Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-02-28

| of public decency. For an achievement o
that kind Garfield was squalified-iisquali
fed by the texture of his mind. by the
| honesty of his heart, by his conscience and
by every instinct and aspiration of his nature
The three most distinguished parliamentary
leaders hitherto developed in this country are
Mr.. Clay, Mr.. Douglass, and Mr.. Thaddeus
Stevens. Each was man of consummate
| ability, of great earnestnes.. of intense per
| sonality, differing widely each from the
Others and yet with a single trait in common
the power TO command. In the give
and take of daily discussion, in the
art of controlling and consolidating
reluctant and refractory followers; in the
skill to overcome all forms of opposition and
TO meet with competency and courage the
varying phases of unlocked for assault or un-
suspected detection, il would be difficult to
rank with these fourth name in all our Con
gressional history. But of these Mr.. Clay
was the greatest. Ii would, perhaps. be i'm
possible to find in the parliamentary annals
of the world parallel TO Mr.. CLAY in ls4l,
when at sixty-four years OF age he took the
control of the Wing party from the Presidcn,
who had received their suffrages. against the
power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the
eloquence of Choate in the Senate, against
the Herculean efforts of Caleb Gushing and
leadership, in the pride and plenitude of
power he hurled against John Tyler with
deepest scorn the mass of that conquering
column which had swept over the land in
lSio, and drove his administration to seek
shelter behind the lines of his political foes.
Mr.. Douglas achieved victory scarcely less
wonderful when, in 1854, against the secret
desires of a strong administration, against the
wise counsel of the older chiefs,against the con-
servative instincts and even the moral sense
of the country, he forced reluctant Con-
gress into a repeal of the Missouri compro-
mise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, in his con.
tests from 1865 to ls6s actually advanced his
parliamentary leadership until Congress tied
the hands of the President and governed the
country hy its own will. leaving only per
functory duties to he discharged by the Ex-
ecutive. With two hundred millions of pat
ronage in his hands at the opening OF the con.
test, aided by the active force Of Seward in
the Cabinet and the moral power of Chase
on the Bench, Andrew johnson could not
command the support of onc-third in either
House against the Parliamentary uprising of
which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating
spirit and the unquestioned leader.
From these three great men Garfield diff
fered radically. differed in the quality Of his
mind, in temperament, in the form and phase
Of ambition. He could not do what they did.
but he could do what they could not, and in
the breadth of his Congressional work he
left that which will longer exert potential
influence among men, and which, measured
by the severe test of posthumous criticism,
will secure more enduring and more en-
viable fame.
Those unfamiliar with Gartield's industry.
and ignorant of the details of his work,
may, in some degree. measure them by the
annals of Congress. No one of the generation
of public men to which he belonged has con-
tributed much that will be valuable for
future reference. His speeches are numerous.
many of them brilliant, all of them well
studied. carefully phrased and exhaustive of
the subject under consideration. Collected
from the scattered PAGES of ninety roval
octave volumes of Congressional Record.
they would present an inv auable compendium
of the political history of the most important
era through which the national government
has ever passed. When the history of this
period shall be imrartially written, when
war legislation, measures of reconstruction
protection of human rights. amendments to
the constitution, maintenance of public credit
steps towards specie resumption. true theories
of revenue, may he reviewed unsurrounded
by prejudice and disconnected from par
tizanism, the speeches of Garfield will be
estimated at their true value, and will be
found to comprise a vast magazine Of fact
and argument. Of clear ANALYSIS and sound
conclusion. Indeed. if no other authority
were accessible his speeches in the House Of
Representatives from December, 1868, to
June, 1880, would give well connected
history and complete defense of the i'm
portant legislation of the seventeen eventful
years that constitute his parliamentary life.
Far beyond that, his speeches would be found
to forecast many great measures, yet to be
ompleted-measures which he knew were
beyond the public opinion Of the hour, but
which he confidently believed would secure
popular approval within the period of his own
lifetime, and by the aid of his own efforts.
Differing, as Garfield does, from the
brilliant parliamentary leaders, it is not easy
to find his counterpart anyw here in the record
of American public life. He perhaps more
nearly resembles Mr. Seward in his supreme
faith in the all-conquering power Of princi-
pie. He had the love of learning and the
patient industry of investigation to which
John Quincy Adams owes his prominence
and his Presidency. He had some of those
ponderous elements of mind which distin-
guished Mr.. Webster, and which, indeed, in
all our public life have left the great Massa-
chusetts Senator without an intellectual peer
In English parliamentary history, as in our
own, the leaders in the House Of Commons
present points of essential difference from
Garfield. But some Of his methods recall the
best features in the strong, independent
course of Sir Robert Peel, and striking re.
semblances are di-cernble in that most prom
ising Of modern conservatives. who died too
early for his country and his fame, the Lord
George Beniinck. He had all Of Burke's
love for the Sublime and the Beautiful, with,
possibly, something of his superabundance /;
and in his faith and his magnanimity, in his
power Of statement, in his subtle analysis, in
his fautless logic, in his love of literature. in
his wealth and world Of illustration, one is
reminded Of that great English statesman Of
to-day, who, confronted with obstacles that
would dannt any but the dsuntless, reviled by
those whom he would relieve as bitterly a.
by those whose supposed rights he is forced
to invade, still labors with serene courage for
the ameioration of Ireland, and for the honor
Of the English name.
Garield's nomination to the Presidency.
while not predicted or anticipated. was not a
surprise to the country. His prominence in
Congress, his solid qualities, his wide repu-
ta:ion. strengthened by his then recent election
as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public
eye as mar occupying the very highest rank
among those entitled TO be called statesmen.
1t was not mere chance that brought him this
high honor. "We must" said Mr. Emerson.