Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-03-09
GARFIELD'S VIRTUES,
As Pronounced by James q. Blaine at
Washington. Before and Assembled
Multitude.

largest, most intelligent and attentive
audiences eyer assembled in Washing
ton greeted the great ex-premier to-day:
At 1910 2. M. Mr.. Blaine was an
nounced, and as he assembled the ros-
trum every eye was upon him. Blaine
is q noble appearing fellow, and as
graceful in his movements as a woman.
Generals Hancock, Howard, Sherman,
Sheridan and Terry were present by
especial invitation and occupied seats
of honor. These five generals having
st one time received the public thanks
Of the congress of the United States for
their distinguished services. They are
the only ones now alive who have been
thus honored, and it was considered ap-
propriate to have them all present as
honorary visitors. The house was rapt
TO order by the sharp and ringing
clip so peculiar to Keifer, at exactly
high noon. At 1918 the senate was
announced, and all arose; the'senators,
headed by the officers of that body,
entered, and took their assigned seats;
they were followed by the chief justice
and associate justices of the supreme
court, dressed in their robes of office;
again the assembled multitude arose as
THE PRESIDENT
of the United States and the cabinet
were announced. They were accom-
panied by Senator Sherman and Rep
resentative Mckinley, chairman of the
committee of arrangements. David
Davis, acting vice president then took
the chair, and announced a prayer by
Rev. DR.. Power, who IS at present
chaplain of the house, and was Mr..
Garfeld's pastor. Mr.. Blaine then de-
liyered the following eulogy:
Mr.. PRESIDENT: i For the second
time in this generation the great de-
partments of the Government of the
United States are assembled in the
hall OF representative to do honor to
the memory of q murdered president.
Lincoln fell at the close of q mighty
struggle in which the passions of men
had been deeply stirred. The tragical
termination OF his great life added but
another to the heightened succession
of horrors which had marked so many
lintels with the blood of the first born.
Garfield was slain in days of peace,
when brother had been reconciled to
brother, and when anger and hate had
been banlshed from the land. "Who-
ever shall hereafter draw the portrait
Of murder, if he shall show it as it has
been exhibited where such example
was last to have been looked for, let
him not give it the grim yisage of
Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge,
the face black with settled hate. Let
him draw, rather, 8 decorous, smooth
faced, bIoodless demon not so much
an example f human nature in its
depravity and In It's paroxysms of
crime, as an internal being, fiend in
the ordinary display and development
Of his character
From the landing of the Pilgrims at
Plymouth till the uprising against
Charles /, about twenty thousand emil
grants came from old England to New
England AS they came in pursuit OF
intellectual freedom and ecclesiastical
independence rather than for worldly
honor and profit, the emigration natur-
ally ceased when the contest for relig-
Gus liberty began IN earnest at home.
The man who struck his most effective
blow for freedom of conscience by sail
ing for the colonies in 1920, would have
been accounted a deserter to leave after
1910. The opportunity had then come
on the soil of England for that great
contest which established the authority
of parliament, gave religious freedom
to the people, sent Charles to the block,
and committed to the hands of Oliver
Cromwell the supreme executive au-
thority of England. The English emf
grafton was never renewed, and from
these twenty thousand men with q
small emigration from Scotland and
fom France. are descended the vast
numt crs who have New England blood
il Their veins.
HI 1855 the revocation Of the cdiCt o.
Nlntz by Louis XIV scattered to othe,
countries four hundred thousand Prot.
cstants, who were among the most in.
telligent and enterprising of French
suhjects-merchants of capital, skilled
manufacturers, and handicraftsmen,
superior at the time to all others
III Europe. A considerable mum.
Der of these Huguenot French
came to America; a few landed
in New England and became honorably
prominent In its history. Their names
have in large part become anglicised, or
have disappeared, but their blood is
traceable in many of the most reput-
able families, and their fame is per-
petuated in honorable memorials and
useful institutions.
From these two sources, the English
Puritan and the French-Huguenot,
came the late president-his father,
Abram Garfield, being descended from
the one, ana his mother, Eliza Ballou,
from the other.
1t was good stock on both sides-none
better, none Drawer, none truer. There
was in it an inheritance of courage, of
manliness, of imperishable love of lib
erty, of undying adherence to principle.
Garfield was proud of his blood; and,
with as much satisfaction as if he were
a British nobleman reading his stately
ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he
spoke of himself as ninth in descent
from those who would not endure the
oppression of tie Stuarts, and seventh
IN descent from the brave French Prot
estants who refused to submit to tyran-
ny even from the Grand Monarque.
LN--..n..,l Il i i