The life, character and public services of Jas. A. Garfield

Dedication

TO the wife who shared the great and noble life, without being lost in and absorbed by it, who contributed so much to form and cherish it, this attempt to translate it to his countrymen is, with many treasured memories, by permission, dedicated.

A. G. R.

To The Reader.

Chapter I. Page

Birth and early incidents

Great men — Causes which produce unknown

Garfields of England .....

Garfields in America .....

Abram Garfield, the father, account of

Eliza Ballou, the mother ....

21, 589

James Abram, birth of .

Cabin where born ...

Death of father ......

Intellect, early development of . . ,

Critics, young club of

Cousin Harriet .....

Contest with a school-master ....

School-house's lock broken five times

Growth, size of his head ....

Dreams of the sea .....

. . 28

Lake Captain, his brutality

Canal — on the tow-path ....

30. 394

Battle and victory .....

Distance post .....

Abandons the canal, and why ....

Return — Mother's prayer ....

Ague cake ......

Chester and school .....

Chapter II. Page

Educational Life .....

Professor, the first one ....

A servant, and how he retired . . •

CONTENTS.

Six cents at Chester

Jim Gaffil becomes Mr. Garfield

Disciples — Conversion

Trip to Southern Ohio

Sees a college

School life

Hiram Institute

Career there for two years

Why he went to Williams College

Feelings and experience

Graduates after two years

Metaphysics

Means and money

Professor of language at Hiram

Preaches among the Disciples

A public speaker

War experiences

Elected to the Ohio senate, 1859

Plans of life ....

Studies law

Approach of the war and preparation

J. D. Cox— James Monroe

War studies ....

Cox gets the start

Ohio Seventh and Cross Lanes

Ohio Forty-second, lieutenant colonel of

Buell General, interview with

Garfield plans the campaign of Middle creek

Brigade, command of

Campaign against Humphrey Marshall

Battle and incidents

Flight of Marshall

Estimate of the campaign

Stears the Sandy Valley up the Big Sandy

Brigadier general, his command

Battle of Corinth . . • ' •

Ordered to Washington

Porter, Fitz John, trial of

General Hunter selects him

Army of the Cumberland, becomes chief of staff of

Rosecrans and re-organization

Recommends change of officers

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Overrules the seventeen generals . . 5 .

6 5

Campaign of Tullahoma .

Chickamauga ......

Right wing broken — panic ....

Garfield tries to rally it, in vain

Joins Thomas on the left .

Battle terrible .....

Last guns — Thomas remains on the field

Washington again .....

68, 91, 94

Promoted for gallantry on the field

Scheme to supplant Lincoln * .

Garfield suppresses it ....

Elected to Congress .....

Chapter IV. Page

Characteristics .....

Estimate of the man .....

What is his lack .....

His plans of life ......

Leaves himself to events ....

75< 402

Not a self seeker ......

Chivalrous courage .....

Faces the re-nominating convention

77, 107

Growth and development ....

78, 402

Fear of being brought forward for Presidency prematurely

Chapter I. Page

Congressional life ....

The House of Representatives

A progressive body ....

Its true estimate of its own men

Personnel of the members

Colfax, Stevens, Washburn, and others — old members-

-sketched 86

Remarkable new men ....

Blaine, Creswell, Boutwell ....

Senate sketches ....

Garfield's district .....

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II. IJfe at the Capital

Little Trot

Offers of General Thomas

Resolves to return to the army

Lincoln's offer

Military committee

The army in 1863

Army education for the House

Residence in Washington

Mrs. Lecont's — Semi-headquarters

Knows about anesthesia

A reminiscence — Almeda Booth

Confiscation speech

Status of Rebel States

Effect of speech

Estimate of it

Opposes increase of bounties

Garfield measured by a crisis, and is equal to it

A picture ......

Chief Justice Chase advises him to do the heroic sparingly The draft law and what it did ....

New bill— Debate— Speech— Bill lost

Lincoln interviews the committee

Prospect .....

Pending election of members

Lincoln answers the office seekers

Substitute passed

Proclamation of President — Answer

Garfield asked to resign, and what followed

Commercial relations with Canada .

Reply to Long — Speech extracts

Garfield's position before the country

Presidential election, 1864

Wade-Davis manifesto

Popular indignation against Garfield

Re-nomination — Determination of the district

A challenge to him

Speech in convention

"Truly yours, more truly my own"

Re-nominated by acclamation

Abolition of slavery

Lincoln's offer rejected by slaveholders

Thirteenth amendment

CONTENTS.

Pendleton's speech — Garfield's reply — Extracts no

Chapter III. Page

Assassination — Garfield in New York .

iX 3

Restoration — Studies 1865

.

Chooses to be placed on ways and means

"5

Revenue legislation ....

116, 117

Anniversary of assassination

Felicitous speech given entire

118, 119

Estimate of speech — Memory .

Great case of Milligan . ...

359. 366

Old Capitol prison — Denounces Stanton

120, 122

Episode — Goes to Europe — Diary

123, 128

Return — State election and platform, 1867

Greenback lunacy .....

Re-union at Jefferson ....

Asked to take the platform — Reply

•

Chapter IV. Page

Fortieth Congress ....

.

Character of the Fortieth congress — Sessions

New men — Morton and others .

.

War with President Johnson

132, 133

Speech on government of rebel States .

133. 134

Rebuke of General Hancock

Final impeachment — Speech

Currency speeches .

136,

157. 170

Arlington oration ....

Taxing bonds — Answers Pike and Butler

Chairman military committee — Labors .

•

140, 141

Chapter V. Page

Banking and currency .

.

Gold Panic — Black Friday .

Investigation by Garfield and report

143. 1 5 6

Power of Senate to originate money bills — Garfield's speech

• 156

Banks and banking — Speech

Chapter VI. Page

Political Economy ....

At Williams .....

Great Speech, January, 1872,

175-183

Reply to Tucker — Extract — Protection

CONTENTS.

Curious Heads covering information Hoop iron .....

Transportation — Railroad system — Speech

CHAPTER VII. Appropriation — Expenditure

Forty-second congress, famous for Garfield's

Chairman committee on appropriations

Committee — Personnel of

His preliminary study — Budgets, English

Our practice

Rules for expenditure

War expenses

Each member to make his own fame, and wear

Old Hiram experience

Civil appropriation bill — Great speech

Relation of expenditure to Government

How shall expenditure be gauged?

Test of population

Territory

Expenditure of England

Duration of war expenses

Reduction of the public debt

Surplus and deficit

History and cause of deficits

Condition of the treasury

Removal of the Flatheads .

Returns to hear of the Credit Mobilier ork

FAttK. 184

215 216

CHAPTER I. Calumny

Three charges and their names

Credit Mobilier

Mr. Blaine demands investigation

The committee, and sketch of the case

Sketch of the ground

Credit Mobilier and Union Pacific railroad

Fraud on the United States

Value of Credit Mobilier stock

*>AGE.

PAGE.

CONTENTS.

Conspiracy a secret .....

Oakes Ames, trustee, sells stocks to M. C.s

Character of the men .....

They were not informed ....

Ames sued for the stock — letters— list

Garfield's statement .....

McComb's account of Credit Mobilier

Durant's account of Credit Mobilier

Resolution creating Poland committee

Report on Garfield's case

Report criticised ..... 231,

Mr. Garfield protests against it ...

Case taken up anew .....

Oakes Ames as a witness ....

Contradicts himself .....

His sworn statements directly contradictory

A reason for the change .....

Testimony of Oakes Ames ....

Swears that the after-accruing dividends were never paid or

His statement of Garfield's account, with date of payment to

Check by which it is paid dated later . . . 242

Unjust method of procuring untrue answers . . 242

Comment on same ..... 243

Ames' old book for 1868 finally produced . . . 244

His list dated January 2, 1869 .... 244

Garfield's name on it as one to be paid thereafter . . 244

Another list — men to be paid, though marked paid — dated June

31, 1868 245

Swears this was made before men were paid . . 245

Another account with Garfield .... 246

Swears this was never settled . 246

Evidence commented on . . • • 248

Unaccountable conduct of the parties if Garfield is implicated 248

Garfield's statement of May. 1873 — extract . . 249

His statement to committee .... 249, 253

Judge Black's statement in support . . • 254

President Hinsdale's ....... *55

Hon. J. P. Robison's ..... 256

Chapter II. Page

"Salary Grab" ....... 2 S8

Resolution requiring his resignation - • . . »5*

CONTENTS.

Public opinion

Never held the money in his hand

Garfield's statement

Speech at Warren, 1874, extract

*5»

259, 260

CHAPTER III. The DeGolyer contract

Sketch of the District of Columbia government

J. M. Wilson's letter, concerning

Real character of Garfield's connection with

contract . . . ■ * .

One Glover and his inquisition His enquiring mind — His methods Finally sealed up with seven seals His course with the DeGolyer contract Chicago Times unearths Glover's remains .

The spry Nickerson as a witness Garfield confronts him Garfield's evidence Conclusive nature of it Nickerson's last words Case summed up the DeGolyer

266, 267

270, 275

CHAPTER I. Life at the Capital resumed

End of Republican supremacy

New and old men

Record of a day — A Washington sketch

Society in Washington .

Garfield's home life in Washington .

CHAPTER II. Departure of Sumner

New men .....

Fifteen years of Democratic absence and opposition

Garfield's place on committees .

Causes of Republican subsidence

Ex-rebels in their war paint . . .

PAGE.

CONTENTS.

Their record in congressional directory

Course and temper of the Republicans

Amnesty battle brought on by Blaine

New amnesty bill

Blaine's speech — Effect

Mr. Hill and his great speech in reply

Its effect ....

Garfield has the floor

His answer to Hill

Reply to Hill continued .

Proof of Davis' complicity .

Hill's charges of cruelty to rebel prisoners

Garfield's reply

Number of prisonors on each side

Reasons for not exchanging prisoners

Effect of the speech

CHAPTER

III. Summer at the Capital

A memorable day

Mr. Lamar and his work

His great speech — Substance of .

Alarm of the Republicans

Nature of the contest

Garfield

His leadership— Big-boyism

His great reply to I^amar

Asks Lamar a question

Quotes from Lamar's speech of 1858

How the South accepts the results of the war

Democratic fitness for rule

Vindicates the Republicans

Estimate of the speech — Its effect

Freaks of fortune

The visiting statesman at New Orleans

CHAPTER IV. Attempted revolution . •

Presidential election of 1876

The commission and its work

Garfield's speech against the bill creating electoral commission

Is unanimously placed on the commission

Opinions in the commission

PAGE,

. 294, 295

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296, 297

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• 300» 301

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3°7

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• 309» 3"

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• 323. 334

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326, 331

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• 332. 334

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•• 334

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PAGE.

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337. 339 commission 339

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34©

CONTENTS.

Other speeches

Extra session of the Forty-sixth congress

Reasons for it

Fraud and Tilden-Thurman counter-irritant

Old army bill — old rider remounted

Garfield opens the debate— Speech

Question stated

Voluntary power of the government

Free consent the basis of our law

Democrats responsible for the election law

New rebellion ....

Course of debate — Replies to Garfield

Garfield's rejoinder

Effect of his leading speech

Speech of April 16 — of June 27

Debate continues ...

Gain of the Extra session to the Democrats

Noble speech in favor of a survey of the Mississippi

Other speeches .....

PAGE.

341 341 341 342

Chapter I. Page

In other characters — conclusion .... 356

Resolves to decline the ministry .... 357, 358

Will study law— method— admitted . . . 358, 359

The Milligan case— his first case . . . 120, 121, 359, 366

The court and where it sat . . . 359. 3°°

Course of the Government and principles involved . . 360, 361

The cas#and counsel ...... 361

Decision of the case ...... 3^5

Mr. Garfield's compensation .... 37 1

The Alexander Campbell will case .... 366

The testator and will ..... 3 6 7

Garfield retained for the devisees, and his preparation . . 367

Case tried to the court in 1867 .... 368

Incidents of the trial ...... 3 6 9

Result and compensation . . , . . 37 x

Life insurance cases ...... 37 2

His labors and fees in them .... 37?

Extent of practice and earnings . . . 37 2 . 373

CONTENTS.

Practice of senators and representatives in the supreme court Amount of earnings at the bar ....

Estimate of Garfield as a lawyer — his intellect

Chapter II

Miscellaneous work Its character and extent North American Review The American congress George H. Thomas Almeda Booth Dr. Robison Eliza Mother

PAGE.

373 373 374

PAGE.

Conclusion

The real man — A sketch

As he appears . . .

Person and manners

Old canal memories

Warmth, tenderness, love .

Judge of men

Sense of the congruous

Instances — The bare-footed girl

The lattice .

Completeness of mind and character

Rare memory

Arlington oration

Constructive power

Methods of work

Rank as an orator .

A born actor

Eulogy of Grant in the Wilderness

Literary style

His life shaped wholly by events

Growth on the public

Conclusion .

Masterly speech at Painesville .

382, 384

96, 384, 387

• 387

78, 402 403

403-405