Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1882-03-04

day. The House Of Representatives
was crowded, and many failed to
gain admission. The president and
cabinet attended, and number of
governors, generals and distinguish
ed men were present. Mr.. Blaine's
enlogy was an able effort, the con-
Gliding remarks of which we give:
The browning characteristic of
General Garfield's religious opinions,
as indeed, of all his opinions, was
his liberality. In all things he had
charity. Tolerance was of his ma
ture. He respected in others the
qualities which he possessed himself
sincerity ofconviction and frank
ness of expression. With him the
inquiry was not so much what a
man believes, but does he believe
it9 The lines OF his friendship and
his confidence encircled men of
every creed, and men OF no creed,
and to the end of his life, on his
ever-Iengthening list of friends, were
to be found the name of a pious Cath.
olic priest and of an honest-minded
and generous-hearted free-thinker.
On the morning of Saturday, July
Cd, the President was a contente d
and happy man-not in an ordinary
degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly
happy. On his way to the railroad
station, to which he drove slowly, in
conscious enjoyment of the beautiful
morning, with an nnwonted sense of
leisure and keen anticipation of
pleasure, his task was all in the
grateful and gratulatory vein. He
felt that after four months of trial,
his administration was strong in its
grasp of affairs, strong in popular
i Ga,'cr am. and destined to grow strong
er; that grave difficulties coiiiloH.-
ing him at his inauguration ns .a
been safely passed; that trouble lay
behind him and not before him that
he was soon to meet the wife whom
he loved, now recovering from an
illness which had but lately disquieted
and at times unnerved him; that he
was going to his Alma Mater to re-
new the most cherished associations
ofhis young manhood, and to ex-
change greetings with those whose
deepening interest had followed every
step of his upward progress from the
day he entered upon his college
course until he had attained the loft
lest elevation in the gift Of his coun-
trymen.
Surely if happiness can ever come
from the honor of triumphs of this
world, Oh that quiet July morning
James A. Garfield may we'll have
been happy man. No forboding
of evil haun ted him; no slightest
premonition of danger clouded his
sky. His terrible fate was upon him
in an instant. One moment he
stood erect, strong, confident in the
years stretching peacefully out before
him. The next he lay wounded,
helpless, doomed to weary
weeks OF torture, to silence and to
the grave.
Great in life he was surprisingly
great in death. For no cause, in
5he very frenzy ofwantonness, wick
,dness, the red handof murder, he was
hrust from the full tide of this
worlds interest, from it's hopes, it's
aspirations, its victories, into the Wis
BILE presence Of death-and he did
lot quail. Not alone for the one
hort moment in which, stunned and
LACED, he could give up life, hardly
ware of it's REIMBURSEMENT, but
through days of deadly languor,
through weeks of agony, that was
ess agony because silently born,
With clear sight and calm courage,
ne looked into his open grave.
What blight and ruin met his an
guished eyes, whose lips may tell
what brilliant, broken plans, what
baffied, high ambitions. what sun
ierlng OF strong, warm, manhood's
friendships, what bitter rending of
sweet household ties ! Behind him
proud, expectant nation, great
lost OF sustaining friends, a cherish
I'd and happy mother, wearing the
'ull, rich honors of her early toll
md tears; the wife of his youth,
whose whole life lay in his; the little
Boys not yet emerged from child
FOODS day Of frolic; the fair young
laughter; the sturdy sons just
'pringing into closet companion
'hip, claiming every day and every |
lay rewarding q fathers love and
are; and in his heart the eager, re-
oicing power to meet all demand.
Before him, desolatiOn and great
darkness And his soul was not
shaken. His countrymen were
thrilled with instant, profound and
universal sympathy. Masterful in
MS mortal weakness, he became the
centre of 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 wine press alone. With
faith he faced death
with unfailing tenderness he took
leave Of life above the demoniac hiss
Of the assassin's bullet he heard the
Voice of God. With simple resig-
nation he bowed to the Divine de-
cree.
AS the end drew near, his early
for the sea returned. Gent
ly, silently, the love of a great peo-
pie bore the pale sufferer to the
healing Of the sea, to live
or die, as God should will. Let us
believe that in the silence of the re-
ceding world he heard the great
waves breaking on a further shore
and felt already upon his wasted
brow the breath of the eternal morn