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The Life and Work of James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States: Embracing an Account of the Scenes and Incidents of His Boyhood; the Struggles of His Youth; the Might of His Early Manhood; His Valor As a Soldier; His Career As a Statesman; His Election to the Presidency; and the Tragic Story of His Death.Ridpath, John Clark

History

The Life and Work of James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States: Embracing an Account of the Scenes and Incidents of His Boyhood; the Struggles of His Youth; the Might of His Early Manhood; His Valor As a Soldier; His Career As a Statesman; His Election to the Presidency; and the Tragic Story of His Death.

Name: The Life and Work of James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States: Embracing an Account of the Scenes and Incidents of His Boyhood; the Struggles of His Youth; the Might of His Early Manhood; His Valor As a Soldier; His Career As a Statesman; His Election to the Presidency; and the Tragic Story of His Death.
Author: Ridpath, John Clark

Ridpath, John Clark

Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881

Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)






[Illustration: _J. A. Garfield_]

[Illustration:

  MRS. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

  _Eng^d by H B Hall & Sons New York._
]




                          _MEMORIAL EDITION._




                                  THE
                             LIFE AND WORK
                                   OF
                           JAMES A. GARFIELD,
               TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
                               EMBRACING
AN ACCOUNT OF THE SCENES AND INCIDENTS OF HIS BOYHOOD; THE STRUGGLES OF
 HIS YOUTH; THE MIGHT OF HIS EARLY MANHOOD; HIS VALOR AS A SOLDIER; HIS
         CAREER AS A STATESMAN; HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY;
                                  AND
                     THE TRAGIC STORY OF HIS DEATH.


                                   BY
                      JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.,
   AUTHOR OF A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES; A GRAMMAR-SCHOOL
   HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES; AN INDUCTIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH
                             LANGUAGE, ETC.

                         COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED.

                          P. W. ZIEGLER & CO.,
                       PHILADELPHIA AND CHICAGO.
                                 1881.




                   COPYRIGHTED, 1881, BY J. T. JONES.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                PREFACE.


Dean Swift describes the tomb as a place where savage enmity can rend
the heart no more. Here, in the ominous shadow of the cypress, the
faults and foibles of life are forgotten, and the imagination builds a
shining pathway to the stars. Ascending this with rapid flight, the
great dead is transfigured as he rises; the clouds close around him,
and, in the twinkling of an eye, he is set afar on the heights with
Miltiades and Alexander.

The tendency to the deification of men is strongest when a sudden
eclipse falls athwart the disk of a great life at noontide. The pall of
gloom sweeps swiftly across the landscape, and the beholder, feeling the
chill of the darkness, mistakes it for the death of nature. So it was
three hundred years ago when the silent Prince of Orange, the founder of
Dutch independence, was smitten down in Delft. So it was when the
peerless Lincoln fell. So it is when Garfield dies by the bullet of an
assassin.

No doubt this man is glorified by his shameful and causeless death. The
contrast between his life and his death is indeed the very irony of
fate. On the popular imagination he is borne away to Washington and
Lincoln. He is canonized—the American people will have it so.

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