Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-07-05

ineUdpul lSlCldIi anu a It'SlCidH VI ul6u
order, with skill for drawing nice dis
tinctions,a masterful grasp of his subject,
great strength of analysis, rare powers
of presentation, and an eloquence un-
surpassed by that of any man in Con-
gress. He had the Nation for an audi
ence, and all his rare power was to beiput
forth to the great work of persHading
the citizens of the Republic, that the
party then in power should be retired,
and that its stead the party of which Mr..
Tilden was the representative, should
be entbroned. Lamar had leng and
earnestly labored in the preparation of
his speech. 1t was to be held back un-
til the closing days of the session; then.
as clear, calm, mastery speech, strong
| by its inherent might, an arraign ment
| of the dominant party, elevated in
! tone and statesmanlike in its scope. was
to be launched upon the thoughtful and
serious North. He began by saying that
the great purpose of his party was to
! free the country from the corruptions
and manifold evils of bad legislation
and maladministration. There was a
general corruption of administrative
government, and deplorable state of
| civil service. This was the major pre-
mise. His minor premise was, the Re
publican party was incapable of work
| ing out these reforms, and the conclusion
was that the Democratic party must be
| brought into power to accomplish re-
form. 1t was certainly one of the most
adroit political pleas ever made to the
American public. 1t was beautiful
temple of speech, every stone polished
and in its proper place. His language
was calm, chaste, sweet, serene, tender.
There was no remembrance of the
war; no threat as to the future, and
when with rare polish and consumNate
| skill, be finished, he had alike, beauti-
full and impregnable intellectual strue-
ture.. Two days afterward, men mar
veled at the complete and mastery re-
ply Garfield made to that speech, but
that reply was not altogether the work
of the intervening days. Days before
| Lamar made his speech, Garfield got
an intiMation that he was going to
make speech on general politics. He
| Immediately addressed himself to the
work of reply. As best he could,
he hunted Lamar's record in Con-
gress before the war, and said he was
going to read his old speeches and get
into his mind. One thing is noticeable
in all the speeches of Garfield, and that
is the fairness with which he states the
position of his opponent. Certainly, the
propositions of Lamar's speech we're
stated with equal if not greater clear
ness by Garfield than even by Lamar
himself The reply of Garfield was
calm. temperate and elevated, with a
comprehensiveness of statement, scope
| of generalization and philosophy of
American history, worthy of Bancroft
or Gibbon. He commenced by saying,
even admitting the major and minor
premises of the gentleman to be correct,
he denied his conclusion, that all the
good government he seeks, could be ac-
complished by the Democratic party, land
| having made no attempt to prove the
fitness of the Democracy as a political
organization, to accomplish his desired
reforms, his argument Is failure. He
says to Mr.. Lamar, the change you
propose is not like the ordinary change
of a ministry in England, when the gov
eminent is defeated on some routine
matter of legislation, but you propose to
turn ovor the custody and management
of the government to party which has
persistently and with the greatest bitter
ness resisted all of the great changes
within the last fifteen years, changes
which were the necessary result of
vast revolution, a revolution in national
policy, in social and political ideas,
revolution whose causes were the work
not of day or year, but of generations
and centuries. The scope and character
of that mighty revolution must form
the basis of our judgment, when We in
quire whether such change as he pro-
poses is safe and wise. Then he showed
that for two hundred years there had
been a conflict between the two vast
civilizations of this continent, the ous
planted at Plymouth Rock, the other on
the James. That the conflict culmina-
ted in the war of 1861. That great ideas
like the geds whose feet are clothed
with wool travel slowly; that the as
cendant and conqusring ideas of the
war must be inculcated and maintained
until they have crystallized into the
forms of enduring law and become i'll
wrought into the habits and thought Of
our people; and this revolution could
not in the very nature of things be'ac-
complished through the instrumentality
the conquering ideas of the war, any
more than il the South had won the
victory, the enforcement of the doctrine
of State sovereignty, and the work of
extending the domain of slavery could
be entrusted to the Garrisons' and Phil
lips of the North. and then challenged
his opponents to show one great Nation
al idea advanced by their party since
1860 that was not exploded and as dead
as Julius Caesar. In default of an an
swer in a passage of wonderful power
he assumed to prove his position. 1t
can be truthfully said Garfield's charac-
ter and individual growth upon the pub
lie mind contributed more to the sue
cess of his candidacy than that of any
other presidential candidate ever before
the people, AS has been said of him, his
great tender heart, his all-embracing
sympathy, his nice delicacy of feeling,
his quick apprehension of everything
ethically good or spiritually beautiful,
will be remembered further and longer
than his powerful logical faculties or
his ample knowledge. He called out the
demonstrative affections of men in a
way almost unprecedented, and those
who saw during the last campaign the
marvellous drawing of mems hearts to-
ward him, simply saw on vast scale
what was years ago seen at Hiram. 1t
was this spontaneous recognition of
great heartedness that gave him the
nomination at Chicago. An element ef
his character worthy of the considera-
tion Of young men, was, that he was no
place seeker. The place always sought
the man rather than the man the place.
This was noticeably so in the last great
honor that came to him; when the tide
was turning toward him, and delegation
after delegation was breaking from its
moorings and going over to him, the
only selfpoised man in that convention,
he rose in his place and protested
against the votes in his favor. Who
that saw in that moment of supreme
triumph can forget the look of his face
aS he sat LISTENING tn thn call Of the