every American boy, no mat
ter how humble his position, to perse-
we're. Garfeld's simple, honest, rural
neighbors already looked upon him as
a hero, and his genial, modest man
ners made many acquaintances. He
joined the Disciples or Cambellites'
Church at an early age, and was con
sistent and highly respected member
from the start, his Jealous and energetic
disposition leading him occasionally to
exhort the meetings, which circumstance
caused him to be nick-named at Wash
ington "Rev. Garfield" though in fact
be was never ordained to the ministry.
Naturally be thought of going to Beth
any College, Virginia, which was sus-
tanned By his church, but he soon
changed his mind, one reason being be-
cause Bethany College leaned to slav-
cry. President Hopkins, of Williams
College, Williamstowu, Massachusetts,
replied very encouragingly to young
Gar6eld's letter Of inquiry, and this
friendliness made him choose Williams
over Yale and Brown University. At
college his poverty made his life un-
comfortable, but be stuck to his deter
mination, and in 1854, after two years
only, he graduated with the highest
honors, and $3.50 in debt.
EDUCATOR AND LEGISLATOR.
He paid this debt after two years.
teaching at Hiram, where be had been
pupil then be became presiden. of
the Academy, and began to study law.
At this time be married Mss Lucre;ia
Rudolph, neighboring farmers daugh-
ter. As college president he soon
showed that be was an orator, and used
to lecture to the students every Sunday
on the Bible, when no preacher was ac-
cessible In 1859 the anti slavery peo-
pie of Portage and Summit counties
elected him to the State Senate by a
large majority. In the Legislature he
at once came to the front as a debater
with Cox and Monroe, Garfield being
even then recognized as the foremost Of
this distinguished trio. He led the
fight in the Senate in favor of the ma
tion's right to coerce the seeding
States, and was the main standard
bearer in the struggle which resulted
in passing the bill defining treason
against the State of Ohio as giving aid
and comfort to the enemies of the
United States, and Furnishing it with
life-imprisonment at hard labor.
HIS MILITARY CAREER.
When the war broke out, Garfield at
once left the State Senate for the field,
and soon showed Governor Deunison
that he was soldier, and was appoint
ed lieutenant colonel OF the Forty-sec.
ond Ohio regiment, then to the full
colonelcy, with orders to report to Gen.
eral Buell. at Catlettsburg, Ky. Buell.,
on December IL, 1861, assigned Colo
mel Garfield to command the Seven
teenth brigade. He was ordered against
the confederate General Humphrey Mar
shall, while George II. Thomas was sent
to repulse Zollicoffer. Buell. waited
for Garfield and Thomas to do their
work. In January Garfield drove Mar
shall out of Kentucky into Virginia.
On one occasion when his troops we're