Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-10-27
ELOQUENT TRIBUTE
To the Memory of President Garfield
By the Grand Lodge of Ohio.

The Grand Lodge of Ohio, Free and
Accepted Masons, In session at Toledo,
last week, adopted the following me-
mortal to James A. Garfield:
On she I'd day of July, 1881. the Pre-
sident Of the United States, James
Abrsm Garfield, was feloniously assault.
ed and shot by an infamous assassin, in
public place. in the City of Washing
ton, and after ssventy-nine days of great
physical suffering, died.
This act of violence was entirely un-
provoked, an9 causeless. but was plan
ned and executed with all the cOldness
and cruelty of q sneaking, cowardly
and heartless assassin.
The calamity to- the country. the
shock to the sensibilities, the poignant
to the stricken family. produced by this
revolving crime, all alike demand the
most emphatic Inference from this
Grand Lodge, commanding this unpar-
alleled atrOcity as crime against the
State and against Humanity, at the
mention of which Virtue shudders and
Justice wells her face.
The loyalty to the government of the
country, and to the persons Of the rulers,
taught by our Order, no less than the
moral lessons we ineulc&te make this
utterance appropriate. But he was to US
a brother. In Columbus, Ohio, Novem-
Der 20, 1861, he was brought to light as
Mason. He loved his brethren of the
craft, and priced Masonry, because all
human distinctions here were lost in the
more exalted ideas of genuine worth and
manly brotherhood.
When the records of valor and mag
unanimous self-sacrifice are written by
the historian of the late war for the in
tegrity of the Union, the name of James
A. Garfield will prominently appear.
When the records of American States
men are written, his will be redorded In
a prominent place. But none of these
will register all his worth or even the
noblest and best elements of his charac-
ter. These were of the homely sort,
that touched at once the heart of the
queen in her castle, and the poor wash
erwoman in her hut-of the ruler of the
people and the humblest laborer Of the
land.
He enthroned the domestic virtue in
his own heart, when boy at work, when
a man teaching and leading the people.
when called to rule the nation. and never
weakened their scepter by setting them
aside for @ moment. His mother, his
wife, his children, his home, the Sacred
Writings, and the worship of God, were
loved as much by James A. Garfield, the
President, as by James A. Garfield, the
laboring boy at Newburg. His life is
a bright example for the youth of the
land. His memory is a light at every
fireside, his example model for the
craft. and all men would be better, purer
and happier if they would follow his
pious example in offering up inceseant
devotions in the house of God.
While we all share in deep sense of
common bereavement, we extend our
sincere coincidence to his heroic and
deeply stricken wife, his worthy and
bereft mother, and his fatherless child
rem, and offer our fervent prayers to Al
mighty God. that he may guard and keep
them by the bounty of His Providence,
until the end Of life, and mercifully
Youchsafe to each a glorious reunion
with him they mourn in the peaceful
aboads of the blessed.
A motion was made and carried that
a copy of the memorial be sent to Mrs.
James A. Garfield, and also furnished
the press for publication.