St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-05-17
Garfield and the Golden Club.
Letter in New YORK Ereninq Post.

Letter IA NeD York EUentng Post
In response to your question as to
the connection of Gen. Garfield with
the Golden club, [ would say that he
was proposed and elected a member of
the club in 1869, at the same time and
in the company with Edward Atkin-
son, Ralph Waldo Emerson, E. P.
Whipple, John Quincy Adams, William
Lloyd Garrison of Massachusetts,, and
William Cullen Bryant, Henry Ward
Beecher and David Dudley Field of
New York. He acknowledged the
compliment, and accepted the member
ship in a letter to the secretary of the
club, and his membership continued
without any revocation on his part I'M
til the day of his death.
The statement that eminent men are
or have been, Frequently elected as
honorary members of the Golden club
simply as a recognition of their schol-
arship" is not correct. No man is ever
elected unless his consent has been
previously obtained, either directly
from himself or Indirectly through
friends who propose his name for cleo
ton, and who does not understand that
an election to membership of the club
involves an Endorsement of its princi-
pies. The MOTTO of the club, which
appears in all it's publications and cor
respondence, namely, "Free trade,
peace, and good will among nations"
obviously does not allow of any indi-
vidual self-deception, certainly not in
the case of a man like Gen. Garfield.
1t is also worthy of note that the
men who founded the Golden club,
like John Bright, Thomas B. Potter,
Miner Gibson and others, were men
who, through the darkest hours of the
rebellion, stood up in parliament and
out of parliament for the Union, and
did more than any or all others III pre-
venting Lord Palmerston and his cabl-
net from uniting with Louis Napoleon
in recognizing the southern confeder-
acy and breaking the blockade, which
in time meant calamity if lot ruin to
the northern cause. And yet it nov
suits the extreme protectiOnists to re-
vile these men as the relentless foes of
the American labOrer.
| will further add that of my w
certain knowledge, Gen. Garfield was
a believer in the principles of free
trade down to the period as late as Il
year prior to his nomination for the
presidency, and that it was in no small
part through intercourse and discus
sion with him in 1867 and 1868 | aban-
dOned my original belief in the doc
trines of protection and subsequently
Q67O) accepted membership in the
Golden club.
In making these statements / prefer
no accusation of disingenuOusness or
hypocrisy against Gen. Garfield, and
neither do | think him open to a suspi-
cion of such conduct. He probably ac-
copied the definition of Canning that
true craftsmanship consists in finding
the line of safe change; and while ac-
cepting the principles of free trade and
looking forward to the day when they
will constitute the basis of commercial
intercourse between all nations, he at
the same time held hat such a result
in this country could be best and most
speedily attained through gradual and
tentative reforms; and that in the then
temper of the American people the adj
of radical measures vas both
inexpedient and useless.