William Walter Phelps

“ Lincoln's urgent request, and on December 3, 1863, resigned his commission, and hastened to Washington to sit in congress, to which he had been chosen fifteen months before, as the successor to Joshua R. Giddings. In the mean time Thomas had received command of the Army of the Cumberland, had reorganized it, and had asked Garfield to take command of a division. His inclination was to accept and continue the military career, which had superior attractions; but he yielded to the representations of the President and Secretary Stanton, that he would be more useful in the house of representatives. ”

“ He also pursued the study of law, entering his name, in 1858, as a student in a law-office in Cleveland, but studying in Hiram. To one ignorant of the slow development that was characteristic of Garfield in all directions, it would seem incredible that he now for the first time began to show any noticeable interest in politics. He seems never to have even voted before the autumn of 1856. No one who knew the man could doubt that he would then cast it, as he did, for John C. Frémont, the first Republican candidate for the presidency. ”

“ But the effects of twenty-five years of most varied discipline, cheerfully accepted and faithfully used, begin now to show themselves, and to give to history one of its most striking examples of what education — the education of books and of circumstances — can accomplish. ”

“ There was bitter dissension in the party in New York, and Garfield gave much consideration to his duty in the premises. He was willing to do anything except yield the independence of the executive in his own constitutional sphere. He would give to the New York senators, Conkling and Platt, more than their share of offices; but they should not be allowed to interfere with or control the presidential right of nomination. ”

“ The final services held were never surpassed in solemnity and dignity, except on February 27, 1882, when, in the hall of representatives, at the request of both houses of congress, his friend, James G. Blaine, then secretary of state, delivered a memorial address, in the presence of the president and the heads of all the great departments of the government, so perfect that the criticism of two continents was unqualified praise. ”

“ The result of it was that the Democrats finally voted $44,600,000 of the $45,000,000 of appropriations originally asked—a great party victory, to which Gen. Garfield largely contributed. His arguments had the more weight because not partisan, but supported by a clear analysis and statement of the relations between the different branches of the government. His last speech to the house was made on the appointment of special deputy marshals, 23 April, 1880. At the same time he made a report of the tariff commission, which showed that he was still a sincere friend to protection. ”

“ Garfield was not born, but made; and he made himself by persistent, strenuous, conscientious study and work. In the next six years he was a college president, a state senator, a major-general in the National army, and a representative-elect to the National congress. American annals reveal no other promotion so rapid and so varied.
On his return to Ohio, in 1856, he resumed his place as a teacher of Latin and Greek at Hiram institute, and the next year (1857) , being then only twenty-six years of age, he was made its president. ”

“ The Democratic members added to two general appropriation bills, in the shape of amendments, legislation intended to restrain the use of the army as a posse to keep the peace at elections, to repeal the law authorizing the employment of deputy U. S. marshals at the elections of members of congress, and to relieve jurors in the U. S. courts from the obligation of the test oath. The senate, which was Republican, refused to concur in these amendments, and so the session ended. An extra session was promptly called, which continued into midsummer. ”

“ His military reputation had preceded him, and secured for him a place in the committee on military affairs, then the most important in congress. His first speech (January 14, 1864) , upon a motion to print extra copies of Gen. Rosecrans official report, was listened to with attention; and, indeed, whenever he spoke upon army matters this was the case. But the attention was given to the man for the information he possessed and imparted rather than to the orator; for in effective speech, as in every other matter in which Garfield succeeded, he came to excellence only by labor and practice. ”

“ In this field, Garfield's influence on the campaign in Middle Tennessee was most important. One familiar incident shows and justifies the great influence he wielded in its counsels. Before the battle of Chickamauga (24 June, 1863) , Gen. Rosecrans asked the written opinion of seventeen of his generals on the advisability of an immediate advance. All others opposed it, but Garfield advised it, and his arguments were so convincing, though pressed without passion or prejudice, that Rosecrans determined to seek an engagement. Gen. Garfield wrote out all the orders of that fateful day (19 Sept.) ”

“ At three years of age James A. Garfield went to school in a log hut, learned to read, and began that habit of omnivorous reading which ended only with his life. At ten years of age he was accustomed to manual labor, helping out his mother's meager income by work at home or on the farms of the neighbors. Labor was play to the healthy boy ”

“ In all the proceedings, peculiar fitness had put Garfield to the front as the counsellor and leader of the anti-Grant majority, and the exhibition of his splendid qualifications won increasing admiration and trust. His tact and readiness in casual debate, and the beauty and force of the more elaborate effort in which he nominated Sherman won the wavering convention. On the thirty-sixth ballot the delegates broke their ranks and rushed to him. He received 399 votes, and then his nomination (June 8, 1880) was made unanimous. ”

“ Success in the one case is vital; success in the other is of minor importance.” On the thirty-third ballot Grant had 306 votes, the remaining 400 being divided between Blaine, Edmunds, and Washburne. The hope of the Grant men or the Blaine men to secure the prize faltered, and in the thirty-fourth ballot Wisconsin broke the monotony by announcing thirty-six votes for James A. Garfield. ”

“ He was already United States senator-elect from the state of Ohio, chosen after a nomination of singular unanimity, January 13, 1880.
Where there is government by party, no leader can escape calumny; hence it assailed Garfield with great venom. In the presidential canvass of 1872, he, with other Republican representatives, was charged with having bought stock in the Crédit Mobilier, sold to them at less than its value to influence their action in legislation affecting the Union Pacific railroad. ”

“ He found time to make frequent orations and addresses before societies and gatherings outside of congress. His address on College Education, delivered before the literary societies of Hiram college (14 June, 1867) , is an admirable plea for a liberal education, and on a subject in which the author was always deeply interested. On 30 May. 1868, he delivered an address on the Union Soldiers, at the first memorial service held at Arlington, Va. ”

“ Garfield, nothing daunted, concentrated his little force, and moved it with such rapidity, sometimes here and sometimes there, that Gen. Marshall, deceived by these feints, and still more by false reports, which were skilfully prepared for him, abandoned his position and many supplies at Paintville, and was caught in retreat by Garfield, who charged the full force of the enemy, and maintained a hand-to-hand fight with it for five hours. The enemy had 5,000 men and twelve cannon; Garfield had no artillery, and but 1,100 men. ”

“ Garfield was left-handed.
His wife, Lucretia Rudolph, born in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, April 19, 1832, was the daughter of a farmer named Mr. Zeb Rudolph. She first met her husband when both were students at Hiram, and was married November 11, 1858, in Hudson, Ohio, soon after his accession to the presidency of the college. Seven children were born to them, of whom five are living. The eldest son, Harry Augustus, is president of Williams college, Mass., and James Rudolph, a younger brother, was secretary of the interior in the Roosevelt cabinet. ”

“ The facts, corroborated in an open letter by James M. Wilson, chairman of the committee, were: In May, 1872, Richard C. Parsons, a Cleveland attorney, then marshal of the supreme court in Washington, having the interests of the patents owned by De Golyer in charge, was called away. He brought all his material to Garfield, and asked him to prepare the brief. The brief was to show the superiority of the pavement (the subject of patent) over forty other kinds, and did not otherwise concern the contract or have anything to do with its terms. ”

“ Gen. Garfield left the convention before the result was announced, and accepted the nomination by letter. This was a thoughtful document, and acceptable to the Republican voters. Disregarding precedent, he spoke in his own behalf in Ohio, New York, and other states. He spoke sensibly and with great discretion, and his public appearance is thought to have increased his popularity. He was elected (November 2, 1880) over his competitor, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, by the votes of every northern state except New Jersey, Nevada, and California. ”

“ Garfield discussed before the commission the Florida and Louisiana returns, on February 9 and 16, 1877. Mr. Blaine left the house in 1877 for the senate, and this made Garfield the undisputed leader of the Republican party in the house. He was at this time its candidate for speaker.
The struggle began in the second session of the 45th congress (1879) , when the Democratic majority sought to control the president through the appropriations, gave Garfield a fine opportunity to display his powers as a leader in opposition. ”

“ Marshall had 5,000 men, while Garfield had but half that number, and must march through a state where the majority of the people were hostile, to attack an enemy strongly intrenched in a mountainous country. ”