The Owosso times., 1882-03-10
Garfield Memorial Services.

. On Monday, as previously arranged
were held in Representative Hall In
Washington memorial services In hon
or Of the late President. The President
cabinet, judiciary, members Of congress
land other notable officials and distin.
guished citizens completely filed the
hall. The orator, Hon. James G. Blaine
was introduced by President Davis, land
spoke about an hour and half, com.
manding the closest attention. The
manner in which he executed difficult
and delicate task, received almost uni
versal commendation. We submit q
few of the more striking passages. In
the opening paragraph he said:
For the second time i'm this genera
tion the great departments Of the g0v-
ernment of the United States are as
sembled In the Hall of Representatives
to do honor to the memory of a mur-
dered President. Lincoln fell at the
close Of mighty struggle in which the
passions Of men had been deeply stirred.
The tragical termination of his great
life added but another to the lengthen-
ed succession of horrors which had
marked so many lintels with the blood
OF the first-bOrn. Garfield was slain in
a day 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, if he will show
1t rs it has been exhibited where such
example was last to have been looked
for, let him not give it the grim visage
of MolOch.t the brow knitted by revenge,
the face black with settled hate. Let
him draw, rather. a decorous. smooth.
faced, bloOdless demon; not so much an
example of human nature in its deprav.
ity and In its paroxysms of crime, as an
Internal being, fiend in the ordinary
display and development of his charac-
ter" -
Garfield's ancestry, the circumstances
Of his boyhOod life, his educational, civil,
military and political career, culmina-
ting so rapidly, are sketched with
a graphic hand, but they have all been
made familiar to our readers by the
cOpious biographies that have been
written and we must pass them by
however much the interest with
which the genius of Mr.. Blaine in.
vests them. OF Garfield's career in the
House of Representatives Mr.. Blaine
said:
With possibly asingle exception Gar
field was the youngest member in the
House when he entered, and was but
seven years from his college graduation.
But he had not been In his seat sixty
days before his ability was recognized
and his place conceded. He stepped
to the front with the confidence of one
who belonged there. The House was
crowded with strong men of both par
ties: nineteen of them have since been
transferred to the Senate. and many of
them have served with distinction in
the gubernatOrial chairs of their re-
spective States, and on foreign missions
of great consequence; but among them
all none grew so rapidly, none SO firm.
ly as Garfield. AS is said by Trevelyan
Of his parliamentary hero, Garfield sue
ceeded "because all the world In con-
cert could not have kept him in the
background, and because when once in
the front he played his part with
prompt intrepidity and a commanding
ease that were but the outward symp.
toms Of the immense reserves of energy
on which 1t was In his power to draw"
OF Garfield as Presidential candi.
date, the orator said: He steadily grew
in popular favor:--He was met with
storm of detraction at the very hour of
his nomination, and it continued with
increasing volume and momentum un-
Til the close of the victorious campaign:
No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape; backw0unding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes. What king 80 strong
Can tie the gall up In the sanderous tongueP
Under it all he was calm and strong
and confident; never lost his self-posses-
sion, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty,
Oh ill-considered word. Indeed moth
ing in his whole life is more remarka-
BILE or more creditable than his bearing
through those five full months of vitu-
peration--a prolonged agony of trial
To "a sensitive man, u constant and
cruel draft upon the powers of moral
endurance.
POLITICAL TROUBLES.
After speaking of his Presidential
life and his ambition for the success of
his administration, Mr.. Blaine thus re-
fers to the political troubles preceding
the assassinatiOn: 1t would be out of
place here and now to speak the Ian
guage of CONTROVERSY but the events
referred to. however they may continue
to be a source of contention with 9th
ers. have become, so far as Garfield Is
concerned, as much matter of history
as his heroism at Chickamauga or his
illustrious service In the House. Detail
is not needful, and personal antago-
msm shall not be rekindled by any
word uttered to-day. The motives OF
those opposing him are not to be here
adversely interpreted nor their course
harshly criticized But of the deat
President this Is 10 be said, and sale
because his own speech is forever 81
fenced and he can be no more heart
except through the fidelity and tn,
love of surviving friends: From th
beginning to the end Of the controvers,
he so much deplored, the President, wa
never for one moment actuated by an,
motive of gain to himself or of loss t,
others. Least of all men did he harbo
revenge, rarely did he even show re
sentiment. and malice was not in hi
nature. He was congenially employee
only In the exchange of good offices an
the doing of kindly deeds.
There was not an hour, from the bt
ginning of the trouble till the fatal she
= entered his body, when the Presider