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
"In regard to the great questions of human rights he has stood
inflexible. The successor of Joshua R. Giddings, he is the man on whom
his mantle may be said to have descended. Still he is no blind partisan.
The best arguments in favor of civil service reform are found in the
speeches of Gen. Garfield. He is liberal and generous in the treatment
of the South, one of the foremost advocates of educational institutions
in the South at the national expense. Do you wish for that highest
type--the volunteer citizen soldier? Here is a man who enlisted at the
beginning of the war; from a subordinate officer he became a
major-general, trusted by those best of commanders, Thomas and
Rosecranz, always in the thickest of the fight, the commander of
dangerous and always successful expeditions, and returning home crowned
with the laurels of victory. Do you wish for an honored career, which in
itself is a vindication of the system of the American Republic? Without
the attributes of rank or wealth, he has risen from the humblest to the
loftiest position."
When the nominee of the convention had leisure to reflect upon his new
position, and then cast his eye back along his past life, beginning with
his rustic home in the Ohio wilderness, and traced step by step his
progress from canal-boy to Presidential candidate, it must have seemed
to him almost a dream. It was indeed a wonderful illustration of what we
claim for our Republican institutions, the absolute right of the poorest
and humblest, provided he has the requisite talent and industry to
aspire to the chief place and the supreme power. "It was the most
perfect instance of the resistless strength of a man developed by all
the best and purest impulses, forces, and influences of American
institutions into becoming their most thorough and ablest embodiment in
organic and personal activity, aspiration, and character."
The response to the nomination throughout the country was most hearty.
It was felt that the poor Ohio canal-boy had fitted himself, after an
arduous struggle with poverty, for the high post to which he was likely
to be called. The _N.Y. Tribune_, whose first choice had been the
brilliant son of Maine, James G. Blaine, welcomed the result of the
convention thus:
"From one end of the nation to the other, from distant Oregon to Texas,
from Maine to Arizona, lightning has informed the country of the
nomination yesterday of James A. Garfield, as the Republican candidate
for the Presidency.
"Never was a nomination made which has been received by friend and foe
with such evidence of hearty respect, admiration, and confidence. The
applause is universal. Even the Democratic House of Representatives
suspended its business that it might congratulate the country upon the
nomination of the distinguished leader of the Republicans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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