Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-03-08
IR, PA, WEDNESDAY: MARCH s. 1882

controversy but the events referred
to, however they may continue to be
source of contention with others, have
become, so far as Garfield is concern
ed, as much matter of history as his
heroism at Chickamauga or his illus
trious service in the house Detail is
not needful, and personal antagonism
shall not be rekindled by any word ut
tered to-day. The motives of those
opposing him are not to be here ad-
versely interpreted nor their course
harshly characterized. But of the
dead President this is to be seid, and
said because his own speech is forever
silenced and he can be no more heard
except through the fidelity and the
love of surviving 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 to 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 re-
storing harmony, have retracted any
step he had taken If such retracting
had merely involved consequences per-
sonal to himself The pride of con-
sistency, or any supposed sense of
humiliation that might result from
surrendering his position, had not a
feathers weight with him. No man
was ever less subject to such influences
from within or from without. But
after most anxious deliberation and the
coolest survey of all the circumstances,
he solemnly believed that the true pre-
negatives of the executive were involv-
ed in the issue which had been raised,
and that he would be unfaithful to his
supreme obligation if he failed to main
tain, in all their vigor, the constitution
al rights and dignities of his great Of
fee. He believed this in all the con-
victions of conscience when in sound
and vigorous health, and he believed it
In his suffering and prostration in the
last conscious thought which his wea-
ried 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 obli-
cation that devolves upon the living,
demands the declaration that in all the
bearings of the subject, actual or posi-
BILE, the president was content in his
mind, justified in his conscience, i'm.
movable In his conclusions.
The religious element in Garfeld's
character was deep and earnest In
his early youth he espoused the faith
of the Disciples, sect Of that great
Baptist Communion, which in differ
ent ecclesiastical establishments is so
numerous and so influential throughout
all parts of the United States. But
the broadening tendency of his mind
and his active spirit of inquiry were
early apparent and carried him be-
yond the dogmas of sect and the re-
straints of association. In selecting a
college in which to continue his educa-
tion he rejected Bethany; though pre-
sided over by Alexander Campbell, the
greatest preacher of his church. His
reasons were characteristic; first, that
Bethany leaned too heavily toward sla-
very and, second, that being himself
Disciple and the son of Disciple par
ents, he had little acquaintance with
people of other beliefs and he thought
it would make him more liberal, quot
ing his own words, both in his relIg-
ious and general views to 60 into a
new circle and be under new influences
The liberal tendency which he an
ticipated as the result of wider culture
was fully realized. He was emanci-
pated from mere sectarian belief, and
with eager interest pushed his investi-
cations in the direction of modern pro-
gressive thought. He followed with
quickening step in the paths Of explora-
ton and speculation SO tearlessly trod-
| en- by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall,
and by other living scientists of the
radical and advanced type. His own
church, binding it's disciples by no for
mulated creed, but accepting the Old
and New Testaments as the word of
God with unbiased liberty of private
Interpretation, favored, if it did not
stimulate, the spirit of Investigation.
Its members profess with sincerity, and
profess only to be of one mind and
one faith with those who Immediately
followed the Master, and who were
first called Christians at Antioch.
Brt however high Garfield reasoned
of fixed fate, free will, knowledge
absolute he was never separated from
the Church of the Disciples in his af.
fections and in his associations. For
him it held the ark of the covenant
To him it was the gate of heaven.
The world of religious belief is full of
solecisms and contradictions. A philo-
sophie observer declares that men by
the thousand will die in defense of a
creed whose doctrines they do not COM
prehend and whose tenets they habitu-
ally violate. 1t is equally true that
men by the thousand will cling to
church organizations with instructive
and undyipg fidelity when their belief
in maturer years is radically different
from that which inspired them as
neophytes
But after this range of speculation
and this latitude of doubt, Garfield
came back always with freshness and
delight to the simpler instincts ofrelig-
ious faith, which, earliest implanted,
longest survive. Not many weeks be-
fore his assassination. walking on the
banks Of the Potomac with a friend
and conversing on those topics of per-
| sonal reliolon cnncarninr w hich nohla