Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-10-17
GARFIELD'S RECORD.
New York World. !

new 1OIh hOtlu.
Garfield was rendered a command in the
May of 1861 which he declined. When, four
months after, he accepted it, four months
more passed before he took the field. While
the war was impending he had written to his
friend Hins&ale: Burke, this is really q
great time to live In" but he Immediately
added, ''if any of Us can only catch the cue
of it." Indeed, the letters published in
one of his campaign lives prove, throughout
the period which they cover, this indecision
and This absence of moral courage. Thus
he concludes another letter TO Hinsdale:
''The time may yet come when 1 shall feel
it right and necessary to go Ito the war;, out
l thought, on the whole, that time had not
vet come This was in July, 1861, when
the land was all ablaze with recruiting and
volunteering, and after the disastrous battle
of Buu Run had been fought
When he arrived at Gen. Rose
cranz's headquarters Garfield wrote to
Hinsdale: HE wants me to stay with him
as chief of staff lastead of taking command
of division. am greatly in doubt which
to choose" Naturally he drifted into the
headquarters position. Arrived in Congress
he wrote against monopolies in his private
correspondence and voted for all of them.
Confessing that back salary pay was iniqui-
tous, his vote in conference committee con
summated it. When he had paid for his
Credit Mobilier stock he declined
to handle it. Feeling satisfied in his
own mind that the Golyer pavement
was founded in fraud, ne took large fee for
making an argument that he never had the
courage to maze. He made speech against
the impeachment of President johnson and
afterwards voted for and promoted that i'm
parchment. He hinted in his speeches an
opposition to the dealings of the whisky
ring in relation to taxation, but gave every
vote which the ring wanted. He was warm
friend of the navigation law which swept
the American flag from the seas, and then
tried to make compensation to him
self by voting all manner of
subsidies to Americau-buiit steamships.
He voted against pensions to Mexican vet
etans, against recognizing the belligerent
rights of Oubans, against aiding the release of
Irish prisoners, against pension to General
Shields, while it was evident from his man
ner and language that his convictions were
against his votes, which, however, went with
the tide CT his party. He sat silent
during the Credit Mobilier debate while
every other accused member spoke.
He never explained the discrepancy of
his testimony with that of Cakes Ames until
Ames was dead. He approved of Senator
Bsyard's election bill, but at the beck of his
party voted against it. He confessed in letter
to his friend Hinsdale his misgivings about
the partisan demands which would be made
of his conscience at the meetings of the Louis
lana returning board, and yet he showed no
reluctance to do more than his share in doc
tofing the returns. He avowed in q Con-
gressional speech his convictions that Con-
gress could go behind the returns when in
vestigating the electoral certificates, and
yet made an argument against his convic-
tons and by his casting vote changed the
result of Presidency. And these instances
are but selections from a long catalogue of
public as well as of private expressions, and
of public as well as of individual acts, which
could be printed in evidence of Garfeld's
want of moral courage and subserviency to
expediency and party. No wonder that
such man has no hold on anybody, no
strength, no public character. Strictly
speaking, ne has no existence.