The Resumption of Specie Payments closes the most memorable epoch in our

history since the birth of the Union. Eighteen hundred and sixty-one and

eighteen hundred and seventy-nine are the opposite shores of that

turbulent sea whose storms so seriously threatened with shipwreck the

prosperity, the honor, and the life of the nation. But the horrors and

dangers of the middle-passage have at last been mastered; and out of the

night and tempest the Republic has landed on the shore of this new year,

bringing with it union and liberty, honor and peace.

* * * * *

Our country needs not only a national but an international currency.

* * * * *

Let us have equality of dollars before the law, so that the trinity of

our political creed shall be--equal States, equal men, and equal dollars

throughout the Union.

[Address, at the Memorial Meeting, in the House of Representatives,

January 16, 1879.]

No page of human history is so instructive and significant as the record

of those early influences which develop the character and direct the

lives of eminent men. To every man of great original power, there comes

in early youth, a moment of sudden discovery--of self recognition--when

his own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, for the first

time, a strain of that immortal song to which his own spirit answers,

and which becomes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of his life--

"Like noble music unto noble words."

More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg, on the Rhine, in obedience

to the commands of his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying the

mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his spirit as best he could upon

the formal and artificial poetry of his native land, when a page of

William Shakespeare met his eye, and changed the whole current of his

life. Abandoning the law, he created and crowned with an immortal name

the grandest epoch of German literature.

Recording his own experience, he says:

At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius, I made the glad

confession that something inspiring hovered above me.... The

first page of his that I read made me his for life; and when

I had finished a single play, I stood like one born blind,

on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a moment. I saw,

I felt, in the most vivid manner that my existence was

infinitely expanded.

This Old World experience of Goethe's was strikingly reproduced, though

under different conditions and with different results, in the early life

of Joseph Henry. You have just heard the incident worthily recounted;

but let us linger over it a moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough

Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the handicraft of the

jeweler, unconscious of his great power, delighted with romance and the

drama, dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his attention was

suddenly arrested by a single page of an humble book of science which

chanced to fall into his hands. It was not the flash of a poetic vision

which aroused him. It was the voice of great Nature calling her child.

With quick recognition and glad reverence his spirit responded; and from

that moment to the end of his long and honored life, Joseph Henry was

the devoted student of science, the faithful interpreter of nature.

To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is not surprising that ever

afterward he kept the little volume near him, and cherished it as the

source of his first inspiration. In the maturity of his fame he recorded

on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his words:

This book, under Providence, has exerted a remarkable

influence on my life.... It opened to me a new world of

thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost

unnoticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the

study of nature, and caused me to resolve, at the time of

reading it, that I would devote my life to the acquisition

of knowledge.

We have heard from his venerable associates with what resolute

perseverance he trained his mind and marshalled his powers for the

higher realms of science. He was the first American after Franklin who

made a series of successful original experiments in electricity and

magnetism. He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, Oersted, Davy,

and Ampere, the great exploring philosophers of the world, and added to

their work a final great discovery, which made the electro-magnetic

telegraph possible.

It remained only for the inventor to construct an instrument and an

alphabet. Professor Henry refused to reap any pecuniary rewards from his

great discovery, but gave freely to mankind what nature and science had

given to him. The venerable gentleman of almost eighty years, who has

just addressed us so eloquently, has portrayed the difficulties which

beset the government in its attempt to determine how it should wisely

and worthily execute the trust of Smithson. It was a perilous moment for

the credit of America when that bequest was made. In his large

catholicity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the bequest with

conditions. In nine words he set forth its object--"for the increase and

diffusion of knowledge among men." He asked and believed that America

would interpret his wish aright, and with the liberal wisdom of

science....

For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine words of Smithson and

could not handle them. Some political philosophers of that period held

that we had no constitutional authority to accept the gift at all

[laughter] and proposed to send it back to England. Every conceivable

proposition was made. The colleges clutched at it; the libraries wanted

it; the publication societies desired to scatter it. The fortunate

settlement of the question was this: that, after ten years of wrangling,

Congress was wise enough to acknowledge its own ignorance, and

authorized a body of men to find some one who knew how to settle it.

[Applause.] And these men were wise enough to choose your great comrade

to undertake the task. Sacrificing his brilliant prospects as a

discoverer, he undertook the difficult work. He drafted a paper, in

which he offered an interpretation of the will of Smithson, mapped out a

plan which would meet the demands of science, and submitted it to the

suffrage of the republic of scientific scholars. After due deliberation

it received the almost unanimous approval of the scientific world. With

faith and sturdy perseverance, he adhered to the plan and steadily

resisted all attempts to overthrow it.

In the thirty-two years during which he administered the great trust, he

never swerved from his first purpose; and he succeeded at last in

realizing the ideas with which he started.

The germ of our political institutions, the primary cell

from which they were evolved, was in the New England town,

and the vital force, the informing soul of the town, was the

Town Meeting, which for all local concerns was king, lords,

and commons in all.

It is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend

the reputation of worthy public servants as to detect public

rascals.

Political parties, like poets, are born, not made. No act of

political mechanics, however wise, can manufacture to order

and make a platform, and put a party on it which will live

and flourish.

[On the Relation of the Government to Science, February 11, 1879.]

What ought to be the relation of the National Government to science?

What, if anything, ought we to do in the way of promoting science? For

example, if we have the power, would it be wise for Congress to

appropriate money out of the Treasury, to employ naturalists to find out

all that is to be known of our American birds? Ornithology is a

delightful and useful study; but would it be wise for Congress to make

an appropriation for the advancement of that science? In my judgment,

manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored class of men the

rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private way, following

the bent of their genius, may be working out the results of science in

that field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out of our Treasury

for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advancement of

science, just as an appropriation to establish a church would work

injury to religion.

Generally, the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone to work

in free competition with all the scientific men of the world; to develop

their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to

have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise.

As a general principal, therefore, the United States ought not to

interfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the

free, voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves.

In this non-interference theory of the Government, I do not go to the

extent of saying that we should do nothing for education--for primary

education. That comes under another consideration--the necessity of the

nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and

wiser to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of

the higher sciences.

To the general principle I have stated, there are a few obvious

exceptions which should be clearly understood when we legislate on the

subject. In the first place, the Government should aid all sorts of

scientific inquiry that are necessary to the intelligent exercise of its

own functions.

For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution and compelled by

necessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish

fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in

reference to light and its laws, sound and its laws--to do whatever in

the way of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting

our coasts and warning our mariners of danger. So, when we are building

iron-clads for our navy or casting guns for our army, we ought to know

all that is scientifically possible to be known about the strength of

materials and the laws of mechanics which apply to such structures. In

short, wherever in exercising any of the necessary functions of the

Government scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest

extent, and at the public expense.

There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the

voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest,

affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community,

imperatively need scientific investigation, and private enterprise

cannot accomplish it, we may wisely intervene and help where the

Constitution gives us authority. For example, in discovering the origin

of yellow-fever and the methods of preventing its ravages, the nation

should do, for the good of all, what neither the States nor individuals

can accomplish. I might perhaps include in a third exception those

inquiries which, in consequence of their great magnitude and cost,

cannot be successfully made by private individuals. Outside these three

classes of inquiries, the Government ought to keep its hands off, and

leave scientific experiment and inquiry to the free competition of those

bright, intelligent men whose genius leads them into the fields of

research.

And I suspect, when we read the report of our commissioner to the late

Paris Exposition, which shows such astonishing results, so creditable

to our country, so honorable to the genius of our people, it will be

found, in any final analysis of causes, that the superiority of

Americans in that great Exposition resulted mainly from their superior

freedom, and the greater competition between mind and mind untrammelled

by Government interference; I believe it will be found we are best

serving the cause of religion and science, and all those great primary

rights which we did not delegate to the Congress or the States, but left

the people free to enjoy and maintain them.

[Speech on the National Election.]

The great danger which threatens this country is, that our sovereign may

be dethroned or destroyed by corruption. In any monarchy of the world,

if the sovereign be slain or become lunatic, it is easy to put another

in his place, for the sovereign is a person. But our sovereign is the

whole body of voters. If you kill, or corrupt, or render lunatic our

sovereign, there is no successor, no regent to take his place. The

source of our sovereign's supreme danger, the point where his life is

vulnerable, is at the ballot-box, where his will is declared; and if we

cannot stand by that cradle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and protect

it to the uttermost against all assassins and assailants, we have no

government and no safety for the future.

[Remarks, in the House of Representatives, February 11, 1879, on the

Life and Character of Gustave Schleicher.]

We are accustomed to say, and we have heard to-night, that he [Gustave

Schleicher] was born on foreign soil. In one sense that is true; and yet

in a very proper historic sense he was born in our fatherland. One of

the ablest of recent historians begins his opening volume with the

declaration that England is not the fatherland of the English-speaking

people, but the ancient home, the real fatherland of our race, is the

ancient forests of Germany. The same thought was suggested by

Montesquieu long ago, when he declared in his Spirit of Laws that the

British constitution came out of the woods of Germany.

To this day the Teutonic races maintain the same noble traits that

Tacitus describes in his admirable history of the manners and character

of the Germans. We may therefore say that the friend whose memory we

honor to-night is one of the elder brethren of our race. He came to

America direct from our fatherland, and not, like our own fathers, by

the way of England.

We who were born and have passed all our lives in this wide New World

can hardly appreciate the influences that surrounded his early life.

Born on the borders of that great forest of Germany, the Odenwald,

filled as it is with the memories and traditions of centuries, in which

are mingled Scandinavian mythology, legends of the middle ages, romances

of feudalism and chivalry, histories of barons and kings, and the

struggles of a brave people for a better civilization; reared under the

institutions of a strong, semi-despotic government; devoting his early

life to personal culture, entering at an early age the University of

Giessen, venerable with its two and a half centuries of existence, with

a library of four hundred thousand volumes at his hand, with a great

museum of the curiosities and mysteries of nature to study, he fed his

eager spirit upon the rich culture which that Old World could give him,

and at twenty-four years of age, in company with a band of thirty-seven

young students, like himself, cultivated, earnest, liberty-loving almost

to the verge of communism--and who of us would not be communists in a

despotism?--he came to this country, attracted by one of the most wild

and romantic pictures of American history, the picture of Texas as it

existed near forty years ago; the country discovered by La Salle at the

end of his long and perilous voyage from Quebec to the northern lakes

and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; the country possessed

alternately by the Spanish and the French and then by Mexico; the

country made memorable by such names as Blair, Houston, Albert Sidney

Johnson, and Mirabeau Lamar, perhaps as adventurous and daring spirits

as ever assembled on any spot of the earth; a country that achieved its

freedom by heroism never surpassed, and which maintained its perilous

independence for ten years in spite of border enemies and European

intrigues.

It is said that a society was formed in Europe embracing in its

membership men of high rank, even members of royal families, for the

purpose of colonizing the new Republic of the Lone Star, and making it a

dependency of Europe under their patronage; but without sharing in their

designs, some twenty thousand Germans found their way to the new

Republic, and among these young Schleicher came.

[From the "North American Review," March, 1879.]

The ballot was given to the negro not so much to enable him to govern

others as to prevent others from misgoverning him. Suffrage is the sword

and shield of our law, the best armament that liberty offers to the

citizen.

[From the Same, June, 1879.]

If our republic were blotted from the earth and from the memory of

mankind, and if no record of its history survived, except a copy of our

revenue laws and our appropriation bills for a single year, the

political philosopher would be able from these materials alone to

reconstruct a large part of our history, and sketch with considerable

accuracy the character and spirit of our institutions.

[Speech in Congress, on the first anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death.]

There are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so

near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity,

and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings, and

feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time

has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thousand brave

spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the

presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the

martyred President to the company of the dead heroes of the republic,

the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by

the children of men. Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people

knelt in tearful reverence, and made a solemn covenant with God and each

other that this nation should be saved from its enemies; that all its

glories should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason the

temples of freedom and justice should be built, and stand forever. It

remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under that covenant

with God, to keep the faith, to go forward in the great work until it

shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and obeying

the high behests of God, let us remember

"He has sounded forth his trumpet, that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat;

Be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet;

For God is marching on."

Every great political party that has done this country any good has

given to it some immortal ideas that have outlived all the members of

that party.

[Speech at Cleveland, Ohio, October 11, 1879.--Resumption of Specie

Payments.]

Now, what has been the trouble with us? 1860 was one shore of

prosperity, and 1879 the other; and between these two high shores has

flowed the broad, deep, dark river of fire and blood and disaster

through which this nation has been compelled to wade, and in whose

depths it has been almost suffocated and drowned. In the darkness of

that terrible passage we carried liberty in our arms; we bore the Union

on our shoulders; and we bore in our hearts and on our arms what was

even better than liberty and Union--we bore the faith, and honor, and

public trust of this mighty Nation. And never, until we came up out of

the dark waters, out of the darkness of that terrible current, and

planted our feet upon the solid shore of 1879--never, I say, till then

could this country look back to the other shore and feel that its feet

were on solid ground, and then look forward to the rising uplands of

perpetual peace and prosperity that should know no diminution in the

years to come.

[Speech at Cleveland, October 11, 1879.--Appeal to Young Men.]

Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Republican ticket just

because your father votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if

he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are

about to pitch your tent in one of the great political camps. Your life

is full and buoyant with hope now, and I beg you, when you pitch your

tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at

all inclined to pitch it among the Democratic people and with that

party, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground where

I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you

to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than

like a camp for the living. Look at it! It is billowed all over with the

graves of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of

disgraced doctrines. You cannot live in comfort in such a place. Why,

look here! Here is a little double mound. I look down on it and I read,

"Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott

decision." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has

been dead fifteen years--died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here

it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you.

But look a little farther. Here is another monument--a black tomb--and

beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a

monument of four million pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of

slaves, and I read on its little headstone this: "Sacred to the memory

of human slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic

party taught that it was divine--God's institution. They defended it,

they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as a mourner. But

here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Dead by the power of

the Republican party. Dead by the justice of Almighty God. Don't camp

there, young man.

But here is another--a little brimstone tomb--and I read across its

yellow face in lurid, bloody lines these words: "Sacred to the memory of

State Sovereignty and Secession." Twelve millions of Democrats mustered

around it in arms to keep it alive; but here it lies, shot to death by

the million guns of the Republic. Here it lies, its shrine burnt to

ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It is dead!

I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night

air, to look at such a place.

But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little

mound--short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around it I

see torn pieces of paper with the word "fiat" on them, and I look down

in curiosity, wondering what the little grave is, and I read on it:

"Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby nursed in the brain of all the

fanaticism of the world, rocked by Thomas Ewing, George H. Pendleton,

Samuel Cary, and a few others throughout the land." But it died on the

1st of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty millions of gold

that God made, and not fiat power, he upon its little carcass to keep it

down forever.

Oh, young man, come out of that! That is no place in which to put your

young life. Come out, and come over into this camp of liberty, of order,

of law, of justice, of freedom, of all that is glorious under these

night stars.

Is there any death here in our camp? Yes! yes! Three hundred and fifty

thousand soldiers, the noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to

make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty forever.

But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead ideas here. Hang

out our banner from under the blue sky this night until it shall sweep

the green turf under your feet! It hangs over our camp. Read away up

under the stars the inscription we have written on it, lo! these

twenty-five years.

Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to Liberty, and

this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. A worthily married pair

love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the

day of their first espousals; and we are truer to Liberty to-day, and

dearer to God than we were when we spoke our first word of liberty. Read

away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we

uttered twenty-five years ago! What was it? "Slavery shall never extend

over another foot of the territories of the great West." Is that dead or

alive? Alive, thank God, forevermore! And truer to-night than it was the

hour it was written! Then, it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To-night

it is equal with the stars--immortal history and immortal truth.

Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have

made we have vindicated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the

ground, and it touches the stars. Come there, young man, and put in your

young life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but the

heroes that defended it! I think these young men will do that.

[From a Speech, January 14, 1880.]

I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden-wall of

party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the

gardens of this world, and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy

their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so.

[Letter of Acceptance, July 10, 1880.]

Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without

which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its

interests are intrusted to the States, and to the voluntary action of

the people. Whatever help the Nation can justly afford should be

generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools; but it

would be unjust to our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to

apply any portion of the revenues of the Nation or of the States to the

support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State

in everything relating to taxation should be absolute.

* * * * *

Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant

natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe,

arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace to produce all

the necessary implements of labor. It was the manifest intention of the

founders of the Government to provide for the common defence, not by

standing armies alone, but by raising among the people a greater army of

artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully contribute to

the safety and glory of the nation.

* * * * *

Over this vast horizon of interests, North and South, above all party

prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our

victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for

and lost, is the grand onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate its

glory, to save Liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to

all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles until they

shall have crystallized into the form of enduring law and become

inwrought into the life and habits of our People.

* * * * *

I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave people, one

in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that

the darkness through which we have travelled was but a part of that

stern but beneficent discipline by which the great Disposer of events

has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national life.

* * * * *

The hope of our National perpetuity rests upon that perfect individual

Freedom which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual change.

* * * * *

Whatever opinions we may now entertain of the Federalists as a party, it

is unquestionably true that we are indebted to them for the strong

points of the Constitution and for the stable government they founded

and strengthened during the administration of Washington and Adams.

* * * * *

While it is true that no party can stand upon its past record alone, yet

it is also true that its past shows the spirit and character of the

organization, and enables us to judge what it will probably do in the

future.

* * * * *

Parties have an organic life and spirit of their own--an individuality

and character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and

traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness

for managing the affairs of the nation.

* * * * *

It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legislation, that whatever

the people can do without legislation will be better done than by the

intervention of the State and Nation.

[From a Speech, at the unveiling of a Soldiers' Monument Painesville,

Ohio, July 4, 1880.]

I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, where over its doors were

two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the grandfather of its

owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword carried

by the English grand-sire of the wife on the same field, and on the

other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the restored

harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy and contented and free family,

under the light of our republican liberties. I trust the time is not far

distant when, under the crossed swords and the locked shields of

Americans, north and south, our people shall sleep in peace and rise in

liberty, love, and harmony, under the union of our flag of the stars and

stripes.

[Speech to a Delegation of four hundred Young Men--First Voters--of

Cleveland, Ohio, at Mentor, October 8, 1880.]

... I have not so far left the coast of youth to travel inland but that

I can very well remember the state of young manhood, from an experience

in it of some years, and there is nothing to me in this world so

inspiring as the possibilities that lie locked up in the head and breast

of a young man. The hopes that lie before him the great inspirations

around him, the great aspirations above him, all these things, with the

untried pathway of life opening up its difficulties and dangers, inspire

him to courage, and force, and work.

[From a Speech in New York, August 6, 1880.]

... Ideas outlive men. Ideas outlive all things, and you who fought in

the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you

crowned our war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for

the fruits that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet to-night as

veterans and comrades, to stand sacred guard around the truths for which

we fought, and while we have life to meet and grasp the hands of a

comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war; and, comrades,

among the convictions of that war which have sunk deep in our hearts

there are some that we can never forget. Think of the great elevating

spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms, and

shops, and stores, and schools, and homes, from all over the Republic,

and they went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster

of immortal heroes. They went in the spirit of those soldiers of Henry

at Agincourt, of whom he said, "Who this day sheds his blood with me,

to-day shall be my brother. Were he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle

his condition;" and it did gentle the condition and elevate the heart

of every working soldier who fought in it, and he shall be our brother

for evermore; and this thing we will remember; we will remember our

allies who fought with us. Soon after the great struggle began we looked

behind the army of white rebels and saw 4,000,000 of black people

condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies, and we found that the

hearts of this 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of freedom,

and that they were our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag

and fight to kill the Union, but in all that long, dreary war we never

saw a traitor in a black skin. Our prisoners, escaping from the

starvation of prison, and fleeing to our lines by the light of the

North-star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for

bread. In all that period of suffering and danger no Union soldier was

ever betrayed by a black man or woman, and now that we have made them

free, so long as we live we will stand by these black citizens. We will

stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our

Constitution, shall shine with equal rays upon every man, black or

white, throughout the Union. Now, fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in

this there is all the beneficence of eternal justice, and by this we

will stand forever.

[Remarks at Chatauqua August 1, 1880]

I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion.

[From an Address at the Anniversary of Hiram College, directly after the

Chicago Convention, 1880.]

FELLOW-CITIZENS, NEIGHBORS, AND FRIENDS OF MANY YEARS: It always has

given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has

always given me new courage and new friends. It has brought back a large

share of that richness that belongs to those things out of which come

the joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon,

watching your faces and listening to the very interesting address which

has just been delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing you have

that all men envy--I mean all men who have reached the meridian of

life--is, perhaps, the thing that you care for less, and that is your

leisure,--the leisure you have to think, the leisure you have to be let

alone, the leisure you have to throw the plummet with your hand, and

sound their depths and find out what is below, the leisure you have to

walk about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong they are, or

how weak they are, and determine what needs building up, and determine

how to shape them, that you may make the final being that you are to be.

Oh, these hours of building! If the superior beings of the universe

would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it

would be the unfinished, unformed character of young men, or of young

women. These behind me have, probably, in the main settled such

questions. Those who have passed into middle manhood and middle

womanhood are about what they shall always be, and there is little left

of interest or curiosity as to our development. But to your young and

yet uninformed natures no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured

up in your hearts and intellects; and while you are working up these

possibilities with that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all

classes of men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your

leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, as your

means, out of which you can demand all the possible treasures that God

laid down when He formed your nature, and unveiled and developed the

possibility of your future. This place is too full of memories for me to

trust myself to speak upon, and I will not; but I draw again to-day, as

I have for a quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection

from the people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the

permission to see you, and meet you, and greet you, as I have done

to-day.

FOOTNOTES:

[D] "nother talk that I recall was at a social gathering. It was at a

dinner party after the failure of Greeley's campaign. The host was,

perhaps the most original genius in Washington. He was an old companion

of Greeley at Brook Farm. He was giving the dinner in payment of a bet

he had lost by reason of Greeley's defeat. The conversation embraced all

the topics of the day and in the course of it turned to Seward. A member

of the company thought that Seward had been dead years before he was put

into the grave. General Garfield thought differently, and delivered, on

the spur of the moment, a remarkable eulogy on the dead statesman. Soon

afterward, I reduced to notes the outlines of that eulogy, so far as my

memory served me, and I reproduce it here. General Garfield possesses

rare conversational powers, and uses, in social discourse, a diction not

less eloquent and elegant than that to which he is accustomed in the

forum."--_Washington Correspondent of the Chicago Tribune._

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S FIRST OFFICIAL WORDS TO THE COUNTRY.

Fellow Citizens,--We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a

hundred years of national life, a century crowded with perils, but

crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the

onward march, let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our

faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our

people have travelled. It is now three days more than a hundred years

since the adoption of the first written Constitution of the United

States, the articles of confederation and perpetual union. The new

Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered

a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for

independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully

celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were

struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against

the settled opinions of mankind, for the world did not believe that the

supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the

guardianship of the people themselves. We cannot overestimate the

fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage and the saving common

sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of

self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the

confederacy of States was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous

and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead

established a national union founded directly upon the will of the

people, endowed with future powers of self-preservation, and with ample

authority for the accomplishment of its great objects. Under this

Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the

foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth in

all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom of

the founders, and given new hopes to their descendants. Under this

Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger

from without, and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights

on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been

added to the Union, with constitutions and laws framed and enforced by

their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings of local

self-government. The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an

area fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States, and

a population twenty times greater than that of 1780. The supreme trial

of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil

war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood

and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the

beneficent purposes of good government.

And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the

inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately

reviewed the condition of their nation, passed judgment upon the conduct

and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will

concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret and

to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the

paramount duty of the Executive. Even from this brief review it is

manifest that the nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to

employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the

future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good

government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind

them all those bitter controversies, including things which have been

irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir

up strife and delay the onward march. The supremacy of the nation and

its laws should be no longer a subject of debate. That discussion which

for half a century threatened the existence of the Union was closed at

last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal,

that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and

shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the

States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the

States nor interfere with any of their necessary rules of local

self-government, but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy

of the Union. The will of the nation speaking with the voice of battle

and through the amended Constitution has fulfilled the great promise of

1776 by proclaiming "Liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants

thereof."

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of

citizenship is the most important political change we have known since

the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to

appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It

has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has

added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has

liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged

and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the

manhood of more than 5,000,000 of people, and has opened to each one of

them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration

to the power of self-help in both races, by making labor more honorable

to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force

will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years. No doubt

the great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern

community. This is to be deplored, though it was unavoidable. But those

who resisted the change should remember, that under our institutions

there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal

citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the

United States; freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long

as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacles in the

pathway of any virtuous citizen. The emancipated race has already made

remarkable progress; with unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a

patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light

as God gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material

foundations for self-support, widening the circle of intelligence, and

beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of

industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good

men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the

full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws.

The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank

statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged, that in many

communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the

ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is

answered, that in many places honest local government is impossible if

the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave

allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation

that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local

government is certainly a great evil which ought to be prevented, but to

violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil;

it is a crime, which, if persisted in, will destroy the government

itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to

compass the death of the king, it should be counted no less a crime here

to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It has been said

that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It

should be said, with the utmost emphasis, that this question of the

suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States of the nation,

until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes, and keeps the ballot

free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. But the danger which

arises from ignorance in the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field

far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition of that

race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains

of power in every State. We have no standard by which to measure the

disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the

citizens, when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. The

voters of the Union who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whom

will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme

authority to no successor save the coming generation of voters, who are

the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its

inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the

republic will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded

the alarm, in the appalling figures which mark how dangerously high the

tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their children. To the

South, this question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility

for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone; the

nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is

under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has

added to the voting population.

For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the

constitutional power of the nation and of the States, and all the

volunteer forces of the people, should be summoned to meet this danger

by the saving influence of universal education. It is the high

privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their

successors, and fit them by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance

which awaits them. In this beneficent work, sections and races should be

forgotten, and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new

meaning in the Divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall

lead them," for our little children will soon control the destinies of

the republic.

My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the

controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children

will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They

will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union

was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were

made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot

prevent the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make

a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict?

Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material

well-being invite us and offer ample scope for the employment of our

best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields

of dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and the

restored Union win the grander victories of peace.

The prosperity which now prevails is without a parallel in our history;

fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done

all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie

payments, so successfully attained by the administration of my

predecessor, has enabled our people to secure the blessings which the

seasons brought. By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it

has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for

a monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in

the relative value of the two metals. But I confidently believe that

arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which

will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that

the compulsory coinage of silver, now required by law, may not disturb

our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If

possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of

every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in

all the markets of the world. The chief duty of the national government,

in connection with the currency of the country, is to coin and declare

its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether Congress is

authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper money legal

tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by

the necessities of war, but such paper should depend for its value and

currency upon its convenience in use, and its prompt redemption in coin

at the will of its holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation.

These notes are not money, but promises to pay money if the holders

demand it. These promises should be kept.

The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be

accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national bank

notes and thus disturbing the business of the country. I venture to

refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during a

long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have

strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects.

The finances of the government shall suffer no detriment which it may be

possible for my administration to prevent.

The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the government

than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes

and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the

largest part of all our exports. As the government lights our coasts for

the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should

give to the tillers of the soil the lights of practical science and

experience. Our manufactures are rapidly making us industrially

independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable

fields of employment. This steady and healthy growth should still be

maintained. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the

continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways, and

by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. The development of the

world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening the great

sea voyage around Cape Horn, by constructing ship canals or railways

across the isthmus which unites the two continents. Various plans to

this end have been suggested, and will need consideration, but none of

them have been sufficiently matured to warrant the United States in

extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is one which will

immediately engage the attention of the government, with a view to a

thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no narrow

policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges on any commercial

route, but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the

right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such

supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal across the

isthmus that connects North and South America, as will protect our

national interests.

The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is

prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion,

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The territories of the United

States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and

hence the general government is responsible for any violation of the

Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the

government, that in the most populous of the territories, the

constitutional guarantee is not enjoyed by the people, and the authority

of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the

moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the

administration of justice through the ordinary instrumentalities of law.

In my judgment, it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the

uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every

citizen, to prohibit, within its jurisdiction, all immoral practices,

especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger

social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely

permitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the functions and powers of

the national government.

The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis, until it

is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the

protection of those who are entrusted with this appointing power,

against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business,

caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of

incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask

Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive

departments, and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made

during terms for which incumbents have been appointed.

Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the

Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved

rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my administration to

maintain its authority, and in all places within its jurisdiction, to

enforce obedience to all laws of the Union in the interest of the

people, to demand rigid economy in all expenditures of the government,

and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive

officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for the benefit

of the incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the

government. And now, fellow citizens, I am about to assume the great

trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that

earnest and thoughtful support, which makes this government, in fact as

it is in law, a government of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the

wisdom and patriotism of Congress, and of those who may share with me

the responsibilities and duties of administration; and above all, upon

our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their

government, I reverentially invoke the support and blessings of Almighty

God.

ADDENDA.

I.

HEADQUARTERS DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND,

MURFREESBORO, June 12, 1864.

_General_: In your confidential letter of the 8th inst., to the corps

and division commanders and generals of cavalry, of this army, there

were substantially five questions propounded for their consideration and

answer, viz:--

1. Has the enemy of our front been materially weakened by detachments to

Johnston, or elsewhere?

2. Can this army advance on him at this time, with strong reasonable

chances of fighting a great and successful battle?

3. Do you think an advance of our army at present likely to prevent

additional reinforcements being sent against General Grant by the enemy

in our front?

4. Do you think an immediate advance of the army advisable?

5. Do you think an early advance advisable?

Many of the answers to these questions are not categorical, and cannot

be clearly set down either as affirmative or negative. Especially in

answer to the first question, there is much indefiniteness resulting

from the difference of judgment as to how great a detachment could be

considered a material reduction of Bragg's strength. For example, one

officer thinks it has been reduced ten thousand and not "materially

weakened." The answers to the second question are modified in some

instances by the opinion that the rebels will fall back behind the

Tennessee River, and thus no battle can be fought, either successful or

unsuccessful.

So far as these opinions can be stated in tabular form, they will stand

thus,--

Yes. No.

Answer to first question, 6 11

" " second " 2 11

" " third " 4 10

" " fourth " - 15

" " fifth " - 2

On the fifth question, three gave it as their opinion that this army

ought to advance as soon as Vicksburg falls, should that event happen.

The following is a summary of the reasons assigned why we should not at

this time advance upon the enemy:--

1. With Hooker's army defeated, and Grant's bending all its energies in

a yet undecided struggle, it is bad policy to risk our only reserve army

to the chances of a general engagement. A failure here would have most

disastrous effect on our lines of communication and on politics in the

loyal States.

2. We should be compelled to fight the enemy on his own grounds or

follow him in a fruitless chase; or, if we attempted to outflank him and

turn his position, we should expose our line of communication, and run

the risk of being pushed back into a rough country well known to the

enemy and little to ourselves.

3. In case the enemy should fall back without accepting battle he could

make our advance very slow, and with a comparatively small force posted

in the gaps of the mountains could hold us back while he crossed the

Tennessee River, where he would be measurably secure and free to send

reinforcements to Johnston. His force in East Tennessee could seriously

harass our left flank and constantly disturb our communication.

4. The withdrawal of Burnside's ninth army corps deprives us of an

important reserve and flank protection, thus increasing the difficulty

of an advance.

5. General Hurlburt has sent the most of his force away to General

Grant, thus leaving West Tennessee uncovered, and laying our right

flank and rear open to raids of the enemy.

The following incidental opinions are expressed,--

1. One officer thinks it probable that the enemy has been strengthened

rather than weakened, and that he (the enemy) would have reasonable

prospect of victory in a general battle.

2. One officer believes the result of a general battle would be

doubtful, a victory barren, and a defeat most disastrous.

3. Three officers believe that an advance would bring on a general

engagement. Three others believe it would not.

4. Two officers express the opinion that the chances of success in a

general battle are nearly equal.

5. One officer expresses the belief that our army has reached its

maximum strength and efficiency, and that inactivity will seriously

impair its effectiveness.

6. Two officers say that an increase of our cavalry by about six

thousand men would materially change the aspect of our affairs, and give

us a decided advantage.

In addition to the above summary, I have the honor to submit an estimate

of the strength of Bragg's army, gathered from all the data I have been

able to obtain, including the estimate of the general commanding, in

his official report of the battle of Stone River, and facts gathered

from prisoners, deserters, and refugees, and from rebel newspapers.

After the battle Bragg consolidated many of his decimated regiments and

irregular organizations; and at the time of his sending reinforcements

to Johnston, his army had reached the greatest effective strength. It

consisted of five divisions of infantry, composed of ninety-four

regiments, and two independent battalions of sharp-shooters,--say

ninety-five regiments. By a law of the confederate Congress, regiments

are consolidated when their effective strength falls below two hundred

and fifty men. Even the regiments formed by such consolidation (which

may reasonably be regarded as the fullest) must fall below five hundred.

I am satisfied that four hundred is a large estimate of the average

strength.

The force, then, would be,--

Infantry, 95 regiments, 400 each, 38,000

Cavalry, 35 regiments, say 500 each, 17,500

Artillery, 26 batteries, say 100 each, 2,600

------

Total 58,600

This force has been reduced by detachments to Johnston. It is as well

known as we can ever expect to ascertain such facts, that three brigades

have gone from McConn's division, and two or three from

Breckinridge's,--say two. It is clear that there are now but four

infantry divisions in Bragg's army, the fourth being composed of

fragments of McConn's and Breckinridge's divisions, and must be much

smaller than the average. Deducting the five brigades, and supposing

them composed of only four regiments each, which is below the general

average, it gives an infantry reduction of twenty regiments, four

hundred each--eight thousand--leaving a remainder of thirty thousand. It

is clearly ascertained that at least two brigades of cavalry have been

sent from Van Dorn's command to the Mississippi, and it is asserted in

the Chattanooga _Rebel_, of June 11th, that General Morgan's command has

been permanently detached and sent to eastern Kentucky. It is not

certainly known how large his division is, but it is known to contain at

least two brigades. Taking this minimum as the fact, we have a cavalry

reduction of four brigades.

Taking the lowest estimate, four regiments to the brigade, we have a

reduction, by detachment, of sixteen regiments, five hundred each,

leaving his present effective cavalry force nine thousand five hundred.

With the nine brigades of the two arms thus detached, it will be safe to

say there have gone,--

Six batteries, 80 men each, 480

Leaving him 20 batteries, 2,120

Making a total reduction of 16,480

Leaving, of the three arms, 41,680

In this estimate of Bragg's strength, I have placed all doubts in his

favor, and I have no question that my estimate is considerably beyond

the truth. General Sheridan, who has taken great pains to collect

evidence on this point, places it considerably below these figures. But

assuming these to be correct, and granting what is still more

improbable, that Bragg would abandon all his rear posts, and entirely

neglect his communications, and could bring his last man into battle, I

next ask: What have we with which to oppose him?

The last official report of effective strength now on file in the office

of the assistant adjutant-general, is dated from June 11th, and shows

that we have in this department, omitting all officers and enlisted men

attached to department, corps, division and brigade headquarters,--

1. Infantry--One hundred and seventy-three regiments; ten battalions

sharp-shooters; four battalions pioneers; and one regiment of engineers

and mechanics, with a total effective strength of seventy thousand nine

hundred and eighteen.

2. Cavalry--Twenty-seven regiments and one unattached company, eleven

thousand eight hundred and thirteen.

3. Artillery--Forty-seven and a half batteries field artillery,

consisting of two hundred and ninety-two guns and five hundred and

sixty-nine men,--making a general total of eighty-seven thousand eight

hundred.

Leaving out all commissioned officers, this army represents eighty-two

thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven bayonets and sabres. This report

does not include the Fifth Iowa cavalry, six hundred strong, lately

armed; nor the First Wisconsin cavalry; nor Coburn's brigade of

infantry, now arriving; nor the two thousand three hundred and

ninety-four convalescents, now on light duty in "Fortress Monroe."

There are detached from this force as follows,--

At Galatin, 969

At Carthage, 1,149

At Fort Donelson, 1,485

At Clarkesville, 1,138

At Nashville, 7,292

At Franklin, 900

At Lavergne, 2,117

------

Total 15,130

With these posts as they are, and leaving two thousand five hundred

efficient men, in addition to the two thousand three hundred and

ninety-four convalescents, to hold the works at this place, there will

be left sixty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-seven bayonets and

sabres to show, against Bragg's forty-one thousand six hundred and

eighty.

I beg leave, also, to submit the following considerations,--

1. Bragg's army is weaker now than it has been since the battle of Stone

River, or is likely to be, at present; while our army has reached its

maximum strength, and we have no right to expect reinforcements for

several months, if at all.

2. Whatever be the result at Vicksburg, the determination of its fate

will give large reinforcements to Bragg. If Grant is successful, his

army will require many weeks to recover from the shock and strain of his

late campaign, while Johnston will send back to Bragg a force sufficient

to insure the safety of Tennessee. If Grant fails, the same result will

inevitably follow, so far as Bragg's army is concerned.

3. No man can predict, with a certainty, the results of any battle,

however great the disparity in numbers. Such results are in the hand of

God. But, reviewing the question in the light of human calculation, I

refuse to entertain a doubt that this army, which in January last

defeated Bragg's superior numbers, cannot overwhelm his present greatly

inferior forces.

4. The most unfavorable course for us that Bragg could take, would be to

fall back without giving us battle; but this would be very disastrous to

him. Besides the loss of material of war, and the abandonment of the

rich and abundant harvest, now nearly ripe in Central Tennessee, he

would lose heavily by desertion. It is well known that a wide-spread

dissatisfaction exists among his Kentucky and Tennessee troops. They are

already deserting in large numbers. A retreat would greatly increase

both the desire and the opportunity for desertion, and would very

materially reduce his physical and moral strength. While it would

lengthen our communication, it would give us possession of McMinnville,

and enable us to threaten Chattanooga and East Tennessee; and it would

not be unreasonable to expect an early occupation of the former place.

5. But the chances are more than even that a sudden and rapid movement

would compel a general engagement, and the defeat of Bragg would be, in

the highest degree, disastrous to the rebellion.

6. The turbulent aspect of politics in the loyal States renders a

decisive blow against the enemy, at this time, of the highest importance

to the success of the government at the polls, and in the enforcement of

the Conscript Act.

7. The government and the War Department believe that this army ought

to move upon the enemy. The army desire it, and the country is anxiously

hoping for it.

8. Our true objective point is the rebel army, whose last reserves are

substantially in the field, and an effective blow will crush the shell,

and soon be followed by the collapse of the rebel government.

9. You have, in my judgment, wisely delayed a general movement hitherto,

till your army could be massed, and your cavalry could be mounted. Your

mobile force can now be concentrated in twenty-four hours, and your

cavalry, if not equal in numerical strength to that of the enemy, is

greatly superior in efficiency and morale. For this reason I believe an

immediate advance of all our available forces is advisable, and, under

the providence of God, will be successful.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. GARFIELD,

_Brigadier-General, Chief of Staff_.

Major-General ROSECRANS,

Commanding Dept. of Cumberland.

II.

_The following is the official record of the post-mortem

examination of the body of President_ JAMES A. GARFIELD,

_made Sept. 20, 1881, commencing at 4:30 P. M. eighteen

hours after death, at Francklyn Cottage, Elberon, N. J._

There were present and assisting, Dr. D. W. Bliss; Surgeon-General J. K.

Barnes, U. S. A.; Surgeon J. J. Woodward, U. S. A.; Dr. Robert Reyburn;

Dr. Frank H. Hamilton; Dr. D. Hayes Agnew; Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of

Elberon and New York, and acting as the assistant surgeon, and D. S.

Lamb, of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C.

Before commencing the examination a consultation was held by the

physicians in the room adjoining that in which the body lay, and it was

unanimously agreed that the dissection should be made by Dr. Lamb, and

that Surgeon Woodward should record the observations made. It was

further unanimously agreed that the cranium should not be opened.

Surgeon Woodward then proposed that the examination should be conducted

as follows: That the body should be viewed externally, and any morbid

appearances existing recorded; that a catheter should then be passed

into the wound, as was done during life to wash it out, for the purpose

of assisting to find the position of the bullet; that a long incision

should next be made from the superior extremity of the sternum to the

pubis, and this crossed by a transverse one just below the umbilicus;

that the abdominal flaps thus made should then be turned back and the

abdominal viscera examined; that after the abdominal cavity was opened,

the position of the bullet should be ascertained, if possible, before

making any further incision, and that, finally, the thoracic viscera

should be examined. This order of procedure was unanimously agreed to,

and the examination was proceeded with.

[Illustration: Dr. Woodward. Dr. Reyburn. Dr. Barnes. Dr. Bliss. Dr.

Hamilton. Dr. Agnew.]

The following external appearances were first observed: The body was

considerably emaciated, but the face was much less wasted than the

limbs. A preservative fluid had been injected by the embalmer a few

hours before into the left femoral artery. The pipes used for the

purpose were still in position. The anterior surface of the body

presented no abnormal appearances, and there was no ecchymosis or other

discoloration of any part of the front of the abdomen. Just below the

right ear, and a little behind it, there was an oval ulcerated opening

about half an inch in diameter, from which some sanious pus was

escaping, but no tumefaction could be observed in the parotid region. A

considerable number of purpura-like spots were scattered thickly over

the left scapula, and thence forward as far as the axilla. They ranged

from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, were slightly

elevated and furfuraceous on the surface, and many of them were

confluent in groups of two to four or more. A similar, but much less

abundant, eruption was observed sparsely scattered over the

corresponding region on the right side. An oval excavated ulcer, about

an inch long, the result of a small carbuncle, was seated over the

spinous process of the tenth dorsal vertebra. Over the sacrum there were

four small bed sores, the largest about half an inch in diameter. A few

acute pustules and a number of irregular spots of post-mortem hypostatic

congestion were scattered over the shoulders, back and buttocks. The

inferior part of the scrotum was much discolored by hypostatic

congestion. A group of hemorrhoidal tumors rather larger than a walnut

protruded from the anus. The depressed cicatrix of the wound made by the

pistol bullet was recognized over the tenth intercostal space at three

and a half inches to the right of the vertebral spines. A deep linear

incision made in part by the operation of July 24, and extended by that

of August 8, occupied a position closely corresponding to the upper

border of the right twelfth rib. It commenced posteriorly about two

inches from the vertebral spines and extended forward a little more

than three inches. At the anterior extremity of this incision there was

a deep, nearly square, abraded surface, about an inch across. A flexible

catheter, fourteen inches long, was then passed into this wound, as had

been done to wash it out during life. More resistance was at first

encountered than had usually been the case, but after several trials the

catheter entered, without any violence, its full length. It was then

left in position, and the body disposed supinely for the examination of

the viscera. The cranium was not opened. A long incision was made from

the superior extremity of the sternum to the pubis, followed by a

transverse incision crossing the abdomen, just below the umbilicus. The

four flaps thus formed were turned back, and the abdominal viscera

exposed. The subcutaneous adipose tissue, divided by the incision, was

little more than one-eighth of an inch thick over the thorax, but was

thicker over the abdomen, being about a quarter of an inch thick along

the linear alba and as much as half an inch thick towards the outer

extremity of the transverse incision. On inspection of the abdominal

viscera in situ, the transverse colon was observed to lie a little above

the line of the umbilicus. It was firmly adherent to the anterior edge

of the liver. The greater omentum covered the intestines pretty

thoroughly from the transverse colon almost to the pubis. It was still

quite fat and was very much blackened by venous congestion. On both

sides its lateral margins were adherent to the abdominal parietes

opposite the eleventh and twelfth ribs. On the left side the adhesions

were numerous, firm, well organized, and probably old. [A foot-note here

says: These adhesions and the firm ones on the right side, as well as

those of the spleen, possibly date back to an attack of chronic

dysentery, from which the patient is said to have suffered during the

civil war.] On the right side there were a few similar adhesions and a

number of more delicate and probably recent ones. A mass of black,

coagulated blood covered and concealed the spleen and the left margin of

the greater omentum. On raising the omentum it was found that a blood

mass extended through the left lumbar and iliac regions, and dipped down

into the pelvis, in which there was some clotted blood and rather more

than a pint of bloody fluid. [A foot-note here says: A large part of

this fluid had probably transuded from the injection material of the

embalmer.] The blood coagula, having been turned out and collected,

measured very nearly a pint. It was now evident that secondary

hemorrhage had been the immediate cause of death, but the point from

which the blood had escaped was not at once apparent. The omentum was

not adherent to the intestines, which were moderately distended with

gas. No intestinal adhesions were found other than those between the

transverse colon and the liver, already mentioned.

The abdominal cavity being now washed out as thoroughly as possible, a

fruitless attempt was made to obtain some indication of the presence of

the bullet before making any further incision. By pushing the intestines

aside, the extremity of the catheter, which had been pressed into the

wound, could be felt between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa,

but it had evidently doubled upon itself, and, although a prolonged

search was made, nothing could be seen or felt to indicate the presence

of the bullet, either in that region or elsewhere. The abdominal viscera

were then carefully removed from the body, placed in suitable vessels

and examined seriatim, with the following result: The adhesions between

the liver and the transverse colon proved to bound an abscess cavity

between the under surface of the liver, the transverse colon and the

transverse mesocolon, which involved the gall-bladder, and extended to

about the same distance on each side of it, measuring six inches

transversely, and four inches from before backward. This cavity was

lined by a thick pyogenic membrane, which completely replaced the

capsule of that part of the under surface of the liver occupied by the

abscess. It contained about two ounces of greenish-yellow fluid, a

mixture of pus and biliary matter. This abscess did not involve any

portion of the substance of the liver, except the surface with which it

was in contact. No communication could be traced between it and any part

of the wound. Some recent peritoneal adhesions existed between the upper

surface of the right lobe of the liver and the diaphragm. The liver was

larger than normal, weighing eighty-four ounces; its substance was firm,

but of a pale yellowish color on its surface, and throughout the

interior of the organ, from fatty degeneration. No evidence that it had

been penetrated by the bullet could be found, nor were there any

abscesses or infractions in any part of its tissue. The spleen was

connected to the diaphragm by firm, probably old, peritoneal adhesions.

There were several rather deep congenial fissures in its margins, giving

it a lobulated appearance. It was abnormally large, weighing eighteen

ounces, of a very dark, lake-red color. Its parenchyma was soft and

flabby, but contained no abscesses or infractions. There were some

recent peritoneal adhesions between the posterior wall of the stomach

and the posterior abdominal parietes. With this exception, no

abnormities were discovered in the stomach or intestines, nor were any

other evidences of general or acute peritonitis found besides those

already specified. The right kidney weighed six ounces, the left kidney

seven. Just beneath the capsule of the left kidney, at about the middle

of its convex border, there was a little abscess one-third of an inch in

diameter. There were three small serous cysts on the convex border of

the right kidney, just beneath its capsule. In other respects the tissue

of both kidneys was normal in appearance and in texture. The urinary

bladder was empty. Behind the right kidney, after the removal of that

organ from the body, the dilated track of the bullet was discovered. It

was found that, from the point at which it had fractured the right

eleventh rib, three inches and a half to the right of the vertebral

spines, the missile had gone to the left obliquely forward, passing

through the body of the first lumbar vertebra, and lodging in the

adipose collective tissue, immediately below the lower border of the

pancreas, about two inches and a half to the left of the spinal column,

and behind the peritoneum. It had become completely encysted. The track

of the bullet between the point at which it had fractured the eleventh

rib and that at which it entered the first lumbar vertebra was

considerably dilated, and the pus had burrowed downward through the

adipose tissue behind the right kidney, and thence had found its way

between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, making a descending

channel, which extended almost to the groin. The adipose tissue behind

the kidney, in the vicinity of the descending channel, was much

thickened and condensed by inflammation. In the channel, which was found

almost free from pus, lay the flexible catheter introduced into the

wound at the commencement of the autopsy. Its extremity was found

doubled upon itself immediately beneath the peritoneum, reposing upon

the iliac fossa, where the channel was dilated into a pouch of

considerable size. This long descending channel, now clearly seen to

have been caused by the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed,

during life, to have been the track of the bullet. The last dorsal,

together with the first and second lumbar vertebra and the twelfth rib,

were then removed from the body for more thorough examination. When this

examination was made, it was found that the bullet had penetrated the

first lumbar vertebra in the upper part of the right side of the body.

The aperture by which it entered the intervertebral cartilage next

above, was situated just below and anterior to the intervertebral

foramen, from which the upper margin was about one-quarter of an inch

distant. Passing obliquely to the left, and forward through the upper

part of the body of the first lumbar vertebra, the bullet emerged by the

aperture, the centre of which was about half an inch to the left of the

median line, and which also involved the intervertebral cartilage next

above. The cancellated tissue of the body of the first lumbar vertebra

was very much comminuted, and the fragments somewhat displaced. Several

deep fissures extended from the track of the bullet into the lower part

of the body of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. Others extended through the

first lumbar vertebra into the intervertebral cartilage, between it and

the second lumbar vertebra. Both this cartilage and the next above were

partly destroyed by ulceration. A number of minute fragments from the

fractured lumbar vertebra had been driven into the adjacent soft parts.

It was further found that the right twelfth rib also was fractured at a

point one and a quarter inches to the right of the transverse process of

the twelfth dorsal vertebra. This injury had not been recognized during

life. On sawing through the vertebra, a little to the right of the

median line, it was found that the spinal canal was not involved by the

track of the ball. The spinal cord and other contents of this portion of

the spinal canal presented no abnormal appearance. The rest of the

spinal cord was not examined. Beyond the first lumbar vertebra, the

bullet continued to go to the left, passing behind the pancreas to the

point where it was found. Here it was enveloped in a firm cyst of

connective tissues, which contained, beside the ball, a minute quantity

of inspissated somewhat cheesy pus, which formed a thin layer of a

portion of the surface of the lead. There was also a black shred

adherent to a part of the cyst wall, which proved, on microscopal

examination, to be the remains of a blood clot. For about an inch from

this cyst, the track of the ball behind the pancreas was completely

obliterated by the healing process. Thence as far backward as the body

of the first lumbar vertebra the track was filled with coagulated blood,

which extended on the left into an irregular space rent in the adjoining

adipose tissue behind the peritoneum and above the pancreas. The blood

had worked its way to the left, bursting finally through the peritoneum

behind the spleen into the abdominal cavity.

The rending of the tissues by the extravasation of this blood was

undoubtedly the cause of the paroxysms of pain which occurred a short

time before death. This mass of coagulated blood was of irregular form,

and nearly as large as a man's fist. It could be distinctly seen from in

front through the peritoneum, after the greater curvature of the stomach

had been exposed by the dissolution of the greater omentum from the

stomach, and especially after some delicate adhesions between the

stomach and the part of the peritoneum covering the blood mass had been

broken down by the fingers. From the relations of the mass, as thus

seen, it was believed that the hemorrhage had proceeded from one of the

mesenteric arteries; but, as it was clear that a minute dissection

would be required to determine the particular branch involved, it was

agreed that the infiltrated tissues and the adjoining soft parts should

be preserved for subsequent study. On the examination and dissection

made in accordance with this agreement, it was found that the fatal

hemorrhage proceeded from a rent, nearly four tenths of an inch long, in

the main trunk of the splenic artery, two inches and a half to the left

of the coeliac axis. The rent must have occurred at least several days

before death, since the everted edges in the slit in the vessel were

united by firm adhesions to the surrounding connective tissue, thus

forming an almost continuous wall, bounding the adjoining portion of the

blood clot. Moreover, the peripheral portion of the clot in this

vicinity was disposed in pretty firm concentric layers. It was further

found that the cyst below the lower margin of the pancreas, in which the

bullet was found, was situated three and one-half inches to the left of

the coeliac axis. Beside the mass of coagulated blood just described,

another about the size of a walnut was found in the greater omentum,

near the splenic extremity of the stomach. The communication, if any,

between this and the larger hemorrhagic mass could not be made out.

The examination of the thoracic viscera resulted as follows: The heart

weighed eleven ounces. All the cavities were entirely empty, except the

right ventrical, in which a few shreds of soft reddish coagulated blood

adhered to the internal surface. On the surface of the mitral valve

there were several spots of fatty degeneration. With this exception the

cardiac valves were normal. The muscular tissues of the heart were soft

and tore easily. A few spots of fatty degeneration existed in the lining

membrane of the aorta, just above the semilunar valves, and a slender

clot of fibrine was found in the aorta, where it was divided, about two

inches from these valves, for the removal of the heart. On the right

side slight pleuritic adhesions existed between the convex surface of

the lower lobe of the lung and the costal pleura, and firm adhesions

between the anterior edge of the lower lobe, the pericardium and the

diaphragm. The right lung weighed thirty-two ounces. The posterior part

of the fissure between its upper and lower lobes was congenitally

incomplete. The lower lobe of the right lung was hypostatically

congested, and considerable portions, especially toward its base, were

the seat of broncho-pneumonia. The bronchial tubes contained a

considerable quantity of stringy mucous pus. Their mucous surface was

reddened by catarrhal bronchitis. The lung tissue was oedematous. [A

foot-note here says: A part at least of this condition was doubtless due

to the extravasation of the injecting fluids by the embalmer. But it

contained no abscesses or infractions.] On the left side the lower lobe

of the lung was bound behind to the costal pleura, above to the upper

lobe, and below to the diaphragm by pretty firm pleuritic adhesions. The

left lung weighed twenty-seven ounces. The condition of its bronchial

tubes and of the lung tissues was very nearly the same as on the right

side, the chief difference being that the area of broncho-pneumonia in

the lower lobe was much less extensive in the left lung than in the

right. In the lateral part of the lower lobe of the left lung, and about

an inch from its pleural surface, there was a group of four minute areas

of gray hepatization, each about one-eighth of an inch in diameter.

There were no infractions and no abscesses in any part of the lung

tissue.

The surgeons assisting at the autopsy were unanimously of the opinion

that, in reviewing the history of the case in connection with the

autopsy, it was quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces,

and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebra, furnished a

sufficient explanation of the septic conditions which existed during

life. About an hour after the post-mortem examination was completed the

physicians named at the commencement of this report assembled for

further consultation in an adjoining cottage. A brief outline of the

results of the post-mortem examination was drawn up, signed by all the

physicians, and handed to Private Secretary J. Stanley Brown, who was

requested to furnish copies to the newspaper press.

D. W. BLISS.

J. K. BARNES.

J. J. WOODWARD.

ROBERT REYBURN.

D. S. LAMB.

As the above report contains paragraphs detailing the observations made

at Washington on the pathological specimens preserved for that purpose,

the names of Drs. J. H. Hamilton, D. Hayes Agnew, and A. H. Smith, are

not appended to it. It has, however, been submitted to them, and they

have given their assent to the other portions of the report.

III.

SENATOR HOAR'S ADDRESS.

I should indulge myself in a strange delusion if I hoped to say anything

of President Garfield which is not already well known to his countrymen,

or to add further honor to a name to which the judgment of the world,

with marvelous unanimity, has already assigned its place. The public

sorrow and love have found utterance, if not adequate, yet such as

speech, and silence, and funeral rite, and stately procession, and

prayers, and tears could give. On the twenty-sixth day of September, the

day of the funeral, a common feeling stirred mankind as never before in

history. That mysterious law, by which, in a great audience, every

emotion is multiplied in each heart by sympathy with every other, laid

its spell on universal humanity. At the touch which makes the whole

world kin, all barriers of rank, or party, or State, or Nation

disappeared. His own Ohio, the State of his birth and of his burial, New

England, from whose loins came the sturdy race from which he descended,

whose college gave him his education, can claim no pre-eminence in

sorrow.

From farthest south comes the voice of mourning for the soldier of the

Union. Over fisherman's hut and frontiersman's cabin is spread a gloom

because the White House is desolate. The son of the poor widow is dead,

and palace and castle are in tears. As the humble Campbellite disciple

is borne to his long home, the music of the requiem fills cathedral

arches and the domes of ancient synagogues. On the coffin of the

canal-boy a queen lays her wreath. As the bier is lifted, word comes

beneath the sea that the nations of the earth are rising and bowing

their heads. From many climes, in many languages they join in the solemn

service. This is no blind and sudden emotion, gathering and breaking

like a wave. It is the mourning of mankind for a great character already

perfectly known and familiar. If there be any persons who fear that

religious faith is dying, that science has shaken the hold of the moral

law upon the minds of men, let them take comfort in asking themselves if

any base or ignoble passion could have so moved mankind. Modern science

has called into life these mighty servants, press and telegraph, who

have created a nerve which joins together all human hearts and pulses

simultaneously over the globe. To what conqueror, to what tyrant, to

what selfish ambition, to what mere intellectual greatness would it not

have refused response? The power in the universe that makes for evil,

and the power in the universe that makes for righteousness, measure

their forces. A poor, weak fiend shoots off his little bolt, a single

human life is stricken down, and a throb of divine love thrills a

planet.

Every American State has its own story of the brave and adventurous

spirits who were its early settlers; the men who build commonwealths,

the men of whom commonwealths are builded. The history of the settlement

of Massachusetts, of central New York, and of Ohio, is the history of

the Garfield race. They were, to borrow a felicitous phrase, "hungry for

the horizon." They were natural frontiersmen. Of the seven generations

born in America, including the President, not one was born in other than

a frontiersman's dwelling.

Two of them, father and son, came over with Winthrop in 1630. Each of

the six generations who dwelt in Massachusetts has left an honorable

record still preserved. Five in succession bore an honorable military

title. Some were fighters in the Indian wars. "It is not in Indian

wars," Fisher Ames well says, "that heroes are celebrated, but it is

there they are formed." At the breaking out of the Revolution the male

representatives of the family were two young brothers. One, whose name

descended to the President, was in arms at Concord bridge, at sunrise,

on the 19th of April. The other, the President's great grandfather,

dwelling thirty miles off, was on his way to the scene of action before

noon. When the Constitution rejected by Massachusetts in 1778 was

proposed, this same ancestor, with his fellow-citizens of the little

town of Westminster, voted unanimously for the rejection, and put on

record their reasons. "It is our opinion that no constitution whatever

ought to be established till previously thereto a bill of rights be set

forth, and the constitution be framed therefrom, so that the lowest

capacity may be able to determine his natural rights, and judge of the

equitableness of the constitution thereby." "And as to the Constitution

itself, the following appears to us exceptionable, viz, the fifth

article," [Excepting negroes, mulattoes and Indians from the right to

vote], "which deprives a portion of the human race of their natural

rights on account of their color, which, in our opinion, no power on

earth has a just right to do. It therefore ought to be expunged the

Constitution." No religious intolerance descended in the Garfield race.

But the creed of this Westminster catechism they seem never to have

forgotten. When the war was over, the same ancestor took his young

family and penetrated the forest again. He established his home in

Otsego county, in central New York, at the period and amid the scenes

made familiar by Cooper, in his delightful tale, _The Pioneers_. Again

the generations moved westward, in the march of civilization, keeping

ever in the van, until in 1831, James Garfield was born, in a humble

Ohio cabin where he was left fatherless in his infancy. In a new

settlement the wealth of the family is in the right arm of the father.

To say that the father, who had himself been left an orphan when he was

an infant, left his son fatherless in infancy, is to say that the family

was reduced to extreme poverty.

I have not given this narrative as the story of a mean or ignoble

lineage. Such men, whether of Puritan, or Huguenot, or Cavalier stock,

have ever been the strength and the security of American States. From

such homes came Webster, and Clay, and Lincoln and Jackson. It is no

race of boors that has struck its axes into the forests of this

continent. These men knew how to build themselves log houses in the

wilderness. They were more skillful still to build constitutions and

statutes. Slow, cautious, conservative, sluggish, unready, in ordinary

life, their brains move quick and sure as their rifles flash, when great

controversies that determine the fate of States are to be decided, when

great interests that brook no delay are at stake, and great battles that

admit no indecision, are to be fought. The trained and disciplined

soldiers of England could not anticipate these alert farmers. On the

morning of the Revolution they were up before the sun. When Washington

was to be defended in 1861 the scholar, or the lawyer, or the man of the

city, dropped his book, left his court-house or his counting-room, and

found his company of yeomen waiting for him. They are ever greatest in

adversity. I would not undervalue the material of which other republics

have been built. The polished marbles of Greece and Italy have their own

grace. But art or nature contain no more exquisite beauty than the color

which this split and unhewn granite takes from the tempest it

withstands. There was never a race of men on earth more capable of

seeing clearly, of grasping, and of holding fast the great truths and

great principles which are permanent, sure, and safe for the government

of the conduct of life, alike in private and public concerns. If there

be, or ever shall be, in this country, a demos, fickle, light-minded,

easily moved, blind, prejudiced, incapable of permanent adherence to

what is great or what is true, whether it come from the effeminacy of

wealth or the scepticism of a sickly and selfish culture, or the poverty

and ignorance of great cities, it will find itself powerless in this

iron grasp.

Blending with this Saxon stock, young Garfield inherited on the mother's

side the qualities of the Huguenots, those gentle but not less brave or

less constant Puritans, who, for conscience sake, left their beloved

and beautiful France, whose memory will be kept green so long as Maine

cherishes Bowdoin College, or Massachusetts Faneuil Hall; or New York

the antique virtue of John Jay, or South Carolina her Revolutionary

history--who gave a lustre and a glory to every place and thing they

touched. The child of such a race, left fatherless in the wilderness,

yet destined to such a glory, was committed by Providence to three great

teachers, without either of whom he would not have become fitted for his

distinguished career. These teachers were a wise Christian mother,

poverty, and the venerable college president who lived to watch his

pupil through the whole of his varied life, to witness his inauguration

amid such high hopes, and to lament his death. To no nobler matron did

ever Roman hero trace his origin. Few of the traditions of his Puritan

ancestry could have come down to the young orphan. It is said there were

two things with which his mother was specially familiar--the Bible and

the rude ballads of the war of 1812. The child learned the Bible at his

mother's knee, and the love of country from his cradle-hymns.