Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-10-12
Henry WattersOn on Garfield.

Memorial services were nelu dI Jne OuiIeu
States military post at Jacksonville, Ken
lucky, in the presence of fifteen Thousand
people. Henry Watterson, the brilliant
democratic editor and ex-congressman, adj
dressed this vast concourse. Mr.. Watterson
was chivalric political antagonist of the
late president, and, unlike the meaner spirits
of his party, ndignantly spurned the infa-
nous calumnies with which General Gar
field was so cruelty assailed in the last presi-
Dental campaign. The following eloquent
extracts from Mr.. Wattersons address will
will be read with interest.
know him WELL and know now that loved
him. He was man of ample soul, with the
strength of giant, the courage of lion, and the
heart of dove. There never lived man who
yearned for the approval of his fellowmen, who
felt their anger more. There never lived man
who struggled harder to realize Pauls idea. and
to be all things to all men, Did ever the charac
ter sketched by Paul find nobler example, for
he was blameless, vigilant, sober, of good beha-
vior apt to teach, not given to filthy lucre. No
one without the little family circle of relatives
and friends in which he lived will ever know how
certain dismal though in truth trivial, episode
in his career cut him to the soul. Born poor
mans son, to live and die a poor man, with OPP
portunities unbounded for public pillage, with IL
censed robbery going on all around him, and he
pnched for the base means to maintain himself, his
wife and his little ones with decency and comfort,
to be held up to the scorn of men as one not hon
est! He is gone now and before he went he had
outlived the wounds which party friends alike
with party foes had sought to put upon his honor
and manhood and maybe to-day somewhere
among the stars he looks down upon the world
and sees at last how selfish and unreal were the
assaults of those in whose way he stood IL il
plpaeurn n n rpflpct amid thpsp % lOomv
that some friendly words of mine gratified him at
moment when he suffered most. Not In the
last campaign for it would have been crime in
me to have hestated then, but away back when
vision of the presidency bad crossed the disc of
his ambition, and when the cruelest blows were
struck from behind. 1t is also pleasure for me
to remember the last time saw him. 1t was
during an all-night session of the house, when in
company with Joseph Hawley of Connecticut
Randall Gibson of Louisiana and Randolph
Fucker, we took possession of the committee
rooms of Proctor Knott who joined us later and
turned all chickering's and jars in happy forgetful-
ness of section and party. | do well remember
now buoyant he was that night in spirit and how
robust in thought, full of suggestion, and in rep
artee unaffected and genial ever; how delighted
to lay aside the statesman and the partisan and
be a boy again, and how 10th he was with the
rest to the narrow confines which separate
the real and ideal, and to descend into the hot
abyss below | could not have gone thence to
blacken that mans character any more than to do
another deed of shame, aud republican though he
was, and party Chief he had no truer friends than
the brilliant Virginian whom he loved like a
brother, and the eminent Louisianian whose coun-
sells he habtually sought. refer to an incident
| unimportant in itself to illustrate a character
which unfolded to the knowledge of the world
through aifiiction, and whose death has awakened
| the love and admiration of mankind All
| know that he was man of spotless integrity
who might have been rich by a single de-
| Election, but who died poor, who broadened and
rose in height with each rise in fortune who was
not less scholar because he had wanted early ad-
vantages, and who, not yet fifty leaves price
less heritage to his countrymen the example of
| now God-given virtues of the head and heart
| may be employed to the glory of God and the
| uses of men by one who makes all things subor-
dinate to the development of the good within
| him. On all these points we think together,
| there are not two opinions. We stand upon com.
mon ground; we shall separate and go hence and
each shall take his way. Interests shall clash, be
liefs shall jar party spirit shall lift its horned head
| and interpose to chill and cloud our better ma
| lures. That is but condition of our being. we
| are mortal and we live in free land Out OF dis
| cussion and dissension ends are shapened; We
| rough hewing in spite of u.s. However, coca
| sons come which remind us that we have coun
| try and are countrymen, which tell us we are
| people bound together by many kindred ties. NJ
| matter for our quarrels, they will pass away. NJ
matter for our mistakes, they shall be mended
| But yesterday we were at war with the other
The war is over But yesterday we were arrayet
in the anger of party conflict; behold how its pas
sions sleep in the grave with Garfield. am her
to-day to talk to you of him, and through hin
and in his memory and honor to talk of our coun
try. He was its chief magistrate, our president
representative of things common to us all stricke
down in the fullness OF life and hope by wanto
and aimless assassination. He fell like martyr
he suffered like hero; he died like saint. b
his grave forever and aye resting place for tn
people, and for the seeds that burst thereon to lie
the violets bring spring flowers of peace and Low
for all the people. Citizens the flag which wave
over us was his flag and it is our flag. Soldiers
standing beneath that flag and this armed fortre'
of the republic, salute your flag and his fla
J reverently. 1t is my flag | thank God, and
shall teach my children to thank God that 1t di
not go down amid the fragments of a divide
s country, but that it floats to-day though at ha
mast as a symbol of union and liberty, assurin
and reassuring us that though the heart that col
|; ceived the words be cold, and the lips that u
tered them be dumb, "God reigns and the go
eminent at Washington still lives"