Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1881-10-01

providence move to their appointed ends through
50 vast an orbit that we cannot sec through our
tears the season Of fruitage from such escation
as that which this eclipse has caused We some
now Iee as our very institutions are tainted by
cessories to it, and that the whole RESPONSIBILITIES
cannot be bounded by the nature of he ynlear
murderer n whose hand has drawn a nah over the
u IS as some ancient Fate working to its
enas tnrough the agencies of innocence and guilt
alike. had fulfilled remorseless destiny and smit
Ten aown the dynasty OF free government WHILE
n1 ING 3 cholas OF some classic tragedy people
CHANTS 1Ms words OF comfortless mourning All are
nere. Inc laborer, the scholar, to whom no like
catastrophe is told by history; the statesman sad
uenlng over the fact that within twenty years two
presidents nave been murdered, the business man.
Tue woman and the little child, wide-eyed with Won
aer and with grief-all are here to mourn. : q &
III, Inc sermon the eulogy. the dirge, the tnrenody
ory: with al his human faults atoned for by his
acrlnce History often falsely the character of
man through the adit Of such death, for there is
a 40 perspecuVe SO dlstortlng. It is probable that
GARFIELD will always stand in this illusory and
scenic light, and it is WE'LL perhaps for the force of
Example that this should be So. Death teaches no
1neE precepts than are taught by the lives and
aeatn OF mon, who, good and pure, and dedicated
apparently to the contamination of o. great career
i RE-, thus brought down untimely 1t so with
the leader of any disastrous political measure Ha
aao peen conspicuous, though not eminent, in
ne press OF political leadership. That he was ca
pable to do all that men more self ssertiye as
was felt for years that he had at no time mt
forth al his strength Upon all questions of states
thought. Upon the feeting questions Of the hour
those mere expediencies Of the moment, he was
seldom heard to speak. He seemed to be man in
preparation and ripening Slowly for the perform
ance Of some great ultimate duty which should sur
pass tho daily tasks of other men, however well per-
formed, and thus round out that crescent life to an
orb of never fading light But this was rot to be-
he has been stayed in his course. All hope of sue
cess or dread of failure is at end and we are free
to consider the example of what this man might
have become. From earliest life he was an assidu-
Gus student, and thus become, next perhaps to the
younger Adams, the most varously instructed man
OF all our presidents. It is exemplary
to know the wide range of his studies The classics
had modelled his mind to antique simplicity and
beauty OF proportion. No speaker of English on
either side of the ocean was his superior in the
command Of its resources. Whatever was to be
conservative or destruction which in all ages work
upon all governments he knew. He was a student
both diverse and minute. He was graced with the
panoply. 1t was peculiar to this man that all he
knew he knew to use. He played many parts and
received pla1dit in all He had been a laborer
oIogian: "a soldier, and a statesman.
Each vocation was but process in constructing the
perfected man. and now that all externals have been
edifce of such manhood, so widely spread, so spa
cious and so high that there are few such in the
realm of history. The natural elements of the man
were plainly discernible through the pellucid sim
plcity of his character. His perception Of duty
was clear, and his tendency to its performances was
moral gravitation He doubtless had great am
t bt!on but it was to noble ends It was the am
but not self-serving, would be an ap-
'propriate motto for the man. He was not tina
padded statesman, too we'll known in day, made
up OF newspaper Communications. Nor can any
faint be found in his OF that dastardly self
promotion which wins its Infamous way over the
offx> 81 1f1,D
spends its malignant force in the despoilment of
larger and better natures His logical processes sell
dom consisted of scholastic ability of deduction.
but in an instructive sense and exposition of the
true relation of facts and situations to principles
They were constructive selectiye and analoyica1,
and the result was that his conclusions and the ways
by which he reached them argued for themselves as
perfect piece of architecture does
This cursory estimate OF this scholar soldier and
statesman would be imperfect If it failed to recog
nze an endowment which he had and which is rare
ly possessed by men Of atfairs. He was endowed
with the imaginative faculty to an extent une-
qualed by any American statesman. It was subtle,
far seeing and brought into correlaive relations
things most remote and diverse The tributary
forces of his scholarship therefore always at his
command, and the result was wealth Of iustra-
tive, power r.; in which he resambled Edmund
Burke. Who will ever forget the sentence
which fell from his lips. upon the tumultu-
airy convention at Chicago: but remember it is
not the pillows but the calm level OF the sea from
which all heights and depths are measured" Aud
that convention, measuring its duty from that
8 andard chose the man who doubtless represented
best the calm level of popular thought. With his
spread over the nation. Prosperity opened all her
gamers. 1t seemed as if years of t,ial were past
and gone, and that under the rule of this large
natured, generous man the Eoaturnian days had
come again.
But in moment all was changed. The president,
who, by constitution and action, was showing him.
self to be an antagonist to every corroding political
evil of the times who combined the virtues of our
best statesmen with the endowments of the ripe
learning by which states are made great and gov
erned we'll, was shot down by disappointed office
seeker in the capital of the nation. It was bruta!
murder, like those assassinatons which mark the
annals Of every corrupt state when Office and plum
der become the controlling forces Of admnstra-
ton. "
1t becomes us at this moment when sorrow makes
every mind capable to instruction, to learn the les
son of the hour. For sometimes nations can be
taught only by calamity and this instructor cites US
before her now. We must raise our processes of
popular government to higher plane, through re-
ginning of caamities like this. 1t is the instruction
of all time that when government becomes per-
sonal, when it becomes merely the instrument
of personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT through few or
many Offices, corruption and vioenceI Strike
hands together for its destruction. Since the fouu-
dation of this government three political murders
have been committed and the victim in every in
stance has been the personal exponent Of what was
best in public sentiment. killed by one OF whom
what was worse had taken full possession. Halnil-
ton, Lincoln and Garfield each il their time, repre-
sented the elements OF thought which tended best
towards national greatness and perpetuty Donot
misunderstood me as abiding here to any of those
temporary and incidental distinctions in the work
ings of American thought which have the name of
party. The occasion and the fact prohibit this.
mean to say that these were men whose Astounding
love of country had welded them to principles
which rose above the feeting party distinctions of
the hour and whose duty and love it was to place
our institutions on a more lasting basis than
party sentiment over can. Each of these great men
was victim to the personal politics which pre-
coded and diSgraced their times.
These evils have debauched the public conscience
for many years. The strife to get Office, to retain
Office to disposses from Office is the master pas
sion of our politics. Our statesmen have become
too often mere leaders of a personal following who
fight in the hope of reward. Our politics consist
in mean advantages, in disreputable PRACTICES in
~ inf ofo bo