THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A CONGRESSMAN.
While Garfield was serving his country to the utmost of his ability in
the field, the voters of the Nineteenth District of Ohio, in which he
had his home, were called upon to select a man to represent them in
Congress. It perhaps exceeds any other portion of the State in its
devotion to the cause of education and the general intelligence of its
inhabitants. The people were mostly of New England origin, and in
selecting a representative they wanted a man who was fitted by
education, as well as fidelity, to do them credit.
Their choice fell upon Garfield, who was known to them at home as the
head of one of their chief institutions of learning, and whose
reputation had not suffered in the field. They did not even consult him,
but put him in nomination, and elected him by an overwhelming majority.
It was a gratifying compliment, for in our country an election to
Congress is regarded as a high honor, which no one need be reluctant to
accept. We have on record one of our most distinguished statesmen--John
Quincy Adams--who, after filling the Presidential chair, was content to
go back to Washington as a member of the House of Representatives from
his district in Massachusetts. It was undoubtedly more in harmony with
the desires and tastes of the young man--for he was still a young
man--than service in the field. But he felt that that was not the
question. Where was he more needed? The war was not over. Indeed, it
seemed doubtful when it would be finished; and Garfield was now in a
position to serve his country well as a military commander.
When on the march to Chattanooga, Garfield consulted Gen. Rosecranz,
owning that he was perplexed in attempting to decide.
Rosecranz said: "The war is not yet over, nor will it be for some time
to come. Many questions will arise in Congress which will require not
only statesman-like treatment, but the advice of men having an
acquaintance with military affairs. For that reason you will, I think,
do as good service to the country in Congress as in the field. I not
only think that you can accept the position with honor, but that it is
your duty to do it."
He added, and we may be sure that his advice accorded with the personal
judgment of the man whom he was addressing, "Be true to yourself, and
you will make your mark before your country."
Some months were to elapse before he would require to go to Washington,
for Congress was not to meet till December.
He went to Washington, undecided even yet whether to remain as a
legislator, or to return to his old comrades in the army. He only wished
to know where he could be of most service to his country, and he finally
decided to lay the matter before President Lincoln.
Lincoln gave substantially the same advice as Rosecranz: "We need men
who will help us carry the necessary war measures; and, besides, we are
greatly lacking in men of military experience in the House to promote
legislation about the army. It is your duty, therefore, to enter
Congress."
When, on the 5th of December, 1863, Garfield took his seat in the House
of Representatives, he was the youngest member of that body. The
Military Committee was the most important committee of Congress, and he
was put upon that, on account of his practical experience in the field.
This, of course, brought him, though a new and young member, into
immediate prominence, and his familiarity with the wants of the army
enabled him to be of great service.
I do not propose to detail at tiresome length the legislative
achievements of Gen. Garfield in the new position which he was destined
to fill for eighteen years. I shall only refer to such as illustrate his
characteristic devotion to duty without special regard to his own
interests. He never hesitated to array himself in opposition to the
popular will, if he thought the people were wrong. It was not long
before an occasion came up which enabled him to assert his independence.
The country needed soldiers, and had inaugurated a system of bounties
which should tempt men to join the ranks of the country's defenders. It
was only a partial success. Some men, good and true, were led to join by
the offer of a sum which made them more at ease about the comfort of
their families, but many joined the service from mercenary
considerations only, who seized the first opportunity to desert, and
turning up in another locality, enlisted again and obtained a second
bounty. These men obtained the name of bounty-jumpers, and there was a
host of them. Yet the measure was popular with soldiers, and Congress
was unanimously in favor of it. Great was the amazement of his
fellow-members when the young member from the Nineteenth Ohio district
rose in his seat and earnestly opposed it. He objected that the policy
was ruinous, involving immense expense, while effecting little good. He
claimed that the country had a right to the service of every one of its
children at such a crisis, without hire and without reward.
But one man stood with him, so unpopular was the stand he had taken; but
it was not long before the bounty system broke down, and Garfield's
views were adopted.
Later on he had another chance to show his independence. President
Lincoln, foreseeing that at a certain date not far ahead the time of
enlistment of nearly half the army would expire, came before Congress
and asked for power to draft men into service. It met with great
opposition. "What! force men into the field! Why, we might as well live
under a despotism!" exclaimed many; and the members of Congress, who
knew how unpopular the measure would be among their constituents,
defeated it by a two-thirds vote.
It was a critical juncture. As Lincoln had said in substance, all
military operations would be checked. Not only could not the war be
pushed, but the Government could not stand where it did. Sherman would
have to come back from Atlanta, Grant from the Peninsula.
The voting was over, and the Government was despondent. Then it was that
Garfield rose, and moving a reconsideration, made a speech full of fire
and earnestness, and the House, carried by storm, passed the bill, and
President Lincoln made a draft for half a million men.
Garfield knew that this action would be unpopular in his district. It
might defeat his re-election; but that mattered not. The President had
been assailed by the same argument, and had answered, "Gentlemen, it is
not necessary that I should be reëlected, but it is necessary that I
should put down this rebellion." With this declaration the young
Congressman heartily sympathized.
Remonstrances did come from his district. Several of his prominent
supporters addressed him a letter, demanding his resignation. He wrote
them that he had acted according to his views of the needs of the
country; that he was sorry his judgment did not agree with theirs, but
that he must follow his own. He expected to live long enough to have
them all confess that he was right.
It was about this time that he made his celebrated reply to Mr.
Alexander Long, of Ohio, a fellow Congressman, who proposed to yield
everything and to recognize the Southern Confederacy.
The excitement was intense. In the midst of it Garfield rose and made
the following speech:
"MR. CHAIRMAN," he said, "I am reminded by the occurrences of this
afternoon of two characters in the war of the Revolution as compared
with two others in the war of to-day.
"The first was Lord Fairfax, who dwelt near the Potomac, a few miles
from us. When the great contest was opened between the mother country
and the colonies, Lord Fairfax, after a protracted struggle with his own
heart, decided he must go with the mother country. He gathered his
mantle about him and went over grandly and solemnly.
"There was another man, who cast in his lot with the struggling
colonists, and continued with them till the war was well-nigh ended. In
an hour of darkness that just preceded the glory of the morning, he
hatched the treason to surrender forever all that had been gained to the
enemies of his country. Benedict Arnold was that man!
"Fairfax and Arnold find their parallels of to-day.
"When this war began many good men stood hesitating and doubting what
they ought to do. Robert E. Lee sat in his house across the river here,
doubting and delaying, and going off at last almost tearfully to join
the army of his State. He reminds one in some respects of Lord Fairfax,
the stately Royalist of the Revolution.
"But now when tens of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God under
the shadow of the flag; when thousands more, maimed and shattered in
the contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death; now, when
three years of terrific warfare have raged over us; when our armies have
pushed the Rebellion back over mountains and rivers, and crowded it into
narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it; now when the uplifted hand
of a majestic people is about to hurl the bolts of its conquering power
upon the Rebellion; now, in the quiet of this hall, hatched in the
lowest depths of a similar dark treason, there rises a Benedict Arnold,
and proposes to surrender all up, body and spirit, the nation and the
flag, its genius and its honor, now and forever, to the accursed
traitors to our country! And that proposition comes--God forgive and
pity our beloved State--it comes from a citizen of the time-honored and
loyal commonwealth of Ohio!
"I implore you, brethren in this House, to believe that not many births
ever gave pangs to my mother State such as she suffered when that
traitor was born! I beg you not to believe that on the soil of that
State another such a growth has ever deformed the face of nature, and
darkened the light of God's day!"