The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1886-09-02

ence among men, and which, measured
by the severe test of posthumous criti-
cism, will secure more enduring and
more enviable fame.
| Those unfamiliar with Garfeld's in
dustry, and ignorant of the details of his
work, may, in some degree, measure
them by the annals of Congress. No one
of the generation of public men to which
he belonged has contributed SO much
that will prove valuable for future ref
erence. His speeches are numerous,
many of them brilliant, all of them well
studied, carefully phrased, and exhaus-
tive of the subject under consideration.
Collected from the scattered pages of
ninety royal octave volumes of Congress
sional Record, they would present an in
valuable compendium of the political
events of the most important era through
which the National Government has ever
passed. When the history of this period
shall be impartially written, when war
Legislation, measures of reconstruction,
protection of human rights, amendments
to the constitution, maintenance of pub
lio credit, steps toward specie resump-
| ton, true theories of revenue, may be re-
viewed, unsurrounded by prejudice
and disconnected from partisanism,
the speeches of Garfield will be
estimated at their true value, and
will be found to comprise a vast magazine
of fact and argument, of clear analysis
and sound conclusion: Indeed, if no
other authority were accessible, his
speeches in the House Of Representatives
from December, 1868, to June, 1880, would
give well-connected history and COM
plete defense of the important legislation
of the seventeen eventful years that con-
stitute his parliamentary life. Far be-
yond 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 popular approval within
the period of his own lifetime, and by
the aid of his own efforts.
| Differing, as Garfield does, from the
| brilliant parliamentary leaders, it is not
easy to find his counterpart anywhere in
/ the record Of American public life. He,
perhaps, more nearly resembles Mr.. Sew
ard in his supreme faith in the all-con-
quering power of principle. He had the
love of learning, and the patient industry
OF investigation, to which John Quincy
Adams owes his prominence and his
Presidency. He had some of those pom
derous elements of mind which distin-
guished Mr.. Webster, and which, indeed,
in all Our public life have left the great
Massachusetts Senator without an intel
lectual peer.
| In English parliamentary history, as in
our own, the leaders in the House of
| Commons present points of essen tial diff
ference from Garfield. But some of his
methods recall the best features in the
strong, independent course of Sir Robert
Peel, to whom he had striking resem-
blances in the type of his mind and in
the habit of his speech. He had all of
Burke's love for the sublime and the
beautiful, with, possibly, something of his
superabundance. In his faith and his
magnanlmity, in his power of statement.
in his subtle analysis, in his faultless
logic, in his love of literature, in his
wealth and world of illustration, one is
reminded of that great English states
man Of to-day, who, confronted with OBJ
stacles that would daunt any but the
dauntless, reviled by those whom he
would relieve as bitterly by those whose
supposed rights he is forced to invade,
still labors with serene courage for the
amelioration of Ireland and for the honor
of the English name.
aARFIELD's NOMINATION
To the Presidency, while not predicted or
an ficinatQ6 q 10 q
country. His prominence in Congress,
his solid qualities, his wide reputation.
strengthened by his then recent election
} as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the
} public eye as man occupying the very
highest rank among those entitled to be
called statemen. 1t is not mere chance
that brought him this high honor. "We
must" says Mr.. Emerson, "reckon sue
cess constitutional trait. If Eric is in
robust health, and has slept well, and is
at the top of his condition, and thirty
years old at his departure from Green
land, he will steer west, and his ships
} will reach Newfoundland. But take
! Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder
man, and the ships will sail six hundred,
| one thousand, fifteen hundred miles
further, and reach Labrador and New En-
gland. There is no chance in results"
i, AS a candidate Garfield steadily grew
J in popular favor. He was met with a
storm of detraction at the very hour of
| mis- nomination, and it continued with
increasing volume and momentum until
the close of his victorious campaign:
No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape; bacKwounding calumny
The WhltGSt virtue strikes. What King SO
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue
: Under it all he was calm and strong,
and confident; never lost his self posses
| sion, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or
ill-considered word. Indeed, nothing in
his whole life is more remarkable or more
creditable than his bearing through those
| five full months of vituperation-a pro-
longed agony of trial to sensitive man,
a constant and cruel draft upon the
powers of moral endurance. The great
mass of these unjust imputations passed
! unnoticed, and with the general debris
Of the campaign fell into oblivion. But
, in few instances the iron entered his
: soul, and he died with the injury unfor-
gotten if not unforgiven.
One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was
, unprecedented. Never before, in the his
} tory of partisan contests in this country,
had a successful Presidential candidate
| spoken freely on passing events and cur
rent issues. To attempt any thing of the
kind seemed novel. rash, and even des-
: perate. The older class of voters recalled
the unfortunate Alabama letter, in which
Mr.. Clay was supposed to have signed his
political death-warrant. They remem-
bered also the hot-tempered effusion by
which General Scott lost a large share oi
} his popularity before his nomination,
and the unfortunate speeches which