Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-28

LIt ElOQuenL ana elaborate argument.
The great measure OF Gsrfield's fame was
filled by bis service in the House of Represen-
tatives. His military life, illustrated by hon
orabe performance. and rich in promise, was,
as he himself felt, prematurely terminated
and necessarily incomplete. Speculation as to
what he might have done in a field where the
great prizes are so few, cannot be profitable
Il is sufficient To say that as a soldier he did
his duty hravely; he did it intelligently; he won
an enviable fame. and he retired from the ser
vice without blot or breath against him. As a
lawyer, though admirably equipped for the
profession, he can scarcely be said to have en-
tered on its practice. The few efforts he made
at the bar were distinguished bv the same high
order of talent which he exhibited on every
field where he was put to the test. and if a man
may be accepted as a competent judge of his
own capacities and adaptations, the law was
the profession to which Garfield should have
devoted himself But fate ordained otherwise
and his reputation in history will rest largely
upon his service in the House Of Representa-
tiyes. That service was exceptionally long.
He was nine times cOnsecutively chosen to the
House, an honor enjoyed by not more than six
other Representatives of the more than five
thousand who have been elected from the or
ganizltion of the government to this hour.
AS parliamentary orator. as a debater on
an issue sQuarely joined where the position
had been chosen and the ground laid out. Gar
field must be assigned very high rank. More,
perhaps than any man with whom he was
associated in public life, he gave careful and
systematicstudy to public questions and he
came to every discussion in which he took
part with elaborate and complete preparation.
He was steady and indefatigable worker.
Those who imagine that talent or genins can
supply the place or achieve the results of labor
will find no announcement in Garfield's life.
In preliminary work he was apt, rapid
and skillful He possessed in a high degree
and facts. and like DR.. johnson, had the
art of getting from a book all that was of value
in it by reading apparently so quicE and cur
sorry that it seemed like mere glance at the
F-NaN r. el 4nsr
and candid man in debate, took no petty ad-
vantage, stopped to no unworthy methods.
avoided personal illusions, rarely appealed to
prejudice, did not seek to intame passion. He
had a quicker eye for the strong point of his
adversary than for his weak point, and on his
own side he so marshaled his weighty argu-
me' is as to make his hearers forget any posi-
bic lack in the complete STRENGTH of his posi-
ton. He had habit of stating his opponents s
side with such amplitude OF fsirness and su h
iberality Of concession that his followers often
complained that he was giving his case away.
But never in his prolonged participation in the
proceedings Of the House did he give his case
away, or fail, in the Judgment of competent
and impartial listeners, to gain the mastery
These characteristics. which marked Garfield
as great debater. did not. however, M ks
him great parliamentary leader. A paria
msntary leader, as that term is understood
wherever free representative government ex-
lists is necessarily and very strictly the organ
of his party.
The three most distinguished parliamentary
leaders hitherto developed in this country are
Mr.. Clay, Mr.. Douglas and Mr. TIL 4ddeus
Stevens. Each was a man of cOnSummate
ability, of great eaTnestneSs, of intense per-
snnality, differing widely. each from the
Others, and yet with signal trait in common
the power to command. From these three
great men Garfield differed radically, differed
in the quality OF his mind. in temperament in
the form and phase Of ambition He could
7 OF DO what they did. but Re could do what
they could not and in the breadth of his Con
gressional work he left that which will longer
exert potential influence among men. and
which. measured by the severe test of postum
nous criticism, will secure a more enduring
and more enV liable fame
those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry
and ignorant of the details of his work. may, in
some degree. measure them by the annals IF
Congress No one Of the generation of public
men to which he belonged has contributed so
much that will be valuable for futu refer
enca- His speeches are numerous many Of
them brilliant all of them we'll studied, care
fully phrased and exhaustive of the subj CT
under consideration. Collected from the scat
tered pages of ninety royal octave volumes of
Congressional Record. they would pres mt an
invaluable compendium of the political hi>
tory of the most important era through which
the national government has ever passed
When the history OF this period shall be i'm
partially written, when war legislation.
measures of reconstruction. protec n of
human rights, amendments to the
constitution, maintenance of public
credit, steps towards specie resumption. true
theories of revenue may be reviewed unsur-
rounded by prejudice and disconnected from
parIisanism, the speeches of Garfield will be
estimated at their true value asd will be found
to compr Sc a vast Mage zine of fact and argu-
ment of clear analy sis and sound conclusion.
Indeed. II n0other authority were accessible
his speeches in the House of Representatives
from December, 1888 to June, 1880, would give
a we'll cOnne ted history and complete defense
of the important legislation of the seventeen
eventful years that constitute his parliamen
tary life. Far beyond that. his speech wou d
hp Z. nnd TO forecast maQV great vet
to be Completed-meeSureS which he knew
re 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 anywhere in the record of Ameri
can public life He perhaps more nearly re-
sembes Mr. Seward in his supreme faith in
the all-conquering power of principle. He
had the love of learning, and the patient indus
try of investigation, to which John Quincy Ad-
ans owes his promnen. .e and his Presidency
He had some of those ponderouS elements of
mind which DISTINGUISHED Mr.. Webster, and
which. indeed in all ur public life have left
the great Massachusetts Senator without an in
tellectual peer
Garheld'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 reputa-
ton, strer gthened by his then recent election
as Senator from Ohio, Kept him in the public
eN e as a man occupying Tie very ulkutSJ rank
among those entitled to be called statesmen
II was not mere chance that brought him this
high honor. I'VE must" says Mr. Emerson.
reckon success a constitutional trait II Eric
is in robust health and has slept well and is at
the top Of his condition and thirty years old
at his departure from Greenland. he will steer
west and his ships will reach New Foundland.
But take Eric out and put in a stronger and
bolder man. and the ships will sail six hun
dred, one thousand fifteen hundred miles far
ther and reach Labrador and New England.
There is no chance in results"
AS a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in
popular favor He was met with a storm Of
detraction at the very hour of his nomination.
and it continued with increasing volume and
momentum until the close Of his victorious
campaign:
No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny
The whitest vir ne strikes What King so strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue.
Under it all he was calm and strong and con-
fident; never lost his self possession, did no
unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-con sidered
word. In9eed nothing in his whole life is more
remarked BILE or more credltabie than his bear
ing through those five full months of vitupera-
tion-a prolonged agony of trial to a sensitive
man. a constant and cruel draft upon the pow
Frs of moral endurance The great mass Of
these unjust imputations passed uRDoticed,
and with the general de bris of the campaign
fell into oblivion But in a few instances the
iron entered his soul, and he died with the in
One aspect of GaIfield's candidacy was un-
precedented Never before, in the history of
partisan contests in this country. bad a sue
cessful Presidential candidate spoken freely on
passing events and current issues. To attempt
anything of the Kind seemed novel, rash, and
even desperate. The older class of voters
recalled the unfortunate Alabama letter. in
which Mr.. Clay was supposed to have signed
his political death warrant lhey remembered,
also. the hot tempered etfusion by which Gen.
Scott lost large share of his popularity Def re
his nomination, and the unfortunate speeches
which rapidly consumed the remainder. The
Younger voters had seen Mr.. Greeley, in a
series of vigorous and original ad
his own defeat Unmndful of these
warnings, unheeding the advice of friends,
Garfield spoke TO large crowds as he Journey
ed to and from New York in August, to great
utatiOns of every kind that called at Mentor
during the simmer and autumn. With innu-
merable critics, watchful and eager to catch
phrase that might be turned into odium or
ridicule or a sentence that might be distorted
TO his own or his party's injury, Garfield did
not trip or halt in any one of his seventy
speeches. This seems all the more remarka-
bic when it is remembered that he did not
write what he sad and yet spoke with such
logical cOnsecutivness of thought and such
accident of msreport and the malignity of
Misrepresentation.
In the beginning of his Presidential life Gar
fields experience did not yield him pleasure or
satisfaction. The duties that eDgross so large
a norton of the Presidents time were diStaste-
fnl TO him. ard we're unfavoraby contrasted
with his legislative work. Il have been deal
ing all these years with ideas" he impatiently
exclaimed ore day, land here am dealing
only with persons. ] have been heretofore
treating of the fundamental principles of gov
ernment, and here 1 am considering all day
whether or shall be appointed to this or