Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-07-20
An Eloquent Tribute.
AT recent meeting in Brooklyn, held to
offer prayer for the restoration OF the presi.
dent, Lieutenant-Governor Woodford spoke
as follows:


AT recent meeting in Brooklyn, held to
offer prayer for the restoration of the presi-
dent, Lieutenant-G Governor Woodford spoke
as follows:
Mr.. President and Neighbors 1t seems very
meet right and our bounden duty that at such
an hour az this we should gather in the houses Of
prayer to thank our Heavenly Father that the
president may be spared to us in the fullness OF
his prime and the strength Of his great manhood
It Is donbly fitting that we should meet In this
house OF prayer, for James A. Garfield Is man
who In every place Of life-as student In the old
Williams college days, as soldier, as member Of
congress, as politician and as president, has been
a constant, sincere praying man. He Is 20 simple
In his personal habits that he never thrusts his
family devotion on a friend or stranger who tar
ries within his gates. Well do remember when
at Mentor last winter, before he came TO his inau.
guration, how learned that each night, after the
guests had retired, he gathered his own family In
the little parlor to the right Of the hall and with
his wife and children around him he led in prayer
that God might care for his home and the repub-
lie he was about to rule In an age Of skepticism,
when so many think IL wise to reject the central
truth OF Gods fatherhood, this eloquent orator,
this brave soldier, this great statesman, has been
an honest, earnest, prayerful Christian man. God
bless him in this hour of peril. The nation,
from ocean to ocean, lifts an agonizing cry: God
spare our PRESIDENT And yet in our sorrow !
think we are more proud, more tender of James
A. bhfneln Tonight tnHn ever before.
His boyhoOd friends knew what a generous,
earnest, ambitious young student he was His
old comrades In the army knew what soldier he
was. His associates in congress knew what a
brave, resolute, wise leader and debater he was,
giving and taking great, stalwart blows, and CIV
ing and taking them in a great-hearted, generous
and manly fashion. We have weighed him in the
conflict OF politics We have watched each step
and been glad each step has been upward, since
those student days when he struggled for bread
as well as for knowledge until to-day he is the
nncrowned head OF the great republic.
But we never fully knew him until now, as he
lies, great-hearted and gentle-tongued fighting
for life. and looking death calmly and resolutely
compel life for your sake and mine, knowing that
II he lives 1t will be for the republic and not for
himself knowing that he is fighting this battle Of
life for you and for me. God bless our brave,
my thoughts go as your thoughts go, to the wife
who seems to have come right out from the
shadow OF death. that, with loving hand and ten
der heart, she might lead him away from the
shadow back to beauty and health and strength.
think OF him as he stood on Inauguration dav
with the thousands gathered around him. with
martial music and glad acclaim on every hand
think of him after he had put his hand on the
Bible and sworn that he would obey and main
tain the constitution, turning to his wife with a
loving kiss, the wife who had been his school
mate in the days away back in the old Ohio
school-house, and then reverently stopping and
and good sense had trained him up to be presi-
dent of these United States. God bless the presi-
dent God bless his loyal wife! Gods richest
blessings be on that little mother, and spare her
aged eyes from seeing her boy pass before her to
the better land 1t is a great thing to be great
soldier; a greater thing to be great orator; a
grand thing to be great statesman and wise
scholar; but 1t is a far greater and nobler and
grander thing TO be a true man who is faithful
to wife and obedient to mother, kind father and
loving Christian.
My friends am deeply glad of another thing
II we needed proof that the sad years of battle
have borne fruit, we have it tonight. II we ever
doubted that the republic could be saved let us
reverentially thank God, that by the side Of Gar
fields bed Of suffering we see the whole nation
kneeling in supplicaton In the shadow of his
possible death the blue and the gray kneel swear.
ing that they will he true to the republic. II he
lives, and God grant he may, the wav is open
through the Red Sea, across the desert into true
and enduring reconciliation II he lives and God
grant he may, he will come back from the shadow
OF the grave to bind together the old republic by
love and fraternal union forevermore. But II in
the strange mystery of Providence that permitted
Lincoln to die like Moses when he looked into the
promised land. If our loving friend and good pres
ident is to go above, let us pray in the solemn
stiffness OF this hour that though the president
may die, the republic shall live, and live forever
bid you remember that this is government
OF the people, by the people and for the people.
bid You remember that this il government OF
~
son OF the republic who, in every time and place,
obeys law and holds up the hands of those who
rightfnlly rule under the law.
bid you remember that the same ballots which
made president, named also his successor
bid you remember that the patriotism that bids
you to pray for the president tonight compels
you, II the president should be called away from
us to be loyalty obedient to his and earn
est supporters of the government, that still lives
There is grandeur in the thought that we, the
people, are, after all, the real rulers in this land
The law to which all must bow is our embodied
Will. For u.s. the people, presidents rule and in
our congress we, the people, are assembled. For
us, the people, the republic lives, that our homes
may be happy and safe, that our children may be
educated and grow to better and larger manhood
than our own. And So by very close and tender
ties, such of our rulersas are truly good and great
become our own forevermore God gave II.
Washington. God gave us Lincoln. May he
spare to us Garfield, that coming back to us from
the very silence and shadow Of the grave, our
president may bring its solemn hush and holy
peace into the mad passion of our politics and so
teach us that we are men, citizens and brothers.
Let us tonight calmly resolve to put aside the
folly and petty meanness OF past. Let us
highly resolve that from this hour so tender in
its sorrow, so pure in its purpose OF better
patriotism, we will try to put duty above passion
and the nation above party.
So from this deep sorrow the republic shall have
great gain and the president coming back from
the grave, shall lead us in the better ways of a
more perfect Union. May God thus bring him
back and help him thus to be our leader in
happier days to come. My faith grows strong
that thus he shall come back. party made him
president But God has larger and more lasting
work for this strong man to do. Back from the
grave he comes to be the president of the whole
people. May we have the pure purpose to hold
up his hands and cheer his heart in all the work