Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — THE DEAD PKESIDENT. [ARTICLE]

THE DEAD PKESIDENT.

him early life. James Abram Garfield was born Nov. 19,1831, in the township of Orange, Cuyahoga county. Ohio, about fifteen miles from Cleveland. His father, Abraham Garfield, came from New York, but, like liis mother, was of Ne.vEnglaud stock. James was tbo youngest of four children. The father died in 1833. leaving his family dependent upon a small farm and the exertions of the mother. There was nothing about the elder Garfield to distinguish him from the oilier- plodding farmers of the rather sterile township of Orange. No one could discern any qualities iu him, which, transmitted to the next generation, might help to make a statesman, unless it was industry; but his wife, who is still liviug at an advanced age, was always fond of reading when she could get leisure from her hard household duties, and was a thoroughly capable woman, of strong will, stern principles, and more than average force of character. Of the children no one beside James made the slightest mark in the world. The older brother is a farmer in Michigan, and the two sisters are farmers’ wives. James had a hard time of it as a boy. He toiled hard on the farm early and late in summo - , and worked at the carpenter’s bench in winter. The best of it was that he liked work. He had an absorbing ambition to get an education, and the only road open to this end seemed that of manual labor. Ready money was hard to got in those days The Ohio canal ran not far from where he lived, and, finding that the boatmen got their pay in cash and earned better wages than he could make at fanning or carpentry, he hired out as a driver on the towpath and soon got up to the dignity of holding the helm of a boat. Then he determined to ship as a sailor on the lakes, but an attack of fever and ague interfered with his plans. He was ill three months, and when he recovered he docided to go to a school called Geauga Academy, in an adjoining county. His mother had saved a small sum of money, which she gave him, together with a few cooking utensils and a stock of provisions. He hired a small room and cooked his own food to make his expenses as light as possible. He paid his own way after that, never calling on his mother for any more assistance. By working at the carpenter’s bench mornings aiid evenings and vacation times, and teaching country schools during the winter, he managed to attend the academy during the spring and fall terms and to save a little money toward going to college. He had excellent health, a robust frame, and a capital memory, and the attempt to combine mental and physical work, which lias broken down many farmer boys ambitious to get an education, did not hurt him. GARFIELD AT COLLEGE. When he was 23 years of age he concluded ho had got about all there was to be had in the obscure cross-roads academy. lls calculated he bad saved about half enough money to get through college, provided he could begin, as be hoped, with the Junior year. Ho got a lifeinsurance policy, and assigned it to a gentleman as security for a loan to make up the amount he lacked. In the fall of 1854 he entered the Junior class of Williams College, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1856 with the metaphysical honors of bis class. A daguerreotype of him, taken about this time, represents a rather awkward youth, with a shock of light hair standing straight up from a big forehead and a frank, thoughtful face, of a very marked German type. Before he went to college Garfield had connected himself with tho Disciples, a sect having a numerous membership m Eastern and Southern Ohio, West Virginia and /Kentucky, where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had traveled and preached. The principal peculiarities of the denomination are their refusal to formulate their beliefs . into a creed, the independence of oacli congregation, the hospitality and fraternal feeling of the members, and the lack of a regular ministry. When Garfield returned to Ohio it was natural that ho should soon gravitate to the struggling little college of the young sect at Hiram. Portage county, near his boyhood’s home. He became I’rofessor of Latin and Greek, and threw himself with the energy and industry which were leading traits of his character into the work of buiidicg up the institution. Before lie had been two years in his professorship ho was appointed I’resident of the college. The young President taught, lectured and preached, and all the time studied as diligently as any acolyte in the temple of knowledge. He frequently spoke on Sundays iu the churches of the towns in the vicinity to create an interest in the college. Among the Disciples any one can preach who has a mind to, no ordination being requirod. From these Sunday discussions came the story that Garfield at one time was a minister, lie never considered himself as such, and never bad any intention of finding & career in the pulpit. His ambition, if he had any outside of the school, lay in the direction of law and politics. HIS MARRIAGE. During his professorship Garfield married Miss Lucretia Rudolph, daughter of a farmer in the neighborhood, whose acquaintance he had made while at the academy, where she was also a pupil. She was a quiet, thoughtful girl, of singularly sweet and refined disposition, fond of study and reading, possessing a warm heart and a mind with the capacity of steady growth. The marjiage was & love alTau' on both sides, and has been a thoroughly happy one. Much of Gen. Garfield’s subsequent success iu life may be attributed to the never-failing synipalhv and intellectual companionship of his wife and the stimulus of a loving home circle. The young couple bought a neat little cottage fronting on the college campus, and began their wedded life poor and in debt, but with brave hearts. In 1859 the college President was elected tothe State Senate from the counties of Fortage

*ad Summit. Ho did not resign his Presidency, because he looked upon a few months in the .Legislature as an episode not likely to change the course of his life. But the war came to alter his plans. During the winter of 1861 hr was active in the .passage of measures for arming the State militia, and his eloquence and energy made him a conspicuous leader of the Lnion party. Early in the summer of IHtJI he was elected Colonel ol' an infantry regiment (the Fortysecond ) raised in Northern Ohio, many of tho soldiers of which bud been students at Hiram. He took the field in Eastern Kentucky, wgs soon put in command of a brigade, and, by making one of the hardest marches ever made by r> emits, surprised and routed the rebel lorces, under Humphrey Marshal), at Pikoton. From Eastern Kentucky Gen. Garfield was transferred to Ixmisvilie, and from that place hastened to join the army of Gen. lluell, which he reached with his brigade in time to participate in tho second day’s fighting at Pittsburgh Landing. Ho took part m tho siege of Corinth and in the onerations along the Memphis and Charleston railroad. In January, 1863, lie was appointed Chief ' of Staff of tie Armv of the Cumberland and bore a prominent share in ail the campaigns in Middle Tennessee in the spring and summer of that year. His last conspicuous military service was at the battle of Chickainauga. For his conduct in that battle lie was promoted to a Major Generalship. It is said that he wrote all "the orders given to the army that day and Ihbmitted them to Gen. Rosecrans for approval, save one. The one he did not write was the fatal order to Gen. Wood, winch was so worded as not to correctly convey the meaning of the commanding General, and which caused tho destruction of the right wing of tho armv. ELECTED TO CONGRESS. The Congressional district in which Garfield lived was the one long made famous by Joshua R. Giddings. The old anti-slavery champion grew careless of the arts of polities toward the end of his career, and came to look upon a nomination and re-election as a matter of course. His overconfidence was taken advantage of iip 1858 by an ambitious lawyer named Hutchins to carry a convention against him. The friends of Giddings never forgave Hutchins, and cant about for a means of defeating him. Tho old man himself was comfortably quartered in his Consulate at Montreal and did not care to make a fight to get back to Congress. So his supporters made use of the popularity of Garfield and nominated him while he was in the field without asking his consent. That was in 1862. When he heard of the nomination, Garfield reflected that it would be fifteen months before the Congress would meet to which he would be elected, and believing, as did every ono else, that the war could not possibly last a year longer, concluded to accept- He often expressed regret that he did not help fight the par through, and said he ntver would have left the army to go to Congress had he foreseen that the struggle wouid continue beyond the year 1863. lie continued his military service up to the time Congress met.

He was renominated in 1864, without opposition, but in 1866 Mr. Hutchins, whom lie had supplanted, made an effort to defeat him. Hutchins canvassed the district thoroughly, bnt the convention uominated Garfield by acclamation. lie had no opposition thereafter in his own party. In 1872 the Liberals and Democrats united to beat him, but his majority was laf-ger than ever. In 1874 the Greenbackers and Democrats combined and put up a popular soldier against him, but they made no impression on the result. The Ashtabula district, as it is generally called, is tho most faithful to its representatives of any in the North. It has had bnt five members in half a century. When James G. Blaine went to the Senate in 1877 the mantle of Republican leadership in the House was, by common consent, placed upon Garfield. In January, 1880, Gen. Garfield was elected to the Senate to the seat vacated by Allen G. Thurman on the- 4th of March, 1881. He received the unanimous vote of the Republican caucus, an honor never before given to any man of any party in the Stato of Ohio. NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. The cwcnmstances of Gen. Garfield’s nomination lor the Presidency at Chicago are thus told by one of his many biographers : There were some indications as the thirtieth ballot progressed on Tuesday, June 8, that the lesser candidates were giving way. The next ballot demonstrated that the Grant lines could not be broken, and the Blaine lines wore at this time waveiing. It was apparent the convention was on the edge of a break. The next ballot, which was finished by halfpast 12, was without exciting event. The close of the thirty-fourth was marked with some excitement growing out of a break to Garfield, Wisconsin casting lor him sixteen votes. Tins was the beginning of the end. To make up this number, Washbnrne, Blaine and Sherman were drawn uj>on. When the result was declared, Gon. Garfield arose and addressed the Chair. The Chairman inquired for what purpose the gentleman rose. “ To a question of order.” said Garfield. “ The gentleman will state it,” said the chair. “I challenge,” said Mr. Garfield, “the correctness of the announcement that contains votes for me. No man has a right, without the consent of the person voted for, to have his name announced and voted for in this convention. Such consent I have not given.” This was overruled by the Chairman amidst laughter against Garfield, who had made the point on the vote cast for him by Wisconsin. Then the thirty-fifth ballot was taken. It was apparent that the Blaine men had broken up. The ballot resulted as follows : Grant, 313 ; Blaine, 257 ; Sherman. !)9 ; Edmunds, 11 : Windom, 3 ; Washbnrne, 23 ; Garfield, 50. The thirty-sixth ballot was taken amidst breathless excitement It proved to be the last. It resulted : Grant, 306 : Blaine, 42 ; Sherman, 3; Washbtime, 6; Garfield, 390. ELECTED AND INAUGURATED. The campaign that followed the nomination of Garficid at Chicago and Hancock at Cincin-

nati was hotly contested. The first doubtful butte, Maine, was carried by a fusion of Democrats and Greenbackers Sept 13, against the Republican candidates ; and it was believed for a time that the election of Hancock was assured. But the Republicans rallied splendidly in Ohio and Indiana, and carried both those States Oct 12. Thenceforth no doubt was en tertained of the. ultimate triumph ol' the Republican candidate. The olection Nov. 2 resulted in the choice of 211 Garfield and Arthur electors, and 155 Hancock and English electors. The Electoral Colleges voted accordingly Dec. 5. Gen. Garfiel! was declared elected by the two houses of Congress, sitting in joint convention, Feb. 9, and was inaugurated March 4. Ills DOMESTIC LIFE. Gen. Garfield had five children living, and had lost two, who died in iufancy. The two } older boys. Harry and Janies, were until lately at school in New Hampshire, and both entered Williams College a few days ago. Mary, or Molly as everybody calls her, is a 'handsome, rosy-cheeked girl of about 12. The two younger boys are named Irwin and Abram. Tne General’s mother is still living, and has long been a member of his family. She is an intelligent, energetic old lady, with a clear head and a strong will, who keeps well posted iu the news of the day, and is very,proud of her son’s career, thongu more liberal of criticism than of praise. His wife, who has been spoken of above, was in truth a companion of his joys and a sharer of his sorrows. In person Gen. Garfield was six feet high, broad-shouldered and strongly built. He had an unusually-large head, that seemed to be three-fourths- -dorehead, light-brown liair and beard, winch was fast turning gray, large, light-blue eyes, a ■ prominent nose and full cheeks. He dressed plainly, was fond of broad-brimme<rsioueh hats and stout boots, ate heartily, cared nothing for luxurious living, was thoroughly temperate in all respects save in that of brain-work, and devoted to his wife and children and very fond of his country home. Among men lie was genial, approaeha ble, companionable and a remarkably entertaining talker.