Connecticut western news., 1882-03-08
THE GARFIELD MEMORIAL.
The Eulogy Delivered Before Con-
 gross by James G. Blaine.

an alluS1On to the aSSaSEInatlOn Of PreSl- dent. Lincoln, the speaker went back to recite the salient outlines of Garfeld's genealogy, Puritan on the paternal side and Huguenot on the maternal, and mentioning what keen pride he took in an ancestry which for generations had championed religious and constitu- tional liberty.
 He next reviewed Garfeld's early ca reer, deprecating the emphasis often placed upon his youthful poverty, and pointing out how that privation was not utter indulgence, but rather the normal accompaniment of pioneer life, from which strong, self-reliant men are developed. From his graduation at Williams onward, to the hour of bis tragical death, Gar6eld's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly work ing through his educational period, re-. ceiving his diploma when 24 years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively President of college, State Senator of Ohio, Major General of the Army of t @ United States, and Representative-ele to the National Congress. A combina- tion of honors so varied, so elevated, within period so brief and to man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history of the country.
 Garfeld's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his march to the field. Stepping from civil life to the head of regiment, the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume command of 8 brigade, and to operate as an indepen- dent force in Eastern Kentucky. The result of the campaign is matter of his- tory. The skill, the endurance. the ex- traordinary energy shown by Garfield, and untried as himself, the measures he adopted to increase his force and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his force, and the emancipation of an important territory from the control of the Rebellion. Coming at the close of 8 long series of disasters to the Union arms, Garfeld's victory had an unusual and extraneous importance, and in the popular judgment elevated the young commander to the rank, of military hero.
 He spoke of the late President in Congress and in the White House, and said Garfeld's ambition for the success of his administration was high. With strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of attempt ing rash experiments or of resortlng to the empiricism of statesmanship. But he believed that renewed and closer at- tention should be given to questions affecting the material interests and com mercial prospects of fifty millions of people. He believed that our conti- mental relations, extensive and nndevel- oped as they are, involved responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be abandoned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he looked to the destiny and influence of the United States with the philosophic composure of Jefferson and the demon strative confidence of John Adams. He then referred to the Corkling quarrel and followed with a review of Garfeld's religious feeling.
 Mir. Blaine closed his remarks on the Life and Services of President Garfield as follows On the morning of Satur- day, July 2, the President was con- tented and happy man-not ill an ordi- nary degree. but joyfully, almost boy ishly happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, III conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and keen anticipation of pleas ure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after 1 four months of trial his administration was strong in it's grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor and destined to grow stronger; that grave difficulties con- fronting Him at his inauguration had been safely psssed; that trouble lay be- hind and not before him that he was soon to meet his wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately Gisquieted and at times almost unnerved hlm that he was go ing to his Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest had l followed every step of his upward pro- gress from the day he entered upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen.
 Surely if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs' of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may We'll have been happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, conf dent in the years stretching peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded. bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave.
 GREAT IN DEATH.
 Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wicked ness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this worlds interest, from its hopes, it's aspirations, it's victories, into the visible presence of death-and he did not quail. Not alone for the ore short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell-what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled high ambitions, what sundering
 of strong, warm mani ood's friendships, what bitter rending oi sweet household