THE HOUR AND THE MAN.
Statesman and Citizen--Leader of the House of Representatives--Elected
President--The Secret of Success--Struck down by an Assassin--Hovering
between Life and Death--Death and Burial.
Garfield's life, above that of most men, was given to the world as a
splendid example of perfect integrity and manly independence. All
through that romantic career this had been its most remarkable feature.
His talents were great, his powers of endurance were great, his energy
and courage were great; but his love of right was greater and grander
than all.
From that moment when he awoke to a true sense of his responsibilities
as a servant of God, he began to fit himself for all the duties of man.
For whatever duty claimed his service he was found prepared; and when
the call came suddenly to the kingly seat, and then yet more swiftly to
the martyr's crown, he was still found ready. Dividing his time
between Congress at Washington and his little home farm at Mentor, he
served his nation as a statesman, and ruled his happy household as a
citizen.
His noble mother, by whose godly counsel he had walked, spent some
happy years in his home; while his brave and loving wife cheered and
helped and inspired him in those days of patient service.
Gradually he gained the position of Leader of the House of
Representatives. In 1879 he was elected Senator of the United States;
and then, quite unexpectedly, in the following year he was lifted into
the highest place of all.
The President of the United States is elected every four years. In
each State a number of persons known as "electors" are chosen by the
votes of the people. The number of these electors is exactly the same
as the number of the Representatives of each State. These persons then
meet and elect the President and Vice-President for the ensuing four
years. The great and dignified office of President is the summit of an
American's ambition; and it is only in the United States that a poor
lad may hope and believe it possible for him to climb from the humblest
position to a rank which places him on an equality with kings.
Long before the time for election, the great parties in the State
select their candidates for this high office. Garfield belonged to the
Republican party, and the people chiefly opposed to him were called
Democrats. Previous to the Presidential election, the leading men of
the party met in a vast hall at Chicago to decide upon a candidate.
Several names were proposed, but it was found at first impossible to
select one man upon whom all the delegates of the Republican party
could agree.
[Illustration: Mrs. James Garfield.]
Thirty-five times a ballot had been taken, and they seemed no nearer
than before. But at the thirty-fifth it was found that one name had
received about fifty votes. When that name was read, it was greeted
with a mighty cheer, which grew louder and louder, until the whole of
the vast building resounded with the name of James A. Garfield.
Another ballot was taken, and Garfield was found to be the chosen of
his party.
He was nominated as the Republican candidate; and on November 2, 1880,
the "little sapling" of the Western Reserve became the President of the
United States, the uncrowned monarch of one of the greatest nations of
the world. Thus had he marched along. At fourteen he was working at
the carpenter's bench; at sixteen he was a canal boatman; two years
later he entered the Chester school; at twenty-one he was a common
school teacher.
Then in his twenty-third year he entered the university, graduating
three years afterwards. At twenty-seven he became principal of the
Hiram Institute. The next year he was a Member of the Ohio Senate. At
thirty-one he was at the head of a regiment; at thirty-two, a
major-general; at thirty-three, a Member of Congress; at forty-eight he
was made a Member of the National Senate; and at fifty he became
President of the United States.
We have said that the secret of Garfield's success was his integrity.
To this he owed the respect which advanced him to each position of
trust until it made him head of the Government. And it was to this
noble quality of his character that he owed his death. Corruption had
grown up in connection with the offices of State, and Garfield's last
mission was to purge the Government of this taint. He was resolved to
set his face against "the waste of time and the obstruction to public
business caused by the greedy crowd of office-seekers." And he also
announced that "rigid honesty and faithful service would be required
from every officer of the State."
This conduct bitterly annoyed some of his own party, who had expected
that Garfield would follow the example of other Presidents, and turn
out all the civic officers, to make room for his own friends. This
annoyance at length found expression in the wicked act of a wretched
creature, a disappointed office-seeker, named Guiteau.
The new President had been but a few months in office, when Guiteau
followed him into the railway station at Washington, and, as he entered
the waiting-room, shot him in the back. The President fell wounded,
but not unconscious. In great pain, he still remembered his loved
ones, and moaned, "My poor wife and children." Then he dictated a
message to his wife.
A struggle with death ensued, on which the whole world looked with awe.
For weeks the President hovered between life and death, showing ever
the same sublime spirit of cheerful patience and Christian resignation
which had adorned his life. At length the end came, and on the 19th of
September 1881 he fell asleep. His body was removed to Washington,
where he was laid in state. On the bier a wreath of white roses
rested, bearing the simple inscription--"From Queen Victoria to the
memory of the late President Garfield, an expression of her sorrow, and
her sympathy with Mrs. Garfield and the American nation."
Through that room passed a hundred and thirty thousand persons of all
ranks, to take one last look at the man whose life had been so great,
and whose dying had been so glorious. Then in the cemetery of his
native Cleveland, James A. Garfield was laid to rest.
The spontaneous affection of his countrymen amply provided for his
beloved family; and his martyrdom, it was said, did more than any other
event could have done to draw the North and South together. His death
was mourned, and the manner of it hated by every section and party
alike, and the whole nation, united now in sorrow, bowed in loving
tenderness over the grave of one of its greatest children.