Huntsville gazette., 1882-03-04
MEMORIAL.
Ex-Secretary Blaine's Eulogy Of
the Late President Garfield.

nOnortO the memory OF 4 murdered PreSi-
| dent. Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty
| struggle in which the passions of men had
been deeply stirred. The tragical ternina-
| ton of his great life added but another to the
| lengthened succession of horrors which had
marked so many lintels with the blood of the
first born. Garfield was slain in day of
peace, when brother had been reconciled to
brother, and when anger and hate had been
| banished from the land. Whoever shall here
after draw the portrait of the murderer, if he
| will show it as it has been exhibited, whose
| such example was last to have been looked
for, let him not give it the grim visage of Mo-
| loch, the brow knitted by revenge the face
| black with settled hate. Let him draw rather
| a decorous, smooth faced bloodless demon
| with not so much an example of human ma
| ture in its depravity and in its paroxysms of
| crime as an Internal being-a fiend in the
ordinary display and development of his
From the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply
mouth till the uprising against Charles l.,
| about 10000 emigrants cameron old England
| to New England AS they came in pursuit of
| intellectual freedom and ecclesiastical inde-
| pendence, rather than for worldly honor and
| proht, the emigration naturally ceased when
| the contest for religious liberty began in
| earnest at home. The man who struck his
| most efectual blow for freedom of conscience
by sailing for the colonies in 1920 would have
| been accounted deserter to leave in 1910.
| The opportunity had then come on the soil of
England for that great contest which estab
lished the authority of Parliament, gave re-
| HglOuS freedom to the people, sent Charles to
| the block and committed to the hands of Oil
| yer Cromwell the supreme executive authori-
| ty of England. The English emigration was
! never renewed, and from these 10000 men.
1 with a small emigration from Scotland and
! France, are descended the vast numbers who
| have New England blood in their veins. In
| 16S5 the revocation of the edict of Nantes by
| Louis XIV. scattered to other countries 400 900
J Protestants, who were among the most intel
! lectual and enterprising OF French subjects
| merchants of capital, skilled manufacturers
and handicraftsmen, superior at the time to
| all others in Europe. A considerable number
of these Huguenot French came to America.
| few landed in New England and became
honorably prominent in its history. Their
names have in large part become anglicized
or have disappeared. but their blood is trace
! able in many of the most reputable families,
| and their fame is perpetuatcd in honorable
memorials aud useful institutions. From
| these two sources, the English Puritan and
| the French liuguenot, came the late Presl-
| dent, his father, Abram Garfield being de
| scended from the one, and his mother, Eliza
beth Ballou, from the other. 1t was good
| stock on both sides, none better, none Drawer,
none trucr. There was in it an inheritance of
courage, of manlinesS, of imperishable love OF
| liberty, of undying adherence to principles.
Garfield was proud of his blood and with as
much satisfaction as if he were q British
| bleman reading his stately ancestral record
| in Burke's Peerage, he spoke OF himself as
| ninth in descent from those who would not
endure the oppression. of the Stuarts, and
| seventh in descent from the brave French
| ProtcStantS who refused to submit to tyranny
even from the Grand Monarque. Gen. Gar
| field delighted to dwell on these traits, and
| during his only visit to England he busted
himself in discovering every trace of his fore
| fathers in parish registrieS and on ancient
| army rolls
Sitting with a friend in the gallery of the
House OF Commons one night. after long
days labor in this field of research, he said
with evident elation, that in every war in
which, for three centuries, patriots of English
| blood had struck sturdy blows for constitu-
| tional government and human liberty, his
| family had been represented. They were at
Marston Moore, at Naseby, at Preston, and at
Monmouth, and in his own person he had bat
| tied for the same great cause in the war which
| preserved the Union of the United States
| Losing his father before he was twoyears old,
| the early life of Garfield was one of privatiOn,
! but its poverty has been made indelicatey
and unjustly prominent. Thousands of read
ers have imagined him as the ragged, starv
ing child, whose reailty too often greets the
eye in the squalid sections of our large cities.
| Gen. Gariield's infancy and youth hadnone of
their destitutOn, none OF their pltful features
! appealing to the tender heart and the open
| hand OF charity. He was a poor boy in the
| same sense in which Henry Clay was poor
| boy, in which Andrew Jackson was Il poor
| in the sense in which large majority of the
! eminent men OF America in past generations
| have been Door boys.
| Before a great multitude Of men, in public
| speech, Mr.. Webster bore this testimony: at
| did not happen to me to be born in log cab
| in, but my elder brothers and sisters were
born in log cabin, raised amid the snow
| drifts of New Hampshire, at period so early,
| that when the smoke rose first from its rude
| chimney and curled over the frozen hills
| there was no similar evidence of white
! mans habitation between it and the settle
| ments on the rivers of Canada It's remains
| still exist make to it an annual visit.
carry my children to it, to teach them the
| hardship5 endured by the generations who
| have gone before them | love to dwell on
| the tender recollections, the-kindred ties, the
| early affections and the touching narratives
! and incidents which mingle with all L know
| of this primitive family abode"
| With the requisite change of scene the same
words would aptly portray the early days of
| Garfield The poverty of the frontier, where
] all are engaged in a common struggle, and
| where common sympathy and hearty CO.
| operation tighten the burdens of each, is q
| ferent in influence and effort, from that con-
| scious and humilating indulgence which is ev-
every day forced to contrast Itself with neigh.
! boring wealth, on which it feels sense OF
| grinding dependence. The poverty OF the
| frontier is, indeed, no poverty. 1t is but the
| beginning of wealth, and has the boundless
| possibilities of the future always opening be-
! fore it. No man ever grew up in the agricul-
| tural regions of the West, where a house rails
| common interest and helpfulness, with any
| other feeling than that of Il broad minded,
| generous independence. This honorable in
| dependence marked the youth of Garfield as
| and brains now training for the future citizen
| ships and government OF the republic. Garfield
| was born heir to the land, to the title of free
| holder, which has been the patent and pass
| port OF self respect with the Anglo Saxon race
ever since Hengist and Horsa landed on the
| shores of England His adventure on the ca
| nal an alternative between that and the deck
! of a. Lake Erie schooner was farmer boys
| device for earning money, just as New Eng
| land lad begins possibly greater career by
| sailing before the mast on coasting vessel
| or on merchantmen bound to the farther In
| dia or China seas. No manly man feels any
| thing of shame in looking back to the early
| struggles with adverse circumstances, and no
man feels worthier pride than when he has
| conquered the obstacles to his progress. But
no one of noble mold desires to be looked
upon as having been repressed by spirit OF
inferiority, or as having suffered the pangs Of
/ poverty until relief was found at the hands OF
| charity. Gen. Gar1ield's youth presented
| no hardships which family love and family
| energy did not overcome, subjected him to no
| privatons which he did not cheerfully accept,
and left no memories save those which were
recalled with delight and transmitted with
l. profit and with pride.
Garfeld's early opportunities for securing an
| education were extremely limited, and yet
were sufficient to develop an intense desire to
learn. He could read at three years OF age,
and each winter he had advantage OF the dis
trict school. Heread all the books to be found
within the circle of his acquaintance; some OF
them he got BY heart While yet In ehildhocd