Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-03-08
the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou,
from the other.

| lIOul IuS Quiet.
| X X
He was poor boy in the same sense
i'll which Henry Clay was poor boy; IN
which Andrew Jackson was poor boy;
in which Daniel Webster was poor boy;
in the same sense in which a large ma
iority of the eminent men of America in
all generations have been poor boys.
The poverty of tie frontier, where all
are engaged in a common struggle, and
where common sympathy and hearty
cooperation Tighten the burden Of each,
is very different poverty-different III
kind different in influence and effect
from that conscious and humiliating indi-
gence which is every day forced to con-
trast itself with neighboring wealth, on
which it feels sense Of grinding depend
ence. The poverty of the frontier is in
deed no poverty. 1t is but the beginning
OF wealth ,and has the boundless possibili-
ties Of the future always opening before
it. No man ever grew up in the agricul-
tural regions of the West, where house
raising or even a corn-husking is matter
of common interest and helpfulness with
another feeling than that Of broad-mind-
ed, generous independence. This honor
able independence marked the youth of
Garfield as it marks the youth Of millions
Of the best blood and brain now training
for the future citizenship and future gov
ernment of the Republic. Garfield was
born heir to land, to the title Of freehold
er, which has been the patent and pass
port of selfrespect with the AnglO-SaxOn
c; I c+ on ri
ed on the shores of England. His adven-
ture on the canal, an alternative between
that and the deck of Lake Erie schoon,
er, was farmer boys device for earning
money, just as the New England lad be-
gins possibly great career by sailing be-
fore the mast on a coasting vessel or on
a merchantmen bound to the farther In
dia or to the China seas. Nomanly man
feels anything Of shame in looking back
to early struggles with adverse circum-
stances, and no man feels wOrthler
pride than when ne has conquered the
! obstacles to his progress. But no one OF
noble mold desires to be looked upon as
having occupied menial position, as
having been repressed by feeling Of in
feriority, Or as having suffered the evils
of poverty until relief was found atthe
hands of charity Gen. Gar6eld's youth
presented no hardships which family love
and family energy did not overcome, sub
jected him to no privations which he did
not cheerfully accept, and left no memor-
les save those which were recalled with
delight and transmitted with profit and
with pride.
Garfeld's early opportunities for Sc
curing an education were extremity llm-
tied, and vet were sufficient to develop
in him an intense desire to learn. He
could read at years of age, and each
winter he had the advantage of the dis
trict school. He read all the books he
found within the circle of his aquain-
tance. Some of them he got by heart
While,yet in childhood he was constant
student of the Bible, and became famil-
lar with its literature. The dignity and
earnestness of his speech in his mature
life gave evidence Of this early training.
At Is years of age he was able to teach
school, and thence forward his ambition
was to obtain college education. To
this end he bent all his efforts, working
IN the harvest field, at the carpenter 5
bench, and in the winter teaching the
common schools of the neighborhood.
His military life, illustrated by honorable
performance and rich in promise, was, as
he himself felt, prematurely terminated
and necessarily incomplete. Speculation
as to what he might have done in a field
where the great prizes are so few cannot
be profitable. 1t is sufficient TO say that
as soldier he did his duty bravely, he
did it intelligently, he won an enviable
fame, md be retired from the service
without blot or breath against him. AS
lawyer, through admirably equipped for
the profession, be can scarcely be said to
have entered on its practice.
X
The few efforts made at the bar were
distinguished by the same high order of
talent which he exhibited on every field
where he was put to the test, and, if a
man may be excepted as competant
judgeof his own capacities and adaptations
the law was the profession to which Gar
field should have devoted himself,
AS pan, a nentary orator, as a deba' or
on an issue squarely joined, where the po-
sition had been chosen aad the ground
laid out, Garfield must be assigned a
very high rank-more perhaps than any
man with whom he was associated in
public life. He gave careful and system
attic study to public questions, and he
came to every discussion in which be
took part with elaborate and complete
preparations. He was steady and in
defatigable worker. Those who imagine
that talent or genius can supply the
place or achieve the resu is of labor will
find no encouragement in Garfeld's life,
In preliminary work he was apt, rapid,
and skilltul.
X
GarGelds nomination to the Presidency,
while not predicted or anticipated, was
not a surprise to the country. His prom
inence in Congress, his solid qualities,
his wide reputation, strengthened by his
then recent election as Senator from Ohio,
kept him in the public eye as man oc-
cupying the very highest range among
those entitled to be called statesmen.
Under it all he was calm and strong, and