"This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner; neither is there salvation in any other." FOOTNOTES: [B] See page 478. CHAPTER XXVI. News of the Nomination Received with Delight.--Mr. Robeson speaks for the Democrats in the House of Representatives.--Ratification Meeting at Williams College.--Governor Long's Opinion.--Hotly-contested Campaign.--Garfield Receives the Majority of Votes.--Is Elected President on the Second of November, 1880.--Extract from Letter of an Old Pupil.--Review of Garfield's Congressional Life.--His own Feelings in Regard to the Election. The news of the nomination at Chicago was received with unfeigned delight throughout the country. In the House of Representatives at Washington, Mr. Robeson, by request, spoke for the Democrats as well as the Republicans, in terms of the highest commendation of the new nominee; and three hearty cheers were given for him by both parties. A ratification meeting was immediately held at Williams College, and the excited students sang as a chorus to "Marching through Georgia:" "Hurrah! hurrah! we'll shout for General G.! Hurrah! hurrah! a Williams man was he, And so we'll sing the chorus from old Williams to the sea, And we'll cast a vote for Garfield!" Governor Long, of Massachusetts, when asked his opinion of the nomination, said,-- "I feel an especial pride and satisfaction in the nomination of Garfield, as I have both desired and publicly urged it from the first. "I regard General Garfield as a representative Republican, a sound statesman, a thorough scholar, and with that good record as a soldier which never yet has failed to be a claim upon the hearts of the American people. I regard it as felicitous in General Garfield that, like so many of his predecessors, he sprang from the humbler walks of life, and, by his own efforts, has made his own way to eminence, and is not identified as the special representative of wealth or any great controlling interests. "As a representative from the old Joshua Giddings district, he has stood from the first as an exponent of equal rights, and he has been an advocate of honest money in the days when it cost something to face the 'Ohio idee.' Add to this his high personal character, his purity and integrity, and yet his entire approachableness, and you have an ideal candidate who commends himself to every good element in the party and welds it firmly together again, and whose nomination is his election." The press were remarkably unanimous in their praise of Garfield. Even the Southern papers seemed pleased with the nomination, and the New Orleans _Times_ said,-- "Garfield is a very fair representative of the better element of the Republican party, superior to most of his competitors at Chicago in mental force, and equal to them in other essential attributes."