Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-08-29
THE PRESIDENT is DYING.

w IIlG IlOuSSj hilSAi3 Inv eAiSSN sNA"'
brood over nature as the sun sets behind
banks of thiekening cloud, have dark
ened into a night of gloom and anguish.
The President is dying. The brilliant
career, rare in the radiance of its sue
cess, which includes the almost measure
less sweep from the lowliest birth to the
highest place of power and pride, is near
its end by the assassin's shot, after weeks
of weary wasting and hopeless pain. A
poor farmers boy, early orphaned, this
was his opportunity; the Presidency of
the Republic, this was his achievement;
to become the victim of madman's fury,
such the destiny which to-day stuns and
horriies the nation, robbing grief of its
sensibility and making life itself seem the
sport and mockery of fate.
1t seems useless in the first paroXysm
of sorrow, to recount the history OF a life
which has met with so sad and tragical
an end. But the poor wretch who,
according to all human foresight,
had the fateful power to kill the
President, could not take from the life
he sought to destroy the lessons of viz
tue, patience and heroism which adorned
it, and marked its growth from obscurity
to fame 1t is life which has been par
alleled by one only of our chief magis-
trates, in It's poor beginnings, its heroic
struggles, its brilliant successes, and now,
alas! in its imminent violent close.
James Abram Garfield was born in
Orange township, Cuyahoga county,
on the 10Th November, in the year 1881,
of New England parentage. His father
settled in the dense forest of that region
in 1880, and cleared small farm which
served to give the family a scanty and
hard-earned support. While yet quite
young, his father died, leaving the care
of the household to the mother, aided as
she could be by the slight help of a group
of infant children. Of these, James
was the youngest. His earliest lessons
were thus in the school of adversely He
saw the clothes they wore made in his
home by his mothers hand, and the food
which sustained them grown with much
labor on the fields his father had brought
to tillage. AS children, in spite of their
poverty, they were never sent out to SER
vice. The mother kept them together
under her eye, moulding their characters,
and giving them such education as her
requirements permitted. In learning,
James, the youngest, was the most pre-
cocious. Remarkable accounts are given
of the ease and rapidity with which he
acquired knowledge. At very early
age he had mastered all the books found
in the scanty libraries of the then back
woods. To crafty his desire for learn
ing, he sought work away from home,
and with the proceeds of his labor began
at seventeen a course of education. Later,
as opportunity presented, he pursued
collegiate course, and at twenty-siX,
found himself back near his old home,
the president of seminary of reputable
standing While occupying this position
in 1859, he entered politics, securing an
{ election to the State Senate, as repub-
iican. This office he resigned to take the
lieutenant colonency of regiment then
organizing at Camp Chase at the outbreak
of the rebellion. Later he became colonel
of another regiment organized under his
influence, and which he followed to the
field. He achieved promotion successive
ly as Brigadier and Major General,
approving himself as brave and skillful
officer. His biographers credit him with
specially valuable service in campaigns
with Buell. and Rosecranz. While the
rebellion was in progress, and he was
serving IN the field, his native district
elected him a member of Congress. Ii
is stated that it was at President Lincoln's
solicitation that he resigned his military
commission, and accepted his congress
sional seat. 1t proved to him most for
tunate event. He possessed rare abili-
ties as a DICTATOR, he had been for
years most pains taking political
student, and he found in the House of
Representatives an arena for the display
of his abilities to their best advantage.
His congressional career is too recent,
and has been too prominent, to need re-
capitulation. He impressed himself
powerfully upon his party, and rapidly
grew to the rank of an acknowledged
leader. Taking advantage of favorable
opportunities, he achieved at last the
highest desire of an honorable ambition,
in his election as twentieth President of
the United States.
This is not the time for review or
criticism upon President Garfield's po-
Iitical theories, motives or conduct. But
this much is due. He has shown great
self-rcliance, and independence in the
conduct of perplexing difficulties arising
within his. own party, while his admin
istration of affairs has heen such as to give
the public confidence in his ability and
patriotism, and the promise, which po
litical opponents, no less than political
friends, were glad to recognize of a stable
and well ordered administration.
This may be fairly said was the general
Judgment upon the President when he
was stricken down by the assasin's bullet
two months ago. Since then, by the suf
ferings he has endured and the heroic pa
thence he has exhibited, he has called
forth from all men everywhere, the warm
est sympathy and admiration. The peo-
pie of our own and of other countries,
have taken his wrongs and sufferings to
themselves; and if grief, sincere and
universal, could have availed, the sad fear
(which shocks humanity would have been
averted. 1t is in the presence of thi
CHASTITY grief that the nation bows to-day
mute and sorrOMing. Millions of