GARFIELD'S COURSE IN CONGRESS.
If Garfield at once took a prominent place in the House of
Representatives, it was by no means because it was composed of inferior
men. On the other hand, there has seldom been a time when it contained a
larger number of men either prominent, or destined in after days to be
prominent. I avail myself of the detailed account given of its members
by Major Bundy, in his excellent Life of Garfield. There are some names
which will be familiar to most of my young readers:
"Its then most fortunate and promising member was Schuyler Colfax, the
popular Speaker. But there were three young members who were destined to
a more lasting prominence. The senior of these who had enjoyed previous
service in he House, was Roscoe Conkling, already recognized by Congress
and the country as a magnificent and convincing speaker. The other two
were James G. Blaine and James A. Garfield. Only a year the senior of
Garfield, Blaine was about to begin a career as brilliant as that of
Henry Clay, and the acquisition of a popularity unique in our political
history. But in this Congress there were many members whose power was
far greater than that of either of the trio, who may yet be as much
compared as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were in former days.
"In the first place, there was Elihu B. Washburne, 'the watch-dog of the
treasury,' the 'father of the House,' courageous, practical, direct, and
aggressive. Then there was Thaddeus Stevens, who was one of the very few
men capable of driving his party associates--a character as unique as,
and far stronger than, John Randolph; General Robert C. Schenck, fresh
from the army, but a veteran in Congress, one of the ablest of practical
statesmen; ex-Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts; ex-Governor Fenton,
of New York, a very influential member, especially on financial
questions; Henry Winter Davis, the brilliant orator, of Maryland;
William B. Allison, since one of the soundest and most useful of Iowa's
Senators; Henry L. Dawes, who fairly earned his promotion to the
Senate, but who accomplished so much in the House that his best friends
regret the transfer; John A. Bingham, one of the most famous speakers of
his time; James E. English, of Connecticut, who did valiant and
patriotic service as a War Democrat; George H. Pendleton, now Senator
from Ohio, and a most accomplished statesman, even in his early service
in the House; Henry G. Stebbins, who was to make a speech sustaining Mr.
Chase's financial policy that was unequaled for its salutary effect on
public opinion; Samuel J. Randall, now Speaker; John A. Griswold, of New
York; William Windom, one of the silent members, who has grown steadily
in power; James F. Wilson, who was destined to decline three successive
offers of Cabinet positions by President Grant; Daniel W. Voorhies, of
Indiana, now Senator; John A. Kasson, of Iowa, now our Minister to
Austria; Theodore M. Pomeroy, of New York, afterward Acting Speaker for
a brief period; William R. Morrison, of Illinois, since a Democratic
candidate for the Presidency; William S. Holman and George W. Julian, of
Indiana, both able men; and Fernando Wood--these were all prominent
members of the House. It will be seen that the House was a more trying
arena for a young member like Garfield than the Senate would have been;
for the contests of the former--unsubdued and unmitigated by 'the
courtesy of the Senate'--were conducted by as ready and able a corps of
debaters as ever sat in that body."
This was surely a formidable array of men, and a man of ordinary powers
would have found it prudent to remain silent during the first session,
lest he should be overwhelmed by some one of the ready speakers and
experienced legislators with whom he was associated. But the canal-boy,
who had so swiftly risen from his humble position to the post of college
president and major-general, till at the age of thirty-two he sat in the
national council the youngest member, was not daunted. His term of
service as State Senator was now of use to him, for it had given him a
knowledge of parliamentary law, and the practice in speaking which he
gained long ago in the boys' debating societies, and extended in
college, rendered him easy and master of himself.
Indeed he could not remain silent, for he represented the "boys at the
front," and whenever a measure was proposed affecting their interests,
he was expected to take part in the debate. It was not long before the
House found that its new member was a man of grace and power, with whom
it was not always safe to measure weapons. He was inclined to be
peaceful, but he was not willing to permit any one to domineer over him,
and the same member did not often attempt it a second time.
My young readers are sure to admire pluck, and they will, therefore,
read with interest of one such occasion, when Garfield effectually
quelled such an attempt. I find it in a chapter of reminiscences
contributed to the Boston _Journal_, by Ben Perley Poore, the well-known
correspondent:
"When the Jenckes Bankrupt Bill came before the House, Gen. Garfield
objected to it, because in his opinion it did not provide that the
estates of rebels in arms should escape the operations of the law. He
also showed that money was being raised to secure the enactment of the
bill, and Mr. Spalding, of the Cleveland district, was prompted by Mr.
Jenckes to 'sit down on him.' But Gen. Garfield was not to be silenced
easily and quite a scene ensued. The next day Garfield rose to a
personal explanation, and said:
"'I made no personal reference whatever; I assailed no gentleman; I
called no man's honor in question. My colleague from the Cleveland
district (Mr. Spalding) rose and asked if I had read the bill. I
answered him, I believe, in courteous language and manner, that I had
read it, and immediately on my statement to that effect he said in his
place in the House, and it has gone on the record, that he did not
believe I had read it; in other words, that he believed I had lied, in
the presence of my peers in this House. I felt, under such
circumstances, that it would not be becoming my self-respect, or the
respect I owe to the House, to continue a colloquy with any gentleman
who had thus impeached my veracity and I said so.
"'It pains me very much that a gentleman of venerable age, who was in
full maturity of life when I was a child, and whom I have respected
since my childhood, should have taken occasion here in this place to use
language so uncalled for, so ungenerous, so unjust to me, and
disgraceful to himself. I have borne with the ill-nature and bad blood
of that gentleman, as many others in this House have, out of respect for
his years; but no importunity of age shall shield him, or any man, from
my denunciation, who is so lacking in the proprieties of this place as
to be guilty of such parliamentary and personal indecency as the House
has witnessed on his part. I had hoped that before this time he would
have acknowledged to me the impropriety and unjustifiableness of his
conduct and apologized for the insult. But he has not seen fit to take
this course. I leave him to his own reflections, and his conduct to the
judgment of the House.'"
Those who listened to these spirited rebukes saw that the young member
from Ohio would not allow himself to be snubbed or insulted with
impunity, and the few who were accustomed to descend to such discourtesy
took warning accordingly. They were satisfied that Garfield, to quote a
common phrase, would give them as good as they sent, and perhaps a
little better. The boy, who at sixteen, when employed on the tow-path,
thrashed the bully of thirty-five for insulting him, was not likely in
his manhood to submit to the insults of a Congressional bully. He was a
man to compel respect, and had that resolute and persistent character
which was likely ere long to make him a leader. So Disraeli, coughed
down in his first attempt to speak before the English House of Commons,
accepted the situation, but recorded the prediction that one day they
would hear him. He, too, mounted step by step till he reached the
highest position in the English Government outside of royalty. A man who
is destined to be great is only strengthened by opposition, and rises in
the end victorious over circumstances.
Garfield soon made it manifest that he had come to Washington to work.
He was not one to lie back and enjoy in idleness the personal
consequence which his position gave him. All his life he had been a
worker, and a hard worker, from the time when he cut one hundred cords
of wood, at twenty-five cents a cord, all through his experience as a
canal-boy, a carpenter, a farm-worker, a janitor, a school teacher, a
student, and a military commander, and now that he had taken his place
in the grand council of the nation, he was not going to begin a life of
self-indulgent idleness.
In consideration of his military record he was, at his entrance into
Congress, put upon the Military Committee; but a session or two later,
at his own request, he was assigned a place on the Committee of Ways and
Means. His reason for this request was, that he might have an
opportunity of studying the question of finance, which he had sufficient
foresight to perceive would one day be a great question, overshadowing
all others. He instantly set himself to a systematic and exhaustive
study of this subject, and attained so thorough a knowledge of it that
he was universally recognized as a high authority--perhaps the highest
in the department. He made speech after speech on the finance question,
and was a pronounced advocate of "Honest Money," setting his face like a
flint against those who advocated any measures calculated to lower the
national credit or tarnish the national reputation for good faith.
"I am aware," said he one day in debate, "that financial measures are
dull and uninviting in comparison with those heroic themes which have
absorbed the attention of Congress for the last five years. To turn from
the consideration of armies and navies, victories and defeats, to the
array of figures which exhibits the debt, expenditure, taxation, and
industry of the nation requires no little courage and self-denial; but
to these questions we must come, and to their solution Congress and all
thoughtful citizens must give their best efforts for many years to
come."
It was not only a wise but a bold thing to do, for among the members of
his own party, in Ohio, financial heresies had crept in, and a party
platform was adopted in 1867, looking to the payment of the bonds of the
Government in greenbacks. He was advised to say nothing on the subject
lest it should cost him the nomination in the election just at hand; but
he met the question boldly, and declared that the district could only
have his services "on the ground of the honest payment of this debt, and
these bonds in coin, according to the letter and spirit of the
contract."
Nevertheless he was renominated by acclamation.