Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1881-09-03
NORTHERN TRIBUNE.
SATURDAY, Sc PTEMBER 8. 1881.
The Unexpected In Carle'ds Life.

the Umexpecteu IN ssHrhe'us LIE.
From Chicago Iotei- Ocean.
Colonel Rockwell is quoted as saying
that General Garfield once remarked that
the unexpected things in this life were
the things which were occurring to him.
There was no squirting toward fatalism
in this remark. He was simply putting
on record his recognition of what was
apparent to all men that there h; been
in his life series of surprises. Many
men of strong will and well defined pur-
pose have been lmpelled or compelled to
abandon plans matured through years of
consideration for others sprung upon
them at a moments warning, Many
men have been carried by circumstances
against current with which they were
content to drift. Among the cases of all
such men the case of General Garfield is
remarkable. The unexpected has been
as much the rule in his career as has the
expected, and it is not strange that this
fact should in this dark hour give hope
to those who cling to the belief that the
President will recover.
1t is but straw, but the people will
catch at it, 1t will not stand against the
opinion of skilled physicians, but the
people will take comfort In it all the
same.
When it was proposed in 1859 that Gar
field enter political life as q candidate
for the Legislature in Ohio, he declined,
because he did not want TO enter the
House, but the Senate. The way to the
Senate was not open, because the Re-
publicans of the three counties cOmpOs-
ing the district had agreed that the nom
inatiOn should go to Mr.. Prentiss,
in hn
sidered the matter settled and went East
to deliver the Masters grafton at Will
liams College. During his short alb
sence Mr.. Prentiss died, and; on his re-
turn, Garfield was nominated for State
Senator and elected.
Scarcely had he entered upon his
career in the Senate when the war broke
out. He organized several regiments,
but refused to accept the COlOnelcy of
any, because he did not think himself fit
for such a post. Finally he agreed to
become Lieutenant Colonel of the Forty
second Regiment if Captain HAZEL, of
the regular army, was detailed to act as
Colonel, 1t was expected that this ar
rangement could be made without diff
Guilty, but. much to the surprise of the
Governor of the State, General Scott re-
fused to order the 9tail. ThereupOn the
officers of the regiment took the matter
in hand in such way that Garfield con-
scented to take command.
Scarcely was Garfield in the field when
General Buell. gave him command of a
brigade, and ordered him to attack Hum
phrey Marshall in Eastern Kentucky.
The man who so diStrusted his own
military capacity, and who had hoped
for time to gather knowledge, found him
self pitted at once against shrewd and
aggressive rebel general. This was so
entirely unexpected as to startle Gar
field into what he afterward described as
a rash and imprudent mood. He was
ordered to drive Marshall out of Ken
lucky, and he dashed forward in sledge-
hammer style and did it. That made the
hesitating Colonel Brigadier General.
Later Garfield wanted to go to South
Carolina with General Hunter, and ask
ed the President to send him there. His
plan was to go with the radical Hunter
to the hot-bed of the rebellion, as much
to study the situation as to do service
He openly exulted over his appointment
when an unexpected thing changed all
his plans. In the battle of Stone River,
Garesche, General ROsecrans' Chief of
Staff, was killed. The appoint cent of
Garfield to South Carolina was revoked,
and he was selected to take the place of
Garesche as Rosecrans' Chief of Staff.
He didn't want the place, but once at
work he liked it, and won such distinc-
tiOn that he was made Major General.
He had settled down to the determina-
ton that his place was in the army.
Rosecrans, Buell., and others have COM
plimented him as strategist and or
ganizer, and his experience at Chica-
manga had convinced him that he had
the sort of courage that sustains SOL
dier in times of difficulty. Many soldiers
of that time were fatalists, and after
Garfield had run the gauntlet of the
rebel lines and reached the command of
Thomas, the men with rifles took great
interest in him. They tell even now of
the white dove that settled on the tree
under which Garfield sat as he wrote his
dispatch to ROsecrans telling him that
the last rebel attack had been repulsed,
and that Thomas stood like rock.
Gardeld's military career seemed in a
fair way to be rounded out in accordance
with his ambition when the Republicans
of Joshua r. Giddings' old district nom
mated him for Congress. His frss
knowledge of the movement in his favor
was the announcement of his nOmina-
tiOn, and, after consultation with his
military friends, he accepted.
In the fullnCss of time he became the
leader of the House, and at his own re-
quest was transferred to the Senate.
Then, at Secretary Sherman's request, he
consented to become one of the Ohio
delegates to the Chicago convention. He
went to the convention the leader of the
Sherman faction Of the Republican party,
and, Unexpectedly to even the shrewdest
politicians, was nominated for Presi-
dant