The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-03-04

to the constitutional administration of the Federal
Government. 1t would be out of place here and
now TO speak the language of controversy; but the
events referred to, however they may continue to
be source OF contention with others, have become,
so far as Garfield is concerned, much matter of
history as his herOism at Chickamauga his illus
trious service in the House. Detail is not needed
and personal antagonism shall not be rekinded by
any werd uttered to day.
The motives of those opposing him not to be
here adversely interpreted their course harshy
characterized. But of the dead President this is
to be said, and said because his speech is for
ever silenced, and he can be no more heard except
through the fidelity and the love of surviving
friends: From the beginning to the end of the con-
troversy he so much deplOred, the President was
never for moment actuated by any motive of
gain to himself or of loss to Others Least OF all
men did he harbor revenge rarely did he ever show
resentment, and malice not in his nature. He
congenially employed only in the exchange of
good offices and the doing of kindly deeds.
There not an hour from the beginning of the
trouble till the fatal shot entered his body when
the President would not gladly, for the sake of
storing harmony, have retraced any step he had
taken if such retracing had merely involved con-
sequences personal to himself. The pride of con-
sistency, any supposed sense of humiliation that
might result from Surrendering his POSITION had not
feathers weight with him. No man was ever less
subject to such influences from within or from with
out. But after most anxious deliberation and the
coolest survey of all the circu instances he sOlemny
believed that the true prerogatives of the Execu-
tive were involved in the issue which had been
raised, and that he would be unfaithful to his
preme obligation if he failed to maintain in all
their vgor, the constitutional rights and dgnities
of his great office.
Inregard to Garfelds religious belief he observed
The browning characteristic of General Garfieds
religious opinions as, indeed, of all his opinions,
his Hberallty In all things he had clarity.
Tolerance WIS of his nature. He respected in
others the qualities which he possessed himself
sincerity of conviction and rankness of expression
With him the inquiry was not so much what man
believes, but does he believe it? The lines of his
friendship and his confidence encrcled men of
every creed and men of creed, aHd to the end of
his life, his ever-lengthening list of friends,
were to be found the names of piOus Catholic
priest and of an honest minded and generous
hearted free thinker.
And in conclusion:
On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the Presi-
dent was contented and happy man-not in an
ordinary degree, but jOyfully, almost boyishly
happy. On his way to the railroad station, to
which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of
the beautiful morning, with unwonted sense OF
leisure and keen anticipation of pleasure, his
talk all in the grateful and gratulatory vein.
He felt that after four months Of trial his admin
istration strong in its grasp of affairs, strong
in popular favor and destined to grow stronger;
that grave difficulties confronting him at his in
auguration had been safely passed that trouble
lay behind HIM and not before him; that he
soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recover
and at times almost unnerved him that he was
going to his Alma Malta to renew the most cher
ished associations Of his young manhood, and to
exchange greetings with those whose deepening
interest had followed every step of his upward
progress from the day he entered upon his college
course until he had attained the oftiest elevation
in the gift of his countrymen.
Surely If happiness can ever come from the
honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet
July morning James A. Garfield may well have
been happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted
him; no slightest premoniton of danger clouded his
sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant
One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in
the years stretching peacefully out before him;
the next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless
doomed to weary weeks of torture to silence, and
the grave.
Great in life, he was surprisingly great in death.
For cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and
wickedness, by the red hand of murder he was
thrust from the full tide of this worlds interest
from its hopes its ASPIRATIONS its victories into the
visible presence OF death-and he did not quail.
Not alone for the one short moment in which,
stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly
aware of its REIMBURSEMENT but through days of
deadly langor, through weeks of agony, that
not less agony because silently borne, with clear
sight and calm courage, he looked into his open
grave. What blight and ruin met his angushed
eyes, whose lips may tell; what brilliant, broken
plans, what batfed, high ambitions, what sunder-
ing of strong, warm, mahhood's friendships, what
bitter rending of sweet household ties Behind
tanning friends, cherished and happy mother
wearing the full rich honOrs of her early toll and
tears; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay
in his; the little boys not yet emerged from child
hoods day of frolc; the fair young daughter; the
sturdy just springing into closest companion
ship, claiming every day and every day rewarding
fathers love and care; and in his heart the eager
rejoicing power to meet all demand Before him,
deSOlatlOn and great darkness. And his soul was
not shaken. y x
AS the end drew near his early craving for the
sea returned. The stately mansion of power had
been him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he
begged to be taken from its prison walls from its
oppressive, sitting air. from its homelessness and its
hopelessness. Gently silently, the love of great
people bore the pale sufferer to the lOngedor heal
ing of the to live or to die as God should will,
within sight of its heaving billOws within sound OF
its manifold voice. With wan, fevered face ten
derby lifted to the cooling breeze he looked out
Wistfully upon the oceans changing wonders, on
its far sails whitening in the morning light its
restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die
beneath the monday sun; on the red clouds OF
evening arching low to the horizon; ON the serene
and shining pathway of the stars. Let us think
that his dying eyes read mystic meaning which
only the rapt and parting soul may know Let us
believe that In the silence of the recedng world he
heard the great waves breaking further shore,
and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of
the eternal morning.
GEN. ROSECRANS CORRECTS MR.. BLAINE.
General Rosecrans takes exception to one portion
of Mr.. Blaines Grafton. Writing under date of
Monday last, he says:
Mr. Blaine, in his funeral Grafton before the two
Houses to-day, said when General Garfield
Sumed his new duties he found various troubles