Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-09-17

GEN. SWAIN. COL ROCKWELL.
The man who has formed no sincere and
lasting friendships is indeed alone in the
world. He is an uneasy cobble-stone III the
structure of the great social fabric, instead
of that square, solid block that should lie at
its foundations secure in the cement of
human sympathies. Where the love of
family, kindred or friends is not strong
within us, we cannot be possessed of any
true love for the State-the example of
Brutus to the contrary Notwithstanding.
And here we are reminded of very promi-
nent and pleasant feature in the character of
our suffering President. Throughout all the
long and grieyous hours of his bodily an
guish, he has never, for single moment,
lost sight of the tender relations which
bound him early to ,those who have long
| had claims upon his heart or kindly alice
! tions, and many of whom have stood faith
full guardians beside his bed of pain from
the day of his attempted assassination to the
present hour.
Prominent among these latter are Judge
Advocate General ID. e. Swain, and Colonel
A. +. Rockwell, whose portraits we give
above, and who are confessedly the two
most intimate friends of the President out
side his own more immediate family. These
gentlemen have been in constant and un-
wearled attendance upon the distinguished
sufferer since the moment that he fell vic
tim to the bullet of the assassin; their
presence not only meeting his own grateful
approval, but the sanction of his physicians
also.
While the first place must, of course, be
accorded to Mrs Garfield and the medical
attendants of the President in his long vigil,
Il 81
Colonel Rockwell and General Swain next
attract our attention So long and SO close
their intimacy with his Excelency and con-
slant their presence in his sick chamber,
their private utterances in relation to his
condition daily, had almost the
weight of the official bulletins them
selves. So generally conceded was
this letter that, during their visits to the
White House, prior to the removal of the
patient to Long Branch, they were assailed,
whenever they were observed in public, by
crowds of anxious inquirers who felt that, of
Il sllity, the two tried and esteemed friends
of the sufferer, and his faithful companions
for years, could give most trustworthy in
formation as to his true condition. In
every instance they stood prominently for
ward as the eXponents of the Presidents
private desires, hopes and frars and of all
matters not properly pertaining to his ply
scians or his Cabinet or within the prov
ince of that watcher of all watchers-his
devoted wife.
SO recent the occurrence, it will be re-
membered that both these gentlemen took a
most prominent part in perfecting the ar
rangements for the removal of His Excel
lency from the White House, and that,
through their active vigilance and
the anxious support of the Cabinet,
so perfect, to the minutest detail, We're
these arrangements, that history fails to re-
cord their parallel in any similar or kindred
case. All that human ingenuity could de-
wise or accomplish with a view to convey
ing, without even the slightest jar, feeble
patient, whose life hung III the balance,
| journey by land of two hundred and fifty
miles, was effected in q manner SO skillful
aud triumphant as to be regarded as litle
less than miraculous. 1t was as if the
whole project were a single piece of the
most perfect and noiseless mechanism, that
once set in motion, accomplished its mis-
sion without even the faintest vibration, and
! then ran dawn into utter silence. The lit
ter on which the patient sufferer was car
ried from his weary chamber to the vehicle
that was to convey him to the railroad stn-
! ton was so constructed as to preclude the
possibility of even the slightest jar, and
when he was placed upon it, prominent
among the eight bearers were
his two faithful friends, Colonel Rockwell
and General Swain. In addition, the car
! that was to transport him to Elberon was
! fitted up with the greatest skill and in
/ gepuity; and the complicated mattress
! upon which he was to perform the journey
! was tested by Colonel Rockwell himself,
who reclined upon it during short trial
| trip of the train previous to its departure
| from Washington. and was found to be all
that could be desired SO far as n well man
could determine. And So from the sawdust
strewn in the streets at Washington to pre-
vent a jar of the wheels of the vehicle that
conveyed the sufferer TO the station, to the
new track laid from the main line at Long
Branch to the cottage where the President
! is now housed. every project and arrange
ment was perfection itself,
But these two gentlemen as well as the
Cabinet of the President together with his
other near and active friends, may be re-
garded as but simply occupying position
in which they are accidentally enabled to
give expression and effect to the heartfelt
sentiment of the whole American people in
relation to the disaster that had overtaken
the Chief Executive, and the nation; for
however creditable their motives and senti-
ments to their own hearts, there is not one
true man in the United States but would, to
the extent of his ability, have acquitted
himself in this sad crisis as faithfully and
lovingly as they have. The fusion of par
ties here is complete; and although the
lines may properly be newly drawn on some
future and necessary occasion, yet it is
proud thing for us to be able to say, that in
the shadow of this great calamity that has
befallen us, they have become obiterated
for the time being at least.