GARFIELD BECOMES A STATE SENATOR.
Probably Garfield considered now that he was settled in life. He had
married the woman of his choice, set up a pleasant home, and was fully
occupied with a class of duties that suited him. Living frugally, he was
able to lay by a portion of his salary annually, and saw the way open,
if life and health continued, to a moderate prosperity. He seemed to be
a born teacher, and his life seemed likely to be passed in that pleasant
and tranquil office.
Many years before, while still unmarried, his mother had been a teacher,
and one of her experiences when so occupied was so remarkable that I can
not forbear quoting it:
"About the year 1820 she and her sister were left alone in the world,
without provision, so far as the inheritance or possession of property
was concerned. Preferring to live among relatives, one went to reside
with an uncle in Northern Ohio, and the other, Eliza, afterward Mrs.
Garfield, came to another uncle, the father of Samuel Arnold, who then
lived on a farm near Norwich, Muskingum County, Ohio. There Eliza Ballou
made her home, cheerfully helping at the house or in the field, as was
then sometimes the custom in a pioneer country. Having something more
than what at that day was an ordinary education, Eliza procured about
twenty pupils, and taught a summer school.
"The school-house was one of the most primitive kind, and stood in the
edge of dense and heavily-timbered woods. One day there came up a
fearful storm of wind and rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
The woods were badly wrecked, but the wind left the old log-house
uninjured. Not so the lightning. A bolt struck a tree that projected
closely over the roof, and then the roof itself. Some of the pupils were
greatly alarmed, and no doubt thought it the crack of doom, or the day
of judgment. The teacher, as calm and collected as possible, tried to
quiet her pupils and keep them in their places. A man who was one of the
pupils, in speaking of the occurrence, says that for a little while he
remembered nothing, and then he looked around, and saw, as he thought,
the teacher and pupils lying dead on the, floor. Presently the teacher
began to move a little. Then, one by one, the pupils got up, with a
single exception. Help, medical and otherwise, was obtained as soon as
possible for this one, but, though life was saved for a time, reason had
forever fled."
This was certainly a fearful experience for a young teacher.
It was while on a visit to her sister, already married, in Northern
Ohio, that Eliza made the acquaintance of Abram Garfield, the father of
the future President. In this neighborhood, while on a visit to his
relatives, at the age of seventeen, James obtained a school and taught
for a single term.
Having retraced our steps to record this early experience of James'
mother, we take the opportunity to mention an incident in the life of
her son, which was omitted in the proper place. The story was told by
Garfield himself during his last sickness to Mr. Crump, steward of the
White House.
"When I was a youngster," said the President, "and started for college
at Hiram, I had just fifteen dollars--a ten-dollar bill in an old,
black-leather pocketbook, which was in the breast pocket of my coat, and
the other five dollars was in my trowsers' pocket. I was walking along
the road, and, as the day was hot, I took off my coat and carried it on
my arm, taking good care to feel every moment or two of the pocketbook,
for the hard-earned fifteen dollars was to pay my entrance at the
college.
"After a while I got to thinking over what college life would be like,
and forgot all about the pocketbook for some time, and when I looked
again it was gone! I went back mournfully along the road, hunting on
both sides for the pocketbook. Presently I came to a house where a young
man was leaning over a gate, and he asked me when I came up what I was
hunting for. Upon my explaining my loss, and describing the pocketbook,
the young man handed it over. That young man," the President added,
turning to his devoted physician, "was Dr. Bliss. He saved me for
college."
"Yes," said the doctor, "and if I hadn't found your ten dollars you
wouldn't have become President of the United States."
Many a true word is spoken in jest. It might have happened that the boy
would have been so depressed by the loss of his money that he would have
given up his plan of going to Hiram and returned home to fill an humbler
place in the world.
But it is time to return from this digression and resume our narrative.
Devoted to his profession, young Garfield had given but little attention
to politics. But in the political campaign of 1857 and 1858 he became
interested in the exciting political questions which agitated the
community, and, taking the stump, he soon acquired the reputation of a
forcible and logical stump orator. This drew the attention of the voters
to him, and in 1859 he was tendered a nomination to the Ohio Senate from
the counties of Portage and Summit. His speeches during the campaign of
that year are said to have been warm, fresh, and impassioned, and he was
elected by a handsome majority.
This was the first entrance of the future President upon public life.
The session was not long, and the absence of a few weeks at Columbus
did not seriously interfere with his college duties.
In the Senate he at once took high rank. He was always ready to speak,
his past experience having made this easy. He took care to inform
himself upon the subjects which came up for legislation, and for this
reason he was always listened to with respectful attention. Moreover,
his genial manners and warmth of heart made him a general favorite among
all his fellow legislators, whether they belonged to his party or to the
opposition.
Again, in the session of 1860-61, being also a member of the Senate, he
took a prominent part in such measures as were proposed to uphold the
National Government, menaced by the representative men of the South. He
was among the foremost in declaring that the integrity of the Union must
be protected at all hazards, and declared that it was the right and duty
of the Government to coerce the seceded States.
When the President's call for seventy-five thousand men was made public,
and announcement was made to the Ohio Senate, Senator Garfield sprang to
his feet, and amid loud applause moved that "twenty thousand troops and
three millions of money" should be at once voted as Ohio's quota! He
closed his speech by offering his services to Governor Dennison in any
capacity.
This offer the Governor bore in mind, and on the 14th of August, 1861,
Garfield was offered the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Forty-second Ohio
regiment, which he had been instrumental in forming.
It was a serious moment for Garfield. The acceptance of this commission
would derange all his cherished plans. It would separate him from his
wife and child, and from the loved institution of which he was the head.
He must bid farewell to the calm, studious life, which he so much
enjoyed, and spend days and months in the camp, liable at any moment to
fall the victim of an enemy's bullet.
Suppose he should be killed? His wife would have no provision but the
small sum of three thousand dollars, which he had been able by great
economy to save from his modest salary.
He hesitated, but it was not for long. He was not a man to shrink from
the call of duty. Before moving he wrote to a friend:
"I regard my life as given to the country. I am only anxious to make as
much of it as possible before the mortgage on it is foreclosed."