Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-02-28
MIR. BLAINE'S EULOGY ON
PRESIDENT GARFIELD.

NIX GRE>lDEST: FOr the second time IN
this generation the great departments of the
Government of the United States are assem-
bled in the Hall of Representatives to do
honor to the memory of murder. ed Presi-
dent. Lincoln fell at the close of mighty
| struggle in which the passions of men had
been deeply stirred. The tragical termina-
tiOn of his great life added but another To
the lengtnened succession of horrors which
had marked many llntels with the blood OF
the first born. Garfield was slain in Il dav of
peace, when brother had been reconciled to
brother, and when anger and hate had been
banished from the land. Whoever shall
hereafter draw the portrait of murder. ii he
will show il as it has been exhibited where
such example was last to have been looked
for, let him not give 1t the grim yisage of
Moloch. the brow knitted by revenge. the
face black with settled hate. Let him draw.
rather, a decorous. smoothtaccd. bloodless
demon: not so much an example OF human
nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms
of crime. as an Internal being, fiend in the
ordinary display and development of bis
character"
From the landing of the Pilgrims at
Plymouth till the uprising against Charles
First, about twenty thousand emigrants
came from old England to New Eng
land. As they came in pursuit of intel
lectual freedom and ecclesiastical independ-
ence rather than for worldly honor and
profit the emigration naturally ceased when
the contest for religious liberty began in
earnest az home The man who struck his
most effective blow for freedom of conscience
! by sailing for the colonies in 1920 would have
| been accounted deserter to leave after 1910.
| The opportunity had then come on the soil (
| England for thst great contest which estab-
| lished the authority of Parliament. gave
| religious freedom to the people, sent Charles
| 10 the block, and committed to the hands of
Oliver Cromwell the Supreme Executive
authority of England. The English emigra-
rinn was never renewed. and from these
twenty thousand men with a small emigration
| from Scotland anI from France are descended
/ the vast numbers who have New England
blood in their veins.
| In 1855 the revocation of the edict of Nantes
bv Louis XIV scattered to other countries
| four hundred thousand Protestants. who were
among the most intelligent and enterprisine
of French subjects-merchants of capital,
skilled manufacturers and handicrattsmen
superior at the time to all others in Europe
| A considerable number of these Huguenoi
French came to America; few landed IN
New England and became honorably promi-
/ nent III It's history L utlf HaihS> nav 4"
large part become anglicised. or have disap-
peared. hut their blood is traceable in man,
| Of the most reputable families, and their fame
is perpeiuated in honorable memorials and
| useful Institutions.
From these two sources, the English Purl-
tan and the French Huguenot. came the late
| Presid.nf-his father. Abram Garfield, being
descended from the one. and his mother.
Eliza Balluu. from the other.
| Itwas good stock on both sides-none bet
ter. none braver none truer. There was In
| il an inheritance of courage, of manliness, o'
imperishable love of liberty. of undying ad-
| herence TO principle. Garfield was proud o'
his blood; and. with as much satisfaction as
! if he were a British nobleman reading MS
stately ancestral record in Burke's Peerage,
! he spoke of himself as ninth IN descent IRON
those who would not endure the oppression o'
the Stuarts, and seventh in descent from me
brave French Protesrants who refused TO sub
init TO tyranny even from the Giand MON
argue. N
| General Garfield delighted to dwell or
these traits. and. during his only visit to Eng
land. he busted himself in discovering ever!
trace of his forefa;hers in parish registrie'
and on ancient army rolls. Sitting with
friend in the gallery of the House OF Com
mons one night after long days labor II
this field of research, he said with evident Ella
tion that in every war in which for three cen
turtles patriots of English blood had struci
sturdv blows for constitutional government
and human liberty, his family had been rep
/ resented. They we're at Narsfon Aoor'