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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

Remaining there alone for a quarter of an hour, the General thought of
the tragic event, and what he should say. Is there not something weirdly
prophetic, to us who live under the reign of Arthur, in the picture of
that silent man of serious mien and thoughtful brow, sitting alone, and
thinking of our _first_ assassinated President?

Just as the clerk finished reading the previous day’s Journal of the
House, Mr. Garfield arose and said:

  “_Mr. Speaker_: I desire to move that this House do now adjourn; and
  before the vote upon that motion is taken, I desire to say a few
  words.

  “This day, Mr. Speaker, will be sadly memorable so long as this
  nation shall endure, which, God grant, maybe ‘till the last syllable
  of recorded time,’ when the volume of human history shall be sealed
  up and delivered to the Omnipotent Judge.

  “In all future time, on the recurrence of this day, I doubt not that
  the citizens of this Republic will meet in solemn assembly to
  reflect on the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, and the awful
  tragic event of April 14, 1865,—an event unparalleled in the history
  of nations, certainly unparalleled in our own. It is eminently
  proper that this House should this day place upon its records a
  memorial of that event.

  “The last five years have been marked by wonderful developments of
  human character. Thousands of our people before unknown to fame,
  have taken their places in history, crowned with immortal honors. In
  thousands of humble homes are dwelling heroes and patriots whose
  names shall never die. But greatest among all these developments
  were the character and fame of Abraham Lincoln, whose loss the
  nation still deplores. His character is aptly described in the words
  of England’s great laureate—written thirty years ago—in which he
  traces the upward steps of some

                               “‘Divinely gifted man,
                 Whose life in low estate began,
                 And on a simple village green:

                 Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar,
                 And grasps the skirts of happy chance,
                 And breasts the blows of circumstance,
                 And grapples with his evil star:

                 Who makes by force his merit known,
                 And lives to clutch the golden keys
                 To mold a mighty State’s decrees,
                 And shape the whisper of the throne:

                 And moving up from high to higher,
                 Becomes on Fortune’s crowning slope,
                 The pillar of a people’s hope,
                 The center of a world’s desire.’

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.