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J. A. Garfield
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MRS. JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Memorial Edition.
THE
LIFE AND WORK
OF
JAMES A. GARFIELD,
TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
EMBRACING
AN ACCOUNT OF THE SCENES AND INCIDENTS OF HIS BOYHOOD;
THE STRUGGLES OF HIS YOUTH; THE MIGHT OF HIS EARLY MANHOOD; HIS VALOR AS A SOLDIER; HIS
CAREER AS A STATESMAN; HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY; AND THE TRAGIC
STORY OF HIS DEATH.
BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH
, LL.D.,AUTHOR OF A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES; A GRAMMAR-SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES; AN INDUCTIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, ETC.
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COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED----------
JONES BROTHERS AND COMPANY:
CINCINNATI, PHILADELPHIA, CHICAGO, KANSAS CITY.
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J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAPOLIS. J. C. CHILTON & CO., DETROIT. W. H. MCCLAIN, DES MOINES, IOWA.1881.
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COPYRIGHTED, 1881, BY J. T. JONES.
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page: iii[View Page iii]PREFACE.
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DEAN SWIFT describes the tomb as a place where savage enmity can rend the heart no more. Here, in the ominous shadow of the cypress, the faults and foibles of life are forgotten, and the imagination builds a shining pathway to the stars. Ascending this with rapid flight, the great dead is transfigured as he rises; the clouds close around him, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he is set afar on the heights with Miltiades and Alexander.
The tendency to the deification of men is strongest when a sudden eclipse falls athwart the disk of a great life at noontide. The pall of gloom sweeps swiftly across the landscape, and the beholder, feeling the chill of the darkness, mistakes it for the death of nature. So it was three hundred years ago when the silent Prince of Orange, the founder of Dutch independence, was smitten down in Delft. So it was when the peerless Lincoln fell. So it is when Garfield dies by the bullet of an assassin.
No doubt this man is glorified by his shameful and causeless death. The contrast between his life and his death is indeed the very irony of fate. On the popular imagination he is borne away to Washington and Lincoln. He is canonized—the American people will have it so.
In due season fervor will subside. The keen indignation and poignant sorrow of this great and sensitive citizenship will at length give place to other emotions. The murdered Garfield will then pass through an ordeal more trying than any of his life. He will be coolly measured and his stature ascertained by those inexorable laws which determine the rank and place of both living and dead. No doubt he will suffer loss; but there is of James A. Garfield a residuum of greatness—
- Which shall tire
- Torture and Time, and breathe though he expire;
- Something unearthly which we deem not of,
- Like the remembered tone of a mute lyre,—
And this residuum of greatness, whatever it shall be, will constitute the Garfield of the future— the Garfield of history.
page: iv[View Page iv]For the present there will be— there can but be— a blending of the real and the ideal. The glamour of the apotheosis will dazzle the vision of those who witnessed it. It is enough, therefore, that the narrative of to-day shall be such as befits the universal sentiment. The biographer of the future may weigh with more critical exactitude the weakness against the greatness, and poise in a more delicate balance the evil against the good.
The following pages embody an effort to present, in fair proportion, THE LIFE AND WORK OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. Such sources of information as are at present accessible have been faithfully consulted; and it is sincerely hoped that the outline here given of the personal and public career of the illustrious dead, will be found true to the life. As far as practicable in the following pages, the purposes and character of President Garfield will be determined from his own words. His apothegms and sayings, not a few, and his public papers and speeches have alike contributed their wealth to the better parts of the volume. The story of the President's wounding and death has been gathered from the abundant sources— official and semi-official– of the journals and magazines of the day. It is hoped that the narrative, as a whole, will not be found deficient in interest, or unworthy of the subject.
This preface would be incomplete if failure should be made to mention the invaluable and extensive service rendered the author in the preparation of the work, by MR. AUGUSTUS L. MASON and MR. NATHANIEL P. CONREY, to whose industry and discriminating taste much of whatever merit the book contains, must be accredited. And with this acknowledgment should be coupled a like recognition of the spirit of THE PUBLISHERS, who, with their accustomed liberality, have spared no pains to illustrate the work in a manner befitting the subject. May all who read these pages find in them as full a measure of profit as the author has found of pleasure in their preparation. J. C. R.
INDIANA ASBURY UNIVERSITY,
November, 1881.
CONTENTS.
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CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.
PAGES
CHAPTER II.
THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.
CHAPTER III.
THE MORNING OF POWER.
page: vi[View Page vi]PAGES
CHAPTER IV.
A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.
CHAPTER V.
HERO AND GENERAL.
CHAPTER VI.
IN THE ASCENDANT.
- The constituency of Garfield.— The old Western Reserve.— Joshua R. Giddings.— Character of Congress.— Garfield enters the Cave of the Winds.— On Military Committee.— Opposes the bounty system.— Favors the draft.— Advocates confiscation.— Demolishes A. Long, Esq.— The Wade-Davis Manifesto.— A strange renomiiiation.— Advocates the Thirteenth
- page: vii[View Page vii]
- PAGES
- Amendment.— Beards Stanton.— The assassination of Lincoln.— Scene in New York.— Speech on the Lincoln anniversary.— The temperance question.— Defends Milligan and Conpany.— Advocates a Bureau of Education.— Chairman of Committee on Military Affairs.— The visit to Europe.— Oration on Decoration Day 167-210
CHAPTER VII.
LEADER AND STATESMAN.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE NOONTIDE.
CHAPTER IX.
GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS.
page: viii[View Page viii]CHAPTER X.
THE CLIMAX OF 1880.
PAGES
CHAPTER XI.
CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.
CHAPTER XII.
IN THE HIGH SEAT.
page: ix[View Page ix]CHAPTER XIII.
SHOT DOWN.
PAGE
CHAPTER XIV.
GAZING ON THE SEA.
CHAPTER XV.
THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.
page: x[View Page x]DEATHLESS.
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- This man hath reared a monument more grand
- Than sculptured bronze, and loftier than the height
- Of regal pyramids in Memphian sand,
- Which not the raging tempest nor the might
- Of the loud North-wind shall assailing blight,
- Nor years unnumbered nor the lapse of time!
- Not all of him shall perish ! for the bright
- And deathless part shall spurn with foot sublime
- The darkness of the grave— the dread and suniless clime!
- He shall be sung to all posterity
- With freshening praise, where in the morning's glow
- The farm-boy with his harnessed team shall be,
- And where New England's swifter rivers flow
- And orange groves of Alabama blow—
- Strong in humility, and great to lead
- A mighty people where the ages go!
- Take then thy station, O illustrious dead!
- And place, Immortal Fame, the garland on his head!
—HORACE: B. III, ODE XXX.
