Daily Republican., 1881-09-26
blocked out Work.


President Garfield had more reform
work blocked out to do during his ad
ministration had he lived, than mos
other reformers would have taken ;
lifetime for. The work he laid out 70,
himself is outlined in his inaugural ad
dress delivered before the nation ant
may I've summarized as follows:
"To maintain the supremacy of the
nation; to protect the citizenship Of the
negro 80 often and so ruthlessly as
sailed; to promote the freedom and the
purity of the ballot; to aid in summon,
ing call the Constitutional powers OF
the Nation and OF the States and all
the volunteer forces of the people to
meet the danger of illiteracy by the
saving influence of universal educa-
tion;" to defend specie payments
against any new revival of prejudice
and ignorance, and refund the public
debt at low rates of interest; to assert
the right of the United States to super
wise any inter-oceanic canal across the
isthmus; to break the surviving relic Of
the two greatest sins in the United
States-polygamy in Utah by the aid of
Congressional, enactments and to pro-
mote reform in the Civil Service by
urging Congress to pass a aw.prescrib-
ing the tenure "of the minor offices Of
the several executive departments, and
prescribe the grounds upon which re.
movals shall be made.
How well he began all these reforms
is fresh in the mind of every body who
gave any attention to the manner in
which the government was carried on,
and in bis efforts he had the general |
support Of public opinion. Never be-
fore did any President set out to do his
work with more determined and pa
triotic purpose, which was cut short by
the assassin's bullet. 1t is no disputed
assertion that no President ever accom-
plished so much for the good of the
country in the line of lministrative
work in so short time. BY the help OF
his Cabinet, who were unit in his sup
port, he had already in the six months
of rule reformed many abuses. He had
entirely broken mp the nefarious Star
route conspiracy, and indictments for
crime are hanging over the guilty. He
saved over million dollars in postal
expenses alone, settled the problem Of |
funding the high interest bonds of the
government, over which Congress had
bothered for months, to the satisfaction
of all parties, and the admiration of
financiers on both sides of the ocean,
and gave healthy current of strong
and intellectual craftsmanship TO all
the channels Of, governmental action.
He did all he could alone by the aid of
his cabinet and awaited the meeting of
Congress that he might more etlectu-
ally carry cut the development of plans
respecting aid to education in the South.
the establishment of further safe guards
against fraud and force at National
elections, the treatment of the horrible
disease of polygamy the reform Of the
evils of the spoils system in the Civil
Service, the protection Of the rights and
interests Of the United States upon the
Isthmus, and other matters of National
concern in which he needed the aid of
legislation. He was filed with lofty
conception of the National idea-not the
conception of dreamer, nor of maker
of patriotic phrases, but of an earnest
worker, who believed President vas
bound by the obligations of his station
to labor to make the country better for
having occupied it's seat Of highest
honor and power.
But though his active work is cut
short by the hand Of an assassin, may
we not have faith to believe that it will
be taken up where he fell and carried
on to a successful completion by his
successor in office ? We are led from
his brief inaugural to believe that he
will, and as the nation turns its un-
willing eyes from the noble but dead
President, let it be with a determina-
ton that the same united and hearty
support may be given to the new and
living President.