The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-07-16

death was not received in pure sor.
row. There was rage as well as grief
in the mourning round his grave,
and none who mourned him could
forget for moment in 1865 that
very large proportion of the popula-
ton of the South regarded him as
the author of immense National CAL
antics, and as the champion and
representative of an unjust cause.
The sympathy and sorrow which
the attack on President Garfield has
aroused has, however, no taste of
bitterness or discord in it. He has
fallen under the assassin's bullet in a
time of profound peace, of general
prosperity, and of unequaled hope
fitness. His title was disputed by
no man, and to no citizen in any part
of the Union did he represent any,
thing but order and legality, and
social and political harmony. He
was, in fact, on Saturday morning
July I'd, the Chief officer of the hap
piest and most cheerful nation on the
globe, the nation which looks into
the future with least fear or misgiv-
ing, which to all outward appearance
has least to dread either from foreign
aggression or domestic treason. In
this he is happier than Lincoln,
though much less happy in the rec
ord of accomplished work. When
Lincoln died he had successfully
borne the burden of the most con-
spicuous, the most responsible, and,
in many ways, the most trying office
ever filled by man, at least in modern
times. For it must be remembered
that failure and shortcomings are
easily forgiven to him who attempts
great things with scanty resources.
If Washington had failed, the WILD
would have simply wondered nat
with such troops and such a tresury
he should ever haYe expected p sue
coed. But Lincoln was the master
of one of the largest armies arl some
OF the best rank and file tn; world
has seen since Comwell dove the
king off the field at NasebF, and he
was able to spend in fouryears the
sum which other nations lave used
to meet the cost of two cnturies Of
war, and he had at his hack an en-
thusiasm whose depths were meyer
fathomed. re WELD suh weapons
was to undertake an immense ac-
countability. To wieldthem so that
when all was over the civilized world
cried, "Well done!" vas to achieve
a wonderful fame.
"No such opportunity came in
General Garfield's way; none such
will come in any mans way, prob
ably. for centuries to come. But in
the slow and steady fight with adj
verse circumstances through which
I he rose to prominence in public life
| there was the same picturesque and
pathetic interest which has made
Lincoln's life one of the most popular
of modern tales. He started in just
as humble a position, with prospects
in no way better, ard he got out of
life everything that life in this coun-
try gives to steady toll and endeavor,
except wealth. He made himself,
too, far more accomplishment better
equipped, as far as intellectual cult
walton goes, than Lincoln ever was.
The duties of the Presidency had
nothing to teach him. He had
achieved at rty.eight long and
wide experience of civil affairs, and
| had served with distinction in the
field.
He was emphatically self-made
man, and he had kept himself COM
pletely free from the greatest defect
of the self-made man, the notion that
his own personal experience is more
valuable than that of the rest of the
human race, and what he does not
know is not worth knowing. The rise
of self-made man in American life,
too, is not hardning process, as it is
in many other countries. He en-
counters very little of the embittering
Indifference to patient merit, of the
| lnsolence OF office, and of the hinder
ing malice and envy through which
the ambitious youth, who seeks en-
inence from humble beginnings, has
to fight his way in the cid world.
On the contrary, at nearly every
mile of the road he finds helping
hand and an encouraging world.
This sWeetenS rather than sours the
temper, and if it has and injurious eff
feet at all, it lies in making an easy
temper too easy, any increasing the
difficulty which probably every high
officer finds the greatest difficulty in
the successful discharge of executive
duties in a Democratic country the
difficulty of saying No. General Gar
fields fault as an executive officer,
and most of his troubles, have arisen
out of this shrinking from refusal.
But it is the fault of a man to whom
the world has been kind and helpful,
to whom friends came easily, whom
every one likes and who sees life on
that large scale, without which, as
has been well said. it is not possible
to be either hopeful or happy"