Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-03-09

ment, involved questions Of principle and
OF night which are vitality essential to the
constitutional administration of the Federal
government. 1t would be out of place
here and now to speak the language of con-
uoversy; but the events referred to, hew-
ever, they may continue to be source of
co Intention with others, have become, so
lar as Garfield is concerned, as much
matter of history as his heroism at Chicks-
manga or his iliustrious service in the
house. Detail is not needful, and personal
sntsgenlsm shall not be rekindled by auy
word uttered to-day. The motives of those
opposing him are not to be here adversely
interpreted nor their course hastily charac-
terlzed. But of the dead president this ia
TO be said, and said because his own speech
Is forever sileDced ana he can he no more
heard except through the fidelity and the
love of surviving friends: From the Begin
ming TO the end of the controversy he so
much deplored, the president was never
Tor one moment 3ctuated by any motive
OF gain to himself or of loss TO others.
Least of all men did he even show resent
ment, and
MALICE WAS NOT IN HIS NATURE.
he was congenially employee only in the
exchange of good offices and the doing of
kindly deeds.
There was not an hour, from the begin
nlng OF the trouble till the fatal shot en-
tered his bydy that the president would not
gladly, for the sake of restoring harmony.
have retraced any step he bad taken if such
retraclng had merely involved consequent
ces personal to himself. The pride of con-
slstency, or any supposed sense OF humilia-
ton that might result from surrendering
ms position. had not a feathers weight
with him. No man was ever less subject to
| such influences from within or from with
out. But after NEST anxious elaboration
ana the coolest survey OF ell 'he circum-
| stances, he solemnly believed that the trus
| in
IN the issue which had been raised, and
! that he would be untaithful to his supreme
ooligatlsn 1t he failed to maintain, in all it's
vlgor. the constitutional rights and digni-
ties Of his great Office. He believed this in
| all the con victions of his conscience when
when In sound and vigorous health, and he
believed it IN his suffering and prostration
IN the last conscious thought which his
wearled mind bestowed on the transito-y
struggles of life.
More than this need not be said. Less
than this could not be said. Justice to the
dead, the highest obligation that devolves
upon the living, demands the declaration
that IN al the bearings of the subject actual
or possible, the president was content IN
his mind, justified in his conscience, i'm
| movable in his conclusions.
Garfield's keligio us Nature.
The religious element in Garfield's char
| acter was deep and earnest. In his early
| youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples,
sect OF that great Baptist Communion,
which in different ecclesiastical establish
meDts is so NUM- rous and influential
| throughout the United States But the
| broadening tendency Of his mind and his
active spirit of inquiry were early apparent
| and carried him beyond the oogmas of
sect and the restraints of association. In
selecting college in which TO continue his
education he rejected Bethany, though pre-
dnd hv a law III
| greatest preacher of MS church. His rea-
sons were characteristic; first, that Bethany
leaned too heavily toward slavery; and, Sec
ond, that being himself a Disciple and the
son of Disciple parents, be had little ac-
| quaintance with people of other beliefs and
he thought it would make him more lib
eral, quoting his own words, both in his
religious and general views. to go into q
new circle and be under new influences.
The liberal tendency which he anticipated
as the result Of wider culture was fully
| realized. lie was emancipated from mere
| sectaran belief, and with eager interest
pushed his Investigations in the direction
| If modern progressive thought He fol-
| lowed with quickening step in the paths Of
| EXPLORATION AND SPECULATION.
so fearlessly trodden by Darwin, by Hux-
| ley, by Tyndall and by other living scient-
lists of the radical and advanced type. His
own church, binding its disciples by no
| Greco, DuL accepting the ga ana
| New Testamsnts as the word of God with
| unbiased hberality of private interpreta-
| ton. favored, If it did not stimulate, the
spirit of investigation. Its members pro-
TESS with sincerity. and profess only, to be
| of one mind and one faith with those who
Immediately followed the Master and who
were first called christians at Antioch.
But however high Garfield reasoned of
fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge abso-
lutte" he was never separated from the
Church OF the Disciples in his affections and
in his associations. For him it held the ark
ofthe covenant. To him it was the gate of
heaven. The world of religious belief is
full of solecisms and contradictions. A
philosophic observer declares that men by
the thousand will die in defense of a creed
whose doctrines they do not comprehend
aud whose tenets thew habituallv violate.
II is equally true that men by the thousand
will CHING to church organizations with in
stinctive and undylng ideuty when their
belief in maturer years lie radically different
from that which inspired them as neo-
phytes.
But sitter this range of speculation, and
this latitude of doubt, Garfield came back,
ALWAYS with freshness and delight, to the
simpler instincts of religious faith, which,
EARLIEST IMPLANTED, LONGEST SURVIVE.
Not many weeks before his assassination.
walking on the banks Of the Potomac with
friend. and conversing on those topics
III personal religion, concerning which no
BILE natures have an unconquerable reserve,
he said that he found the Lords Prayer
and the simple petitions learned in infancy
infinitely restful to him, not merely In
their stated repetition, but in their casual
and frequent recall az he went about the
daily duties of life. Certain texts of scrip
lures had very strong hold on his memo.
ry and his heart. He heard, while in Ed
inburgh, some years ago, an eminent Scotch
preacher who prefaced his sermon with
reading the eighth chapter of the Epistle
TO the Romans, which book had been the
subject of careful study with Garfield
during all his religious life.
He was greatly impressed by the
elocution of the preacher and declared that
it had impaired new and deeper meaning
to the majestic utterances of Saint Paul. He
referred often in after years to that memoir
able service, and dwelt with exaftation of
feeling upon the radiant promise and the
assured hope with which the great apostle
of the gentiles was persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principali-