The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-03-04

VII tllO vi kCllutbdyy
2, the President was contented and
happy man-not in an ordinary de-
gree, 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 unwOnted sense CT
leisure and keen anticipation of pleas
ure, his talk was all in the grateful
and gratulatory vein. He felt that
OTTER four months of trial his admin.
istration was strong in its grasp of
affairs, strong in popular favor and
destined to grow stronger that
grave difficulties confronting him at
his Inauguration had 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 almost unnerved him that he
was going to his Alma Mater to re-
new the most cherished associations
of his 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 Hottest eleyation in the gift of his
countrymen.
Surely, II happiness can ever come
from the nonors or tliumphs of this
world. on that quiet July morning
James A. Garfield may we'll have
been a 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, confident 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 life, he was surprisingly
great in death. For no cause, in the
very frenzy of wantOnness and wick.
edness, by the red hand of murderer.
he was thrust from the full tide of
this worlds interest, from its hopes.
its aspirations, its victories, into the
visible presence of death-and he did
not quail. Not alone for the one
short moment in which, stunned and
dazed, he could give up life, hardly
aware of its REIMBURSEMENT, 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 bril-.
liant, broken plans, what baff1ed
high ambitions, what sundering of
strong, warm, manhood's friend
ships, what bitter rending of sweet
household ties! Behind him a
proud, expectant nation. a great host
OF sustaining friends. a cherished and
happy mother, wearing the full, rich
honors of her early toll ana tears !:
the wife of his youth, whose whole
life lay in his the little boys not yet
emerged from childhood's DAYS of
frolic; the fair, young daughter the
sturdy sonsjust springing into closest
companionship, claiming every day
and every day rewarding a fathers
loye and care; and in his heart the
eager, rejoicing power to meet all de-
mand. Before him, desolation and
great darkness And his soul was
not shaken. His ccuntrymen were
thrilled with instant, profound and
universal sympathy. Masterful in
his mortal weakness, he became the
center of a 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
unfaltering front he faced death.
With unfailing tenderness he took