The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1882-03-02
MIR. BLAINE'S EULOGY ON GARFIELD
Text OF Blalnc's Eulogy On tho Life and Public
Services Of tho Late President
Garfield.

Text OF BlnlncS EulOgy On tho Life and Public
Services of tho Late President
Garfield.
The Early Life and Maturity Of Magnificent
Manhood Portrayed by u Master Mind
and al Artistic Hand.
The Career Of the Highest Type OF III American
Citizen as ExemplIlicd by the
Dead President.
Stricken Down in the Dawn of His Triumph by
the Hand Of Il Miserable and
W;nton Assassin.
Mr. President: For the second time in this gen
GRAFTON, the great departments of tho government
of tho United States are assembled in the hall Of
representatives to do honor to the memory Of q
murdered president Lincoln fell at the close Of a
mighty struggle in which the passions of
mon had boon deeply stirred. Tho tragical
termination of his great life added but another to
the lenghoned succession of horrors which had
marked SO many lintols with the blood Of tho first
born. Garfield was slain in day of peace. when
brother had been roconcilel to brother, and when
from tho land. ''Whoever shall hereafter
draw the portrait of murder, if he will
show it as 1T has boon exhibited
where such example was last to have been looked
for, let him not give the grim visage of Molocll,
the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with
settled hate Let him draw rather decorous,
smooth faced, bloodless demon, not SO much an
example of human nature in its depravity aud IL its
paroxysms of crime an Internal being. fond
in the ordinary display and development OF his
character" From tho landing of the pilgrims at
Plymouth till tho uprising against Charles the First,
about 10000 emigrants came from old
England to New England AS they
came in pursuit Of intellectual freedom aud ecces
astcal independence rather than for worldly honor
and profit, the emigration naturally ceased when
the contest for religious liberty began in earnest at
home. The man who struck his most effective
blow for
FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
by sailing for the colonies in 1G2O would have been
accounted a deserter to leave after 1910. The op-
portunty had then come on the soil Of England for
that great contest which established the authority
of parliament gave religious freedom to the people,
sent Charles to the block and committed to the
hands of Oliver Gre 'nwell the supreme
executive authority Of England. The Eng
fish emigration was never removed. and
from these 10000 men, with q small emigration
from Scotland and from France, descended the vast
numbers who have New England blood in their
veins. In 1855 the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes by Louis XIV. scattered to other countries
100000 Professionals who were among the
most intelligent and enterprising Of French
Subjects merchants of capital. skilled manufac-
turers and handy craftsmen, superior ut the time
to all others in EnrDOa 4 cOnSiiarab1e Onmbar cf
these Huguenot French came to America A fow
landed in New England. and became honorably
prominent in its history. Their names have, in
largo part, become anglicized, have disappeared
but their blood is traceabe in many of the most re-
putable families, and their fame is perpetuated in
honorable memorials and useful institutions.
aARF1ELDs ANCESTRY,
From these two sources, the English puri-
tan and the French HuQuenot, came
the late president; his father, Abram Gar
field being descended from the one and
his mother, Eliza Ballou, from tho other. 1t was
good stock both sides; none better none Drawer,
none truer. There was in it all inheri-
tanco of courage. of manliness. Of i'm
rerisbable love of liberty, of undyiug
adherence to principle. Garfield was proud Of his
blood and with much satisfaction as if he were
British nobeman reading his stately ancestral
record in Burkos pcerage, he spoke Of himself as
ninth in descent from those who would not endure
the oppression Of the Stuarts and seventh in
descent from the braye French Professionals who
refused to submit to tyranny, even from the Grand
Monaraue Gen. Garfield delighted to dwell on
these traits, and during his only visit to England
he busod himself in discovering every trace Of his
forefathers in parish registres and on ancient
army rolls. Sitting with q friend in the
gallery Of tho house Of commons ono night after
long day labor in the field of research, he said
with evident citation, that in every war in which for
three centuries patriots of English blood had
struck sturdy blows for constitutional
government and human liberty his family had
been represented. They were at Marston Moor, at
Nasty and Preston. They were at Bunker Hill, at
Saratoga and lat Monmouth, and his own person had
battled for the same great in the war which
preserved tho union Of States Losing his father
before he was two years old, the life Of Garfield
WAS one Of rrivatoD, but Its poverty has been
maGo inde!icately and unjustly prominent
Thousands Of readers have imagel him
as the ragged. starving child, whose
reality too often greets the eye in
the saualid sections of our largo cities. Gen.
Gariield's infancy and youth had none Of
their restitution, mono of their ptiful fea-
lures appealing to the tender heart and the open
hand of charity He was poor boy in the same
sense in which Henry Clay was poor boy, in
Daniel Webster was a poor boy, in the
Same sense in which a large majority of the emil
nent men of America, in all generations. have been
poor boys. Before great multitude of men, in q
public speech, Mr. Webster bore this testimony
1T did not happen to mo to be born in
log cabin, but my elder brothers aud sisters were
born in log cabin raised amid the snow drifts of
New Hampshire at period 80 early that whom the
smoke first rose from its crude chimney and
CURLED OVER THE FROZEN HILLS
there was no similar cfidenco of q white
mans habtation between it aud the settlements
on the rivers of Canada It's remains still exist. I
make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to
it to teach them the hardships endured by the gen.
Grafton Which have gone before them. I lovo to
dwell on the tender recol|ections the kindred ties
the early affections and the touching narratives and
incidents which mingle with all I know Of this
primitive family abode" With the requisite change
of scene the same words would aptly portray
the early days of Garfield. The pov-
erty Of the frontier where all are
engaged in a common struggle, and where COM
mon sympathy and hearty cooperation tighten the
burdens of each, is very different poverty, differ
ent in kind, different in influence and effect. from
that CO" scious and humiliating Indulgence which is
every day forced to contrast itself with neghboring
wealth on which it feels
SENSE OF GRINDING DEPENDENCE.
The poverty of the frontier is indeed no poverty.
1t IS but the beginning of wealth and has the bound
less possibilities of the future always opening be-
fore it. No man ever grew up in the agricultural
regions Of the west where house raising or
oven corn husking is matter Of common interest
anu he'pfuness. with any other feeling than that OF
broad minded, generous independence This hon
orabe independence marked the youth of Garfield
asst marks the youth of millions of the best blood
and brain now training for the future citizenship
and future government of the republic. Garfield
was born heir to land, to the title of free holder
winch has been the patent and passport of self re-
spect with the AngloSay race ever since Hengist
ana Horsa landed on the shores Of England His
adventure on the canal. alternative between that
and the deck Of Lake Erie schooner
was farmers lads device for earning money, Just
as the New England lad begins possibly great
career by sailing before the mast on a coasting
vessel, or on merchant man bound to the farther
Indias or to the China seas No manly man feels
anything of shame in
LOOKING BACK TO EARLY STRUGGLES
with adverse circumstances, and 40 man feels a
Worthier pride than when he has conquered the
obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble
mold desires to be looked upon as having occupied
mental position. as having been repressed by a
feeling OF inferiority, or having suffered the
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