Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-09-28

Week or Mourning.
Amid demonstrations Of sorrow which, for
universally and deep tender sincerity are
without parallel in history, James Abram
Garfield, our second martyred president, has
been borne from the scenes Of brilliant
triumphs and of a tragic fate to place of
peaceful rest by the waters of the western
lake. Amid the people Of his childhood who
witnessed and encouraged the struggles OF
dawning manhood, and whose unfaltering
confidence and chivalric devotion bore him tri
umphantly on their generous stream through
the trials and struggles of later years, I" af-
ter life's fitful fever he sleeps we'll" Dur
ing this week of mournful experiences
thousand tongues have poured out in eulogy
their tributes to his many virtues, and yet
the most gifted of his panegyrists must have
inwardly felt how poor, how weak, are the
choicest powers of language and of eloquence
fifty to characterize the life and services of
Garfield, and voice the peoples grief over
his untimely taking off. A warmer eulogy
than chosen words can frame is swelling in
each sympathetic heart, among fifty millions
OF freemen. Silence, significant of the deep
flowing currents of great aud genuine sor-
row, would be more grateful to the feelings
of each mourning citizen, as when the closest
personal ties are sundered by the hand Of
DEATH but for the outward observances re-
spect for the memory of the nations dead
demands. Silence is golden in the presence
of such calamity, and the silvery tongue of
a Nestor could not add TO its impressive fit
ness while every head is bowed and every
heart is sore with grief which is felt to be
personal grief. Had death followed soon
on the assassin's shot, it would have
been easier for our Antonies to stir their
friends up "to a sudden flood of mu-
tiny but eighty days of heroic suffer
ing in which have been developed the finer
points and qualities in this mans character,
in which have come strongly to light views
of rare domestic virtues, of manly love
without effeminacy, Of womanly tenderness
without weakness, of heroism and fortitude
without austerity, of Christian faith and
calmness without cant or ostentation, have
worked kind of dedication of Garfield in
the popular heart, and he who speaks of him
now is oppressed with consciousness that
he has neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
action, nor utterance, nor the power of
speech" to satisfy the popular conception
of the dead hero. AS time draws on, as
the tide of passionate feeling subsidies within
its natural channels, people will begin to
get calmer and more just views of Garfeld's
character, of his services in the past, and
OF the influence of his life and example
upon the future of the nation than have
been or can be made while every sensibility
of the heart is tremulous with the infinite
pathos awakened by his tragic fate. 1t
may appear that the great mission of his
life has just begun. He is dead but I" his
soul is marching on" He will henceforth
be more truly than any other American the
patron saint of our youth, the great and
best ideal of the vast possibilities under
republican form of government And the
history of his life will serve to dispel the
illusion that accident or influence are the
chief forces to open the way to advancement,
or that education, culture integrity are
needless accessories for pushing young
man. From early boyhood his career was
marked by an industry in the acquisition
and application Of knowledge that was
phenomenal. 1t is not necessary that the |
presidency should be the goal of success.
That Garfield became president is to young
men the least significant and important fact |
in the history of his life, but the important |
fact to them is that success was won, and |
his highest distinction achieved by intelli. |
gent application and by conscientious |
hard work. These were all along, in his |
later as well as in his earlier career, his |
great distinguishing characteristics, and |
by these habits his natural powers were
enlarged till what superficial observers
called man of genius was, in reality the
contamination of hard work and close APP |
plication in a mind naturally bright and
active. In Garfeld's career the young men
OF the country have an inspiring exemplar.
We believe he has lived and died for them |
in peculiar manner. Less remote in point |
OF time than Washington, less genius and
more man of culture than Lincoln, more
truly representative and possible charac-
ter in these times than either, he will be the
guiding star for American youth, and he
will lead them over no perilous seas, upon
no dangerous rocks.