Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-02-28

the bench, Andrew johnson could not com.
mand the support of one-third In either house
against the Parliamentary uprising of which
Thadeus Stevens was the animating spirit and
the unquestioned leader.
From these three great men Garfield diff
fered radically, differed in the quality of his
mind, in temperament, in the form and phase
of ambition. He could not do what they did
but he could do what they could not, and IN
the breadth of his congressional work he left
that which will longer exert q potential In
fluence among men, and which, measured by
the severe test of posthumous criticism, will
secure more enduring and more enviable
fame.
Those unfamiliar with Garfeld's industry
and ignorant of the details of his work, may
in some degree measure them from the annals
of congress. No one of the generation Of
public men to which he belonged has contrib.
uted so much that will be valuable for future
reference. His speeches are numerous, many
of them brilliant, all of them well studied,
carefully phrased, AMI exhaustive of the sub.
ject under consideration. Collected from the
scattered pages of ninety royal octave vol
umes of congressional record, they would pre-
sent an invaluable compendium of the politi-
cal history of the most important era through
which the national government has ever pass
ed. When the history OF this period shall be
impartially written, when war legislation,
measures of reconstruction, protection of hui.
man rights, amendments to the constitution,
maintenance of public credit, steps towards
specie resumption, true theories of revenue may
be reviewed, unsurrouuded by prejudice and
disconnected from partisanlsm, the speeches
of Garfield will be estimated at their true
value, and will be found to comprise vast
magazine of fact and argument, of clear an.
alysis and sound conclusion. Indeed, If no
other authority were accessible, his speeches
in the house of representatives from Deem
Der, 1868, to June, 1880, would give we'll
connected history and complete defense of the
full years that constitute his parliamentary
life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be
found to forecast many great measures, yet t.
be ompleted-measures which he knew were
beyond the public opinion of the hour, but
which he confidently believed would secure
popular approval within the period of his OWL
lifetime, and by the aid of his own efforts.
Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilli-
ant parliamentary leaders, it is not easy to
find the counterpart anywhere in the record Of
American public life. He perhaps more near.
" resembles Mr.. Seward in his supreme faith
in the all-conquering power of principle.
He had the love OF learning, and the patient
industry of investigation, to which John
Quincy Adams owes his prominence and his
presidency. He had some of those ponderous
elements of mind which distinguished Mr..
Webster, and which indeed, in all our public
life have left the great Massachusetts, senator
without an intellectual peer.
In English parliamentary history, as in our
own leaders in the house of commons present
points of essential difference from Garfield.
But some of his methods recall the best fea-
lures in the strong, independent course of Sir
Robert Peel, and striking resemblances are
discernible in that most promising of modern
conservatives, who died too early for his
country and his fame, the Lord George Bent
inck He had all of Burke's love for the sub
lime and the beautiful, with possibly, some
thing of his superabundance; and in his faith
and his magnanimity, in his power of state
ment, in his subtle analysis, in his fautless
logic, in his love of literature, in his wealth
and world of illustration, one is reminded of
that great English statesman OF to-day, who,
confronted with the obstacles that would
daunt any but the dauntless, reviled by thoee
whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those
whose supposed rights he is forced to invade,
still Iabors with serene courage for the ame-
Iteration of Ireland, and for the honor of the
English name.
Garfeld's nomination to the presidency,
while not predicted or anticipated, was not
a surprise to the country. His prominence in
congress, his solid qualities, his wide reputa-
ton, strengthened by his then recent election
as senator from Ohio, kept him in the public
eye as man occupying the very highest rank
among those entitled to be called statesmen.
1t was not mere chance that brought him
this high honor.
eve must" says Mr.. Emerson, '.reckon succ ess a
constitutional trait If Eric ia ia robust health and
has slept well and is at the top Of his condition and
thirty years old at his departure from Greenland he
liz
land. But take Eric out and put in holder man
and the ships will sail six hundred, one thousand.
fifteen hundred miles farther and reach Labrador
aud New England. There is no chance In results ~
AS a candidate Garfield steadily grew In pop
ular favor. He was met with storm of de.
traction at the very hour of his nomination,
and it continued with increasing volume and
momentum until the close of his victorious
campaign:
No might nor greatness in mortality
can censure scars; backwounding calumny
The whltest virtue strikes. What King go
strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue.
Under it all he was calm and strong, and
con fdent; never lost his self-possession, did
no unwise act, spoke no hasty, Or ill-consider-
ed word. Indeed nothing in his whole lifesis
more remarkable or more creditable than his
bearing through those five full months of
vitupel ation-a prolonged agony Of trial to a
sensitive man, constant and cruel draft upon
the powers of moral endurance, The great
mass of these unjust imputations passed I'M.
noticed, and with the general debris of the
campaign fell into oblivion. But In few in.
stances the iron entered his soul and he died
with the injury unforgotten If not unforgiven.
One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was un-
precedented. Never before, in the history of
partisan contests in this country, had sue
cessful presidential candidate spoken freely on
tempt anything of the kind seemed novel,
rash, and even desperate. The older class of
voters recalled the unfortunate Alabama letter,
in which Mr.. Clay was Supposed to have signed
his political death warrant They remem-
hered also the hot-tempered effusien by which
General Scott lost a large share Of his popu-
larity before his nomination, and the unfortu-
nate speeches which rapidly consumed the
remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr..
Greeley in series of vigorous and original
addresses, preparing the pathway for his own
defeat. Upmindful Of these warnings, unheed-
ing the advice of friends Garfield spoke to large
crowds as he journeyed to and from New York
IN August, to great multitude in that city.
to delegations and Populations of every kind
that called at Mentor during the summer and
autumn. With innumerable critics, watchful
and eager to catch phrase that might be
turned into odium or ridicule, or q sentence
that might be distorted to his own or his
party's injury, Garfield did not trip or halt IN
any one of his seventy speeches. This seems
all the more remarkable when it is remembered
that he did not write what he said, and yet
spoke with such logical consecutiveness OF