The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1882-03-08

in uGaO Is COLCCfncu, do AluCu a n16ttSI
Of history-as his heroism at Chickamau-
"a or his illustrious service in the
House. Detailis not needful, and per-
sonal antagonism shall not be rekindled
by any word uttered to-day. The mo-
tives of those opposing him are not to
be here adversely interpreted nor their
course harshly characterized. But of
the dead President this is to be said,
and said because his own speech is for
ever silenced and he can be no more
heard except through the fidelity and
loving friends: From the beginning to
the end of the controversy he so much
deplored, the President was never for
one moment actuated by any motive
of gain 10 himself or of loss to others.
Least of all men did he harbor revenge,
rarely did he even show resentment,
and malice was not in his nature. He
was congenially employed only in the
exchange of good offices and the doing
of kindly deeds.
There was not an hour, from the be-
ginning of the trouble till the fatal shot
entered his body, when the President
would not gladly, for the sake of restor-
ing harmony, have retraced any step he
bad taken if such retracing bad merely
involved consequences personal to him
self, The pride of consistency, or any
supposed sense of humiliation that
might result from surrcndering his pO-
sitiOn, had not feathers weight with
him. No man was ever less subjected
to such influences from within or from
without. But after most anxious delib-
Grafton and the coolest survey of all the
circumstances, he solemnly believed
that the true prerogatives of the Execu-
live were involved in the issue which
had been raised, and that he would be
unfaithful to his supreme obligation if
he failed to maintain, in all their vigor,
the constitutional rights and dIgnities
of his great office. He believed this in
all the convictions of conscience when
in sound and vigorous health, and he
believed it in his suffering and prostra-
tion in the last conscious thought which
his wearied mind bestowed on the
transitory struggles of life.
More than this need not be said. Less
than this could not be said. Justice to
the dead, the highest obligation that
devolves upon the living, demands the
declaration that all the bearings of the
subject, actual or possible, the Presi-
den was content in his mind, justified
in his conscience, iInmovable in his con-
illusions. ..--.-.
The deep religious element in
the character of Mr. Garfield is next
considered, at length, concluding
with this paragraph:
The GROWING Characteristic of Gen.
Garfield's religious opinions, as. indeed,
of all his opinions, was his Iiberality
In all things he had charity. Tolerance
was of his nature. He respected in 9TH
ers the qualities which he possessed
himself-sinceIity of conviction and
frankness of expression. With him the
inquiry was not so much what a man
believes, but does he DO it? The lines
of his friendship and his confidence en-
circled men of every creed, and men of
no creed, and 10 the end of his life, on
his ever-lengthening list of friends,
were to be found the names of a pious
Catholic priest and of an honest-minded
and generous-hearted free thinker.
We now come to the peroration,
and it would be difficult to find any
thing in language finer than this
picturing of the last sad scenes:
On the morning of Saturday, July
second, the President was a contented
and happy mau-not in an ordinary de-
gree, but joyful, almost boyishly hap
Ply. On his way IT, the railroad sta! ion
to which lie drove slowly, in conscious
enjoyment of the beautiful morning,
with an unwonted sense of leisure and a
keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk
was all in the grateful and gratulatory
eYin. He felt that after four months of
trial his administration was strong in
its grasp of affairs, strong in popular
favor and destined to grow stronger;
that grave difficulties confronting him
at his Inauguration ha0 been safely
passed; that trouble lay behind him and
not before him; that he was soon to
meet the wife whom he loved, now re.
lately disquieted and at times almost
unnerved him that he was going to his
Alma Mater to renew the most cherish
ed associations of his young manhood,
and to exchange greetings with those
whose deepening interest had followed
every step of his upward progress from
the day he entered upon his college
course until he had attained the loftiest
elevation in the gift of his countrymen.
Surely if happiness can ever come
from The hODors or triumphs of this
world, on that quiet July morning
james A. Garfield may we'll have been
a happy man. No foreboding of evil
haunted him; no slightest premonition
of danger clouded his sky. His terrible
fate was upon him in an instant. One
moment he stood erect, strong, conf
dent in the years stretching peacefully
out before him. The next be lay wound
ed, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary
weeks of torture, to silence, and the
grave.
Great in life, he was surprisingly
great in death. For no cause, in the
very frenzy of wantonness and wicked
ness, by the red hand of murder, lie
was thrust from the full tide of this
worlds interest, from its hopes, its as
pirations, its victories, into the visible
of dpath-and he did not ouaiI