The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-06-12
JAMES A. GARrIELD.

the commencement of the balloting 1t would
have been hooted as ridiculous What! an
other Ohio man, and man, too, OF such
record as that OF James A. Garfield! Yet
wearied out by continuous session OF SIX
days-tired, disguised, desperate and reckless
the convention was wrought up to just the
right pitch for the commission OF some
gorgeous folly, and they did it bravely IN the
nomination of that prince Of congressional
corruptionlsts, James A. Garfield!
The record of James A. Garfield is so well
known that the m crest .yro in American poll
tics has it at his fingers end. Born IN ONO
in 1881, a canal driver IN his youth, then at
tending school and finally graduating at Will
| lams college, he soon afterwards entered upon
his career as Campbellte preacher. lie was
however, one of those preachers to whom me
pulpit Is but stepping stone to DINER anu
more profitable pursuits, and at the very De-
ginning Of his MINISTRY he cast aside MS
Paley for Blackstone, anu when in the ordin-
airy course he ought to have blossomed out as
reputable pulpit FOUNDER, we find him aP
plying for admission to the bar. Meantime
however. his instructive bent manifests itself
| in the pursuit of neither law or religion, but
casting both behind him, he blossoms out as
professional politician. Before he had at
tanned his Both year he was elected I'm 1851
to the state senate Of Ohio, and two years later
to congress. in which he has held seat con
| Ja,, THOUGH contrary 10
law, while holding a seat IN congress, he also
during part of the civil war, held commits
sion IN the army, having before his election
to congress, entered the field as Colonel of an
Ohio regiment and risen to the rank Of Briga
dler. General. HIS name figures conspcuously
In but one action, the battle of Chicamauga,
where he fortunately came to the assistance
o! Thomas at critical moment, and helped to
save the Union side from the terrible disaster
In which that battle came so near termina-
ting.
Brief and uneventful however, as may have
been his military career, his career in congress
is full of the hvelcst incidents, yet few of
them, we are sorry to say, to attest his ability
or craftsmanship, but volumes TO round up
his character as an INSCRIPTIONS political
trCkster and lirstclass congressional cor
rup,ionlst.
Glib of tongue ready and forcibe speaker,
and second only to Blame in the vigor with
which he could flourish the bloody Shirt he
early, after the close of the war, was recognized
AS leader of the most ultra and stalwart OF
his party in congress. As such he was, upon
the retirement of Washburne from the house
placed at the head of the Committee on APP
preparations next to the Ways and Means
Committee the most important in the house
The position gave him his opportunity, and
in it he was able to show his true inwardness
as ready and adept corruptionist. There IL
hardly an appropriation bill, il IS said, thai
passed through his hands during his eight
years headship Of that committee, that does
not bear ear,marks of his peculiar bent One
of the earliest that attracted attention was his
manipulation Of an appropriation bill so as tc
give life to the notorious "Sanborn- Jayne con
tracts" 1t would take too much space TO en-
robbery. 1t is enough to say that it was an
adroit and merslless system of levying black
, mail ON importers under pretenCe of prevent
, ing underv valuations at the custom house
The viciousness OF the scheme was so palpablC
that the senate twice struck it out of the bill
but Garfield forced It's adoption by attaching
1t to an important appropriation bill, on the
eve of final adjournment, rs rider"
came conspicuous IN was the De Golyer bust
ness. 1t was during the leign in Washington
; of the notorious "boss" Shepard, when De
Golyer entered into that famous paving con
tract IN which, in less than year, he boosted
to have cleared 100000. There was no way
, OF concentrating the rascality save blythe help
of the house committee on appropriations
, Garfield boldly stuck the item into the bill
and rushed 1t through the house but the sen
ate rejected it, 1t was forced through in the
end by Garfield's favorite resort of attaching
it at the last moment to an important appro
priation bill as rider" De Golyer gave
Garfield $1,000 for his services, and when a
house committee proved on him the receipt OF
the money he admitted it. but said 1t was foI
, legal services that he had rendered De Golyer
bu, he could never explain in what those lie
gal services consisted
Garfield was If not the author, conspicu
Gus promoter of the famous salary grab, by
which the members of congress not only voted
, themselves the enormous salary of $1,000 q
year for the future, but dated it back so as &c
cover nearly two expired years Of Their
service.
But the dirtiest of all transactions in which
Garfield has thus far been caught and exposed
was his connection with the famous Credit