Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-03-04
THE GARFIELD MEMORIAL.
Mr.. Blaine's Remarks on the Death
of the Late President.

Mr.. Blaine's Remarks on the Death
of the Late President.
Mr.. Blaine closed his remarks on the
Life and Services of President Garfield
as follows: On the morning Of Satur-
day, July 2, the President was a con-
tented ard happy man-not in an ordl-
nary degree, but JOY fully, almost boy
station, to which he drove slowly, in
conscious enjoyment of the beautiful
morning, with an unwonted sense of
leisure and keen anticipation of pleas
ure, his talk was all in the grateful and
pratulatory vein. 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 con-
| fronting him at his Inauguration had
been safely passed that trouble lay be-
hlnd him and not before him that he
| was soon to meet his wife whom he
| loved, now recovering from an illness
! which had but lately disauie.ed and at
| times unnerved him; that he was going
to his Alma Mater to renew the most
cherished associations of his young
manhood, and to exchange greetings
with those whose deepening interest had
followed every step of his upward pro-
gress from the day he entered upon his
college course until he had attained the
loftiest elevation in the gift OF his coun-
trymen.
Surely if happiness can ever come
from tue honors or triumphs of this
/ world hat iaL TIL.
James A. Garfield may well have been a
happy man. No foreboding of evil
haunted him; no slightest premonition
OF danger clcuded his sky. His terrible
fate was upon him in an instant. One
.aoment he stood erect, strong, conf
dent In the years stretching peacefully
out before him. The next he lay
wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to
weary weeks of torture, to silence, and
| the grave.
GREAT IN DEATH
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 he was
! thrust from the full tide of this worlds
/ interest, from its hopes, its aspirations,
Its Victories, into the visible presence of
death-and he did not quail. Not alone
for the one short moment in which.
stunned aud d8zed, he could give ND
life, hardly aware Of its REIMBURSEMENT.
but through days of deadly languor,
through weeks Of agony, that was not
less agony because silently borne, with
clear sight and calm courage. he looked
into his grave. What blight and ruin
met his argni>hed eyes, whose lips may
tell-what brilliant, broken plans, what
baiiied, high ambitions, what sundering
OF strong, warm manhood's friendships.
what bitter rendiug of sweet household
ties Behind him proud expoctant
nation, a great host Of sustaining
friends, cherished and happy mother,
wearing the full, rich honors of her
early toll and tears; the wife Of his
youth, whose whole life lay in his; the
little boys not yet emerged from child.
/ hoods day of froiic the fair. young
daughter the sturdy sons Just spring
ing into closest companionship, claiming
every day and every day rewarding
fathers love and care and in his heart
the eager. rejoicing power to meet all
demani. Before lin, desolation and
/ great darkness And his soul was not
shaken. His countrymen were thrilled
with instant, profound, and univer-
sal sympathy. Ma,terfu in his
mortal weakness. he became the
centre OF a nations love. enshrined
in the prayers Of world. But all
the love and all the sympathy could not
share with him his suffering. He trod
the wino-press alone. With unfaltering
tx mt he faced death. With unfailiDg
/ tenderness he took leave of life Above
! the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bull
4 let he heard the voice of God. With
simple resignation he bowed to the
divine decree.
/ SIC IIUR AID ASTRA."
As the end drew near, his early cray
/ ing for the sea returned. The stately
mansion of power had been to him the
wearisome hospital of pain and he begged
to be taken from its prison walls. from
its oppressive, sitting air, from its home
Iessness and its hopelessness. Gently,
silently, the love of a great people bore
the pale sufferer to the longed- for
healing of the sea, to live or to die, as
God should will, within sight of its
HedNIhR DllioWS, Witliln sound OF Its
manifold voices. With wan, fevered
face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze,
he looked out wistfully upon the oceans
changing wonders !; on its far sails,
whitening in the morning light; on its
restless waves, rolling shoreward to
break and die beneath the noondav sun;
on the red clouds of evening, arching
Low to the horizon on the serene and
shining pathway of the stars Let us
think that his dying eyes read mystic
meaning which only tie wrapt and part
ing soul may know. Let us believe
that in the receding world he heard the
great waves breaking On a further
shore, and felt already upon his wasted
brow the breath of the eternal morn
ing.