Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-06-11
Gen. James A. Garfield.
The NoxIxEE OF THE REPUBLICAN CONVEX
rrox AT CHIcaGo-A SELF-MADE Man
Hrs CAREER AS SOLDIER AND AS A
STATESMAN.

TIOy AT CHICAGO SELF-MADE MAY .
Hrs CAREER AS SOLDIER AND AS A
STATESMAN.
James Abraham Garfield was born Novem-
her 18th. 1881. in the township of Orange,
Cuvahoca county, Ohio, about fifteen miles
from Cleveland His father. Abraham Gar
field. came from New York. like his
mother. was of New England stock. James
was the Youngest of four children Inc
father died in 1888, leaving the family de-
pendeut upon a small farm and the exertions
of the mother.
OF the children, no one besides James has
made the slightest mark in the world The
older brother is a farmer in Michigan, ana
the two sisters are farmers wives. James
had tough time Of 1t as boy lie toleu
hard on the farm early and late in summer.
and worked at the carpenters bench in win
ter. The best of it was that he liked work
There was not lazy hair on his head He
had an absorbing ambition to get an educa-
ton. and the only road open to this END
seemed that of manual labor. Ready money
was hard to get in those days The ONO
Canal ran not far from where he lived, and
finding that the boatnien got their pay In
cash and earned better wages than he could
make at farming or carpentry, he nlred out
as a driver on the tow path and soon got up
TO the dignity of holding the helm OF boat
Then he determined to ship as sailor on
the lakes, but an attack of fever and ague in
terfered with his plans. He was i'll three
months. and when he recovered he decided
TO 90 to a school called Geauga Academy, IN
an adjoining county. His mother had saved
a small sum of money, which she gave him.
together with few cooking utensils and a
stock of provisions He hired small room
and cooked his own food to make his expens-
es as light as possible. He paid his own way
after that, never calling on his mother for
anv more assistance. By working at the car
penter's bench mornings and evenings and
vacation times. and teaching country schools
during the winter, he managed to attend the
academy during the spring and fall terms and
to save little money towards going to col
lege. He had excellent health, a robust
frame and a 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.
When he was twenty-three years of age he
concluded he had got about all there was to
be had in the obscure crossroads academy.
He calculated that he had saved about half
enough money to get through college, pro-
vided he could begin, as he hoped with the
Junior wear. He.got life insurance policy
and assigned it to a gentleman as security for
loan to make up the amount he lacked. In
the fall of 1854 he entered the junior class of
williams College, Massachusetts, and grad
uated 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 a numerous membership in eastern and
southern Ohio. West Virginia and Kentucky,
where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had
travelled and preached. The principal pecul-
iarties of the denomination are their refusal
to formulate their beliefs into creed, the
independence of each congregation, the hos
pitality and fraternal feeling of the members,
and the lack of regular ministry.
When Garfield returned to Ohio it was
natural that he should soon gravitate to the
struggling little college of the young sect at
Hiram, Portage County, near his bOyhoOds
home He became professor of Latin and
Greek, and threw himselfwith the energy and
industry which are the leading traits of his
character. into the work of building up the
institution Before he had been two years
in his professorship he was appointed presi-
dent of the college.
The young president taught. lectured and
preached, and all the time studied as dill
gently as any acolyte in the temple of knowl-
edge. During his professorship Garfield mar
ried Miss Lucrctia Randolph. daughter of a
farmer in the neighborhood, whose Aequain-
lance he had made while at the academy,
where she was also pupil.
In 1859 the college president was elected
to the State Senate from the counties of Por-
|. tage and Summit. He did not resign his
presidency, because he looked upon a few
months in the Legislature as an episode not
likely to change the course of his life. But
the war came to alter all his plans. During
the winter of 1861 he was active in the pas
sage of measures for arming the State mill
tia, and his eloquence and energy made him
conspicuous leader of the Union party.
Early in the summer of 1861 he was elected
colonel of an infantry regiment (the Forty
second) raised in northern Ohio. many OF
the soldiers in which had been students al
Hiram. He took the field in eastern Ken.
lucky, 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 General Garfield
was transferred to Louisville, and from that
place fastened to join the army of General
Buel. which he reached with his brigade in
time to participate in the second days fight
ing at Pittsburg Landing. He took part in the
siege of Corinth and in the operations along
the Memphis & Charleston railroad. In JAN
uary, 1868. he was appointed chief of staff OF
the Army of the Cumberland, and bore a
prominent share IN all the campaigns in mid.
die Tennessee in the spring and summer of
that year. His last conspicuous military ser
vice 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 that day and submitted
them to General Resecrans for approval
save one. The one he did not write was the
fatal order to General Wood which was SO
worded as not to correctly convey the mean
ing of the commanding general, and which
caused the destruction of the right wing
| of the army.
The congressional district in which Gar.
field 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 a nomination and reelection as q
matter of course. His over-confdence was
taken advantage of in 1858 by an ambitious
lawyer named Hutchins to carry a convention
| against him. The friends of Giddings neve,
| forgave 1utchins, and east about for means
| of defeating him. The old man himself was