From Canal Boy to President; Or, the Boyhood and Manhood of James A. GarfieldAlger, Horatio, Jr.
History
From Canal Boy to President; Or, the Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881 -- Childhood and youth; Presidents -- United States -- Biography
Mary Clemmer, the brilliant Washington correspondent, writes of the
scene thus: "For days before, many that would not confess it felt that
he was the coming man, because of the acclaim of the people whenever
Garfield appeared. The culminating moment came. Other names seemed to
sail out of sight like thistledown on the wind, till one (how glowing
and living it was) was caught by the galleries, and shout on shout arose
with the accumulative force of ascending breakers, till the vast
amphitheater was deluged with sounding and resounding acclaim, such as a
man could hope would envelope and uplift his name but once in a
life-time. And he? There he stood, strong, Saxon, fair, debonair, yet
white as new snow, and trembling like an aspen. It seemed too much, this
sudden storm of applause and enthusiasm for him, the new idol, the
coming President; yet who may say that through his exultant, yet
trembling heart, that moment shot the presaging pang of distant, yet
sure-coming woe?"
Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, who was the President of the Convention,
in a speech made not long afterward, paid the following just tribute to
Garfield's character and qualifications:
"Think of the qualifications for the office which that man combines. Do
you want a statesman in the broadest sense? Do you demand a successful
soldier? Do you want a man of more experience in civil affairs? No
President of the United States since John Quincy Adams has begun to
bring to the Presidential office, when he entered, anything like the
experience in statesmanship of Gen. Garfield. As you look over the list,
Grant, Jackson, and Taylor have brought to the position great fame as
soldiers, but who since John Quincy Adams has had such a civil career to
look back upon as Gen. Garfield? Since 1864 I can not think of one
important question debated in Congress or discussed before the great
tribunal of the American people in which you can not find the issue
stated more clearly and better than by any one else in the speeches in
the House of Representatives or on the hustings of Gen. Garfield--firm
and resolute, constant in his adherence to what he thinks is right,
regardless of popular delusions or the fear that he will become less
popular, or be disappointed in his ambitions.
"Just remember when Republicans and Democrats alike of Ohio fairly went
crazy over the financial heresy, this man stood as with his feet on a
rock, demanding honesty in government. About six years ago I sat by the
side of an Ohio Representative, who had an elaborately prepared table,
showing how the West was being cheated; that Ohio had not as many bank
bills to the square mile as the East, and that the Southwest was even
worse off than Ohio.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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