The Portland daily press., 1882-02-28

of Garfield viii be estimated at their true value,
and will be found to comprise vast magazine
of fact and argume t. of clear analysis and
sound conclusion Indeed, If no other authority
were accessible, his speeches IN the House or
Representatives from December, 1868 to June,
1880, would give well connected history and
complete defense of the important 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 completed-measures which
he knew were beyond the public opinion OF the
hour, but which he confidently believed would
secure pr e aa o his
Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant
Parliamentary leaders, it is not easy to hnd his
counterpart anywhere in the record of American
public life. He perhaps more nearly resembles
MIR. Seward in his supreme faith in the allcon-
quering power of principle. He had the love of
learning, and the patient industry OF inveStiga-
tion, to which John Quincy Adams owes his
prominence and his Presidency. He had some
of those pondereus elements of mind which dis
tinguished Mr.. Webster, and which, indeed, in
all our public life have left the great Massachu.
setts Senator without an intellectual peer.
In English Parliamentary history, as in our
OWE, the leaders in the House of Commons pre-
sent 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 resemblances are discernible
in that most promising of modern conservatives,
who died too early for his country and his fame,
the Lord George Bentinck. He had all OF Burke's
love for the sublime and the beautiful with, pos
siblv. Something of his own superabuudance; and
in his faith and in his magnanimity, in his pow
er of statement, in his subtle analysis, in his
faultless logic, in his love of literature, in his
wealth and world of illustration, one is remind
ed of that great English statesman of to-
day, who, confronted with obstacles that would
daunt any but he dauntless, reviled by those
whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those
whose supposed rights ne is forced to invade,
still labers with serene courage for the amelio-
ration of Ireland, and for the honor of the Eng
lish name.
Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while
not predicted or anticipated, was not surprise
to the country. His prominence in Congress,
ened by his then recent election as Senator from
Ohio, kept him in the public eye as a man occu-
pying the very highest rank among those enti-
tied to be called Statesmen, 1t was not mere
chance that brought him this high honor. aWe
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 eondi
tion, 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 stronger and bolder man and the ships
will sail six hundred, one thousand, fifteen hun.
dsed miles farther and reach Labrador and
New England. There is no chance in results."
As a Candidate, Garfield steadily grew in pOpu-
lar favor. He was met with storm OF detrac-
tion at the very hour of his nomination, and it
continued with increasing velume and momen-
tum until the close of his victorious campaign.
No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes. What King SO strong
Can tie the gall up in the sanderous tongue.
Under it all he was calm and strong, and con-
fident; never lost his self-possession, did un-
wise act spoke no hasty, or ill-conside red word.
Indeed nothing in his whole life is more remark
able or more creditable than his bearing
through those five full months of vituperation
"a prolonged agony of trial to sensitive man,
constant and cruel draft upon the powers OF
moral endurance. The great mass of these un-
just imputations passed unnoticed, and with
the general debris of the campaign fell into
ot,1 1iuinr R1fi in irofo fI,n srn ON
tered into his soul and he died with the injury
unforgotten il not unforgiven.
One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was un-
precedented. Never before, in the history of
partisan contests in this country, had success
full 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 re-
called the unfortunate Alabama letter, in which
Mr.. Clay was supposed to have signed his politi-
cal death warrant They remembered also the
hot-tempered effusion by which General Scott
lost large share of his popularity before his
nomination, land the unfortunate speeches which
rapidly consumed the remainder. The younger
voters had seen Mr.. Greeley in series of yigor-
GUS and original addresses, preparing the path
way for his own defeat. Unmindful of these
warnings, unheeding the advice of friends,
Garfield spoke to large crowds as he journeyed
to and from New York in August, to a great
multitude in that city, to delegations and depu-
tationS of every kind that called at Mentor
during the summer and autumn. With innu-
merable critics, watchful and eager to catch a
phrase that might be turned into Odium or
ridicule, or a senten e 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 remarkable when it is
remembered that he did not write what he said,
and yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness
of thought and such admirable precision of
phrase as to defy the accident of misreport 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 engross SO large a
portion of the Presidents time were distasteful
to him, and were unfavorably contrasted with
his legislative work. 81 have been dealing all
these years with IDEAS" he impatiently ex-
claimed one day. t'and here / am dealing only
with persons. Ihave been heretofore treating
of the fundamental principles of government
and here am considering all day whether A or
B shall be appointed to this or that office" He
was earnestly seeking some practical way of
correcting the evils arising from the disEribu-
tion of overgrown and unwieldy patronage
evils always appreciated and often discussed by
him, but whose magnitude had been more deep
ly impressed upon his mind since his accession
to the Presidency. Had he lived, comprehen-
sige improvement in the mode of appointment
and in the tenure of Office would have been pro-
posed by him, and with the aid OF Congress no
doubt perfected.
But, while many of the Executive duties were
not grateful to him, he was assduous and con-
scientions in their discharge. From the very
outset he exhibited administrative talent of a
high order. He grasped the helm OF office with
the hand of master. In this respect indeed he
constantly surprised many who were most inti-
mateiy associated with him i'll the government,
and especially thoze who had feared that he
might be lacking in the executive faculty. His
disposition of business was orderly and rapid.
His power of analysis and his skill in casstca-
tion, enabled him to dispatch vast mass OF
detail with singular promptness and ease. His
Cabinet meetings were admirably conducted.
His clear presentation of official subjects, his
well-considered suggestion of topics on which
discussion was invited, his quick decision when
all had been heard, combined to show a
thoroughness of mental training as rare as his
natural ability and his facile adaptation to a
new and enlarged field of labor.
With perfect comprehension of all the inher-
itances of the war, with cool calculation of the
obstacles in his way, impelled always by gen.
erous enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much
might be done by his administration towards
restoring harmony between the different sec
tions of the Union. He was anxious to go South
and speak to the people. AS early as April he
had Intellectually endeavored to arrange for a
trip to Nashville, whittier he had been cordially
invited, and he was again disappointed a few
weeks later to find that he could not go to South
Carolina to attend the centennial celebration of
the victory of the Cowpens. But for the autumn
he definitely counted on being present at three
memorable assemblies in the South, the celebra-
tion at Yorktown, the opening of the Cotton Ex-
position at Atlanta, and the meeting OF the
Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He
was already turning over in his mind his address
for each occasion. and the three taken together,
he said to a friend, gave shim the exact scope
anu verge which he kneeded. At yorktown he
would have before him the associations of hum
dred years that bound the South and the North
in the sacred memory of a common danger and
a common victory. At Atlanta he would present
the material interests and the industrial devel-
opment which appealed to the thrift and inde-
pendence of every household, and which should
unite the two sections by the instinct OF self
interest and self-defense. At Chattanooga he
would revive memories of the war only to show
that after all its disaster and all its suffer-
ing, the country was stronger and greater, the
Union rendered indissoluble. and the future,
through the agony and blood OF one generation,
made brighter and better for all.
Garfeld's ambition for the success of his ad-
ministration was high. With strong caution
and conservatism in his nature, he was in no
danger of attempting rash experiments or of re-
sorting to the empiricism of statesmanship. But
he believed that renewed and closer attention
should be given to questions affecting the mate
rial interests and commercial prospects OF nifty
millions of people. He believed that our conti-
mental relations, extensive and undeveloped as
they are, involved responsibility, and could be
cultivated into profitable friendship or be aban-
doned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity.
He believed with equal confidence that an essen
tiai forerunner to a new era of national progress
must be feei1ug OF contentment In every sec
tion of the Union, ana a generous belief that the
benefits and burdens of government would be
common to all. Himself conspicuous illustra-
tration of what ability and ambition may do
under republican institutions, he loved his coun-
try with passion of patriotic devotion, and
every waking thought was given to her advance
ment. He Was an American in al his aspira-
tions, and he looked 60 the destiny and influence
of the United States with the philosophic COM
posure of Jefferson and the demonstrative conf
dence OF John Adams.
The political events which disturbed the Presi-
full day in July form an important chapter in his
career, and, in his own judgment, involved cues
tions of principle and of right which are yitally
essential to the constitutional administration of
place here and now TO speak the language of
controversy; but the events referred to however