St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-09-30

A character and manhood like his do
not come by chance, do not grow with
out soil and fitting culture. To make
such a man there must be good stock
and training, discipline and education
suited to the development and perfec-
ton of a well rounded and noble man.
President Garfield graduated at
Williams college at the mature age of
twenty-five. In twenty-five years
more his work was all done-thus full
half his life was passed in the work of
preparation for the achievements of
the other half. Without the surround
ings, the training and the work of the
| first half the results of the second half
must have been far different, far less
useful to his country and to posterity.
In those first % years the foundations
were laid deep and strong, and were
never undermined. The principles of
religion had been part of his daily life.
| The death of his father when he him
self was but two years of age made
him more dependent upon the ardent
affections of his mother. Young Gar
field was of Puritan stock, with n ia
Their and mother profoundly religious,
strong in mind and body, and heirs only
to poverty and toll. In little log house
the future President first saw the light,
and when two years later his father
died he could only say to the mourning
mother: 81 have planted four sap
lings in these woods. l leave them to
your care" Faithfully has that care
been bestowed. 1t was a mothers
prayerful care and untiring industry
that guided wisely the formative years
of one who was to be power for good
i'll the land.
Such was the heritage of young Gar
field. Poverty and want were there,
but brave hearts and tireless hands
were there too y; the world was before
him with its garnered treasures of
knowledge ready for him to gather who
proved most worthy. AS soon as the
boy was of sufficient age he was sent
to district school, where it was said he
was a good scholar, but ready to fight
if larger boys abused him or those
smaller or weaker than himself; for he
had great strength and physical cour-
age. Meanwhile his mother found
time to instil into his mind the relig-
iOus and moral maxims of her New
England ancestry, and religious
thought and discussion made active
the mind of her sOn-an activity that
never afterward ceased until the assas-
sin had done his work. Upon the
farm, too, the boy had to do such work
as was suited to his years, and so he
learned the lessons that labor teaches
Ito be self-reliant, that to have do
minion over others he must first have
dominion over himself, and to know
the feelings and needs of the tOiling
million. His poverty and humble avO-
cations kept him on level with the
people and enabled him to interpret
their hopes, aims and wishes with pro-
phetic accuracy. No man can fully
sympathize with the feelings of work
ing and oppressed mankind who has
not himself felt the burden of hard
work /; the real leaders have usually
been men of the people-men who
knew how the hearts of the poor and
lowly beat by knowing how their own
hearts beat when they were poor and
1 lOwly. This was an important part of
the education of Garfield, and, with the
district school, his mothers teachings,
religious discussion and the reading of
a few books, made up his means of ed
ucatiOn till he was sixteen. Then
came work for his neighbors- kinds
of hard, manual labor. AT seventeen
his mind was turned to the advantages
of good education, and this doubtless
was the turning point of his life. From
that time his eyes were fixed on the
glowing light of the jewels of knowl-
edge, Il light that in this country shines
for every poor boy. But education for
him meant years of hard work and sac
ritice, for himself and his faithful moth
er. He worked in vacation to get
money to attend the academy; at the
academy he boarded himself and did
various kinds of work, that the spec
tire of poverty might not drive him
from the fair fields of knowledge. He
took a district school to teach His
uncle said to him, "You will go into
that school as the boy jim Garfield.
See that yOu come out as Mr.. Garfield,
the schoolmaster." 1t is needless to
say that Garfield, with his powerful
frame and determined will, made his
mark upon some of the young rowdies
that winter, and came out as ''Mr. Gar
field, the schOOlmaster"
From this time every energy was
bent to obtaining an education. He
|
student in the academy. His labor and
industry were prodigions. He did the
work of six years in three, and in June,
1854, when nearly twenty three, he
entered college nearly two years in ad-
vance. He obtained access to the col
lege library, which was the first large
collection of books he had ever seen.
Now the feast was spread before him,
and he entered upon a course of gener-
al reading which he never ceased to
pursue, and which had much to do
with broadening his line of vision and
storing his mind with the great facts
of history that must be familiar to the
true statesman. He studied hard to
master his subjects, both as student
and statesman. The speaker quoted
from Mark Hopkins in compensation
of Gartield's college life, to the effect
that he was '|prOmpt, frank, manly,
social in his tendencies, combining ac-
tive exercise with habits of study, and
thus made himself a man" Up to
his twenty-fifth year he had never vOt-
ed, so thoroughly had he been absorbed
in his studies. But that year the Re-
1 publican party was born and the ques-
tiOns of slavery or freedom were stir
ring the souls of men. With such an
ancestry and such training he could
not help abhorring slavery. He made
there in college his first political
speech, and struck straight at the heart
of that monster of iniquity, slavery.
He Joined the movement of the people,
and ever after went forward as fast as
the people were ready to follow. With
such preparation he entered on the
| 0raat UorLy of his life a uorly UhoOa