AS PRESIDENT.

tory of the Cowpens. But for the autumn In the beginning of his Presidential life he definitely counted on being present at Garfield's experience did not yield him three memorable assemblies in the South, pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that the celebration at Yorktown, the opening engross so large a portion of the Presi- of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and dent's time were distasteful to him, and the meeting of the Army of the Cumberwere unfavorably contrasted with his leg- land at Chattanooga. He was already islative work. "I have been dealing all turning over in his mind his address for these years with ideas," he impatiently ex- each occasion, and the three taken togeclaimed one day, "and here I am dealing ther, he said to a friend, gave him the only with persons. I have been heretofore exact scope and verge which he needed. treating of the fundamental principles of At Yorktown he would have before him government, and here I am considering all the associations of a hundred years that day whether A or B shall be appointed to bound the South and the North in the this or that office." He was earnestly sacred memory of a common danger and seeking some practical way of correcting a common victory. At Atlanta he would the evils arising from the distribution of present the material interests and the inovergrown and unwieldy patronage-evils dustrial development which appealed to always appreciated and often discussed by the thrift and independence of every him, but whose magnitude had been more household, and which should unite the deeply impressed upon his mind since his two sections by the instinct of self-interest accession to the Presidency. Had he lived, and self-defence. At Chattanooga he a comprehensive improvement in the mode would revive memories of the war only to of appointment and in the tenure of office show that after all its disaster and all its would have been proposed by him, and suffering, the country was stronger and with the aid of Congress no doubt per- greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, fected. and the future, through the agony and blood of one generation, made brighter and better for all.

But, while many of the Executive duties were not grateful to him, he was assiduous and conscientious in their discharge. From Garfield's ambition for the success of the very outset he exhibited administrative his administration was high. With strong talent of a high order. He grasped the caution and conservatism in his nature, helm of office with the hand of a master. he was in no danger of attempting rash In this respect, indeed, he constantly sur- experiments or of resorting to the empiriprised many who were most intimately as- cism of statesmanship. But he believed sociated with him in the government, and that renewed and closer attention should especially those who had feared that he be given to questions affecting the matemight be lacking in the executive faculty.rial interests and commercial prospects of His disposition of business was orderly and fifty millions of people. He believed that rapid. His power of analysis, and his our continental relations, extensive and skill in classification, enabled him to des- undeveloped as they are, involved responpatch a vast mass of detail with singular sibility, and could be cultivated into propromptness and ease. His Cabinet meet-fitable friendship or be abandoned to ings were admirably conducted. His clear harmful indifference or lasting enmity. presentation of official subjects, his well- He believed with equal confidence that an considered suggestion of topics on which discussion was invited, his quick decision when all had been heard, combined to show a thoroughness of mental training as rare as his natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged field of

labor.

essential forerunner to a new era of national progress must be a feeling of contentment in every section of the Union, and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would be common to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and ambition may do With perfect comprehension of all the under republican institutions, he loved inheritances of the war, with a cool calcu- his country with a passion of patriotic delation of the obstacles in his way, im-votion, and every waking thought was pelled always by a generous enthusiasm, given to her advancement. He was an Garfield conceived that much might be American in all his aspirations, and he done by his administration towards restor- looked to the destiny and influence of the ing harmony between the different sections United States with the philosophic comof the Union. He was anxious to go South posure of Jefferson and the demonstrative and speak to the people. As early as confidence of John Adams. April he had ineffectually endeavored to arrange for a trip to Nashville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he was again disappointed a few weeks later to find that he could not go to South Carolina to attend the centennial celebration of the vic

THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY.

The political events which disturbed the President's serenity for many weeks before that fatal day in July form an important chapter in his career, and, in his own judg

GARFIELD'S RELIGION.

ment, involved questions of principle and of right which are vitally essential to the The religious element in Garfield's charconstitutional administration of the Fede-acter was deep and earnest. In his early

ral Government. It would be out of place here and now to speak the language of controversy, but the events referred to, however they may continue to be source of contention with others, have become, so far as Garfield is concerned, as much a matter of history as his heroism at Chickamauga or his illustrious service in the House. Detail is not needful, and personal antagonism shall not be rekindled by any word uttered to-day. The motives of those opposing him are not to be here adversely interpreted nor their course harshly characterized. But of the dead President this is to be said, and said because his own speech is forever silenced and he can be no more heard except through the fidelity and the love of surviving friends. From the beginning to the end of the controversy he so much deplored, the President was never for one moment actuated by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to others. Least of all men did he harbor revenge, rarely did he even show resentment, and malice was not in his nature. He was congenially employed only in the exchange of good offices and the doing of kindly deeds.

youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that great Baptist Communion which in different ecclesiastical establishments is so numerous and so influential throughout all parts of the United States. But the broadening tendency of his mind and his active spirit of inquiry were early apparent and carried him beyond the dogmas of sect and the restraints of association. In selecting a college in which to continue his education he rejected Bethany, though presided over by Alexander Campbell, the greatest preacher of his church. His reasons were characteristic: first, that Bethany leaned too heavily toward slavery; and, second, that being himself a Disciple and the son of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance with people of other beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle and be under new influences.

The liberal tendency which he had anticipated as the result of wider culture was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, and with eager inThere was not an hour, from the begin- terest pushed his investigations in the dining of the trouble till the fatal shot rection of modern progressive thought. He entered his body, when the President would followed with quickening step in the paths not gladly, for the sake of restoring har- of exploration and speculation so fearlessly mony, have retraced any step he had taken trodden by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tynif such retracing had merely involved con- dall, and by other living scientists of the sequences personal to himself. The pride radical and advanced type. His own of consistency, or any supposed sense of church, binding its disciples by no formuhumiliation that might result from sur-lated creed, but accepting the Old and New rendering his position, had not a feather's weight with him. No man was ever less subject to such influences from within or from without. But after the most anxious deliberation and the coolest survey of all the circumstances, he solemnly believed that the true prerogatives of the Executive were involved in the issue which had been raised, and that he would be unfaithful to But however high Garfield reasoned of his supreme obligation if he failed to main-"fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absotain, in all their vigor, the constitutional lute," he was never separated from the rights and dignities of his great office. Church of the Disciples in his affections He believed this in all the convictions of and in his associations. For him it held conscience when in sound and vigorous the ark of the covenant. To him it was health, and he believed it in his suffering the gate of Heaven. The world of reand prostration in the last conscious ligious belief is full of solecisms and conthought which his wearied mind bestowed tradictions. A philosophic observer deon the transitory struggles of life.

More than this need not be said. Less than this could not be said. Justice to the dead, the highest obligation that devolves upon the living, demands the declaration that in all the bearings of the subject, actual or possible, the President was content in his mind, justified in his conscience, immovable in his conclusions.

Testaments as the word of God, with unbiased liberality of private interpretation, favored, if it did not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its members profess with sincerity, and profess only, to be of one mind and one faith with those who immediately followed the Master, and who were first called Christians at Antioch..

clares that men by the thousand will die in defence of a creed whose doctrines they do not comprehend and whose tenets they habitually violate. It is equally true that men by the thousand will cling to church organizations with instinctive and undenying fidelity when their belief in maturer years is radically different from that which inspired them as neophytes.

But after this range of speculation, and this latitude of doubt, Garfield came back

66

Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident, in the years stretching peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and the grave.

always with freshness and delight to the difficulties confronting him at his inausimpler instincts of religious faith, which, guration had been safely passed; that earliest implanted, longest survive. Not troubles lay behind him and not before many weeks before his assassination, walk- him; that he was soon to meet the wife ing on the banks of the Potomac with a whom he loved, now recovering from an friend, and conversing on these topics of illness which had but lately disquieted and personal religion, concerning which noble at times almost unnerved him; that he natures have an unconquerable reserve, he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the said that he found the Lord's Prayer and most cherished associations of his young the simple petitions learned in infancy in- manhood, and to exchange greetings with finitely restful to him, not merely in their those whose deepening interest had folstated repetition, but in their casual and lowed every step of his upward progress frequent recall as he went about the daily from the day he entered upon his college duties of life. Certain texts of scripture course until he had attained the loftiest had a very strong hold on his memory and elevation in the gift of his countrymen. his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch preacher who prefaced his sermon with reading the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been the subject of careful study with Garfield during his religious life. He was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher and declared that it had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of Saint Paul. He referred often in after years to that memorable service, and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant | Great in life, he was surpassingly great promise and the assured hope with which in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy the great apostle of the Gentiles was per- of wantonness and wickedness by the red suaded that neither death, nor life, nor hand of murder, he was thrust from the principalities, nor powers nor things pres- full tide of this world's interest, from its ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the depth, nor any other creature, shall be visible presence of death-and he did not able to separate us from the love of God, quail. Not alone for one short moment in which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell— what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendship, what bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation and great darkness! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his

The crowning characteristic of General Garfield's religious opinions, as, indeed, of all his opinions, was his liberality. In all things he had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the qualities which he possessed himself sincerity of conviction and frankness of expression. With him the inquiry was not so much what a man believes, but does he believe it? The lines of his friendship and his confidence encircled men of every creed, and men of no creed, and to the end of his life, on his ever lengthening list of friends, were to be found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and generous-hearted free-thinker.

THE ASSASSIN'S BULLET. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the President was a contented and happy man-not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly happy. On his way to the railroad station to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure, and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial his administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor and destined to grow stronger; that grave

suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree.

as arises from a large audience when a strong tension is removed from their minds) when the orator passed from his allusion to differences existing in the Republican party last spring. Benediction was then offered by the Rev. Dr. Bullock, Chaplain of the Senate. The Marine Band played the "Garfield Dead March" as the invited guests filed out of the Chamber in the same order in which they had entered it. The Senate was the last to leave, and then the House was called to order by the Speaker.

Mr. McKinley, of Ohio, offered the following resolution:

Resolved, The Senate concurring, that the thanks of Congress are hereby presented to the Hon. James G. Blaine for the appropriate memorial address delivered by him on the life and services of James A. Garfield, late President of the United States, in the Representative Hall, before both houses of Congress and their invited guests, on the 27th of February, 1882, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication.

As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from his prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders; on its far sails, whitening in the morning light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eter-ceive his answer thereto and present the nal morning.

AFTER THE ORATION.

The eulogy was concluded at 1.50, having taken just an hour and a half in its delivery. As Mr. Blaine gave utterance to the last solemn words the spectators broke into a storm of applause, which was not hushed for some moments. The address was listened to with an intense interest and in solemn silence, unbroken by any sound except by a sigh of relief (such

Resolved, That the Chairman of the Joint Committee appointed to make the necessary arrangements to carry into effect the resolution of Congress in relation to the memorial exercises in honor of James A. Garfield be requested to communicate to Mr. Blaine the foregoing resolution, re

same to both Houses of Congress. The resolution was adopted unanimously.

Mr. McKinley then offered the following:

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased President of the United States the House do now adjourn.

The resolution was unanimously adopted, and in accordance therewith the Speaker at 1.55 declared the House adjourned until to-morrow.

CIVIL SERVICE.

Improvement of the Subordinate Civil (I did not intend to hold up the bill here

Service.

Speech of Hon. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, in the
Senate of the United States, Tuesday, December 12, 1882.

On the bill (S. 133) to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States.

MR. PENDLETON said:

MR. PRESIDENT: When I assented yesterday that this bill should be informally laid aside without losing its place, I had no set speech to deliver, nor had I the intention of preparing a speech for to-day.

as an obstruction to any business before the Senate, or as an aid in passing any measure that might receive my approbation, as my good Friend, the Senator from Kansas [Mr. PLUMB, so politely intimated. The bill providing for a bankrupt law was very speedily, and to me unexpectedly, disposed of yesterday, and this bill was called up several hours earlier than I supposed it would be, and I thought the convenience of the Senate as well as of myself would be subserved if I