History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 138

Author: Williams bros., Cleveland, pub. [from old catalog]; Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin), 1816-1902
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 574

USA > Iowa > Buchanan County > History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 138

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not only the machinery of the senate and house, but the more com- plex machinery of the executive and judicial departments.

It is worth while to observe with what largeness of comprehension and minuteness of detail the members of that congress studied the problems before them. While Washington was making his way from Mount Vernon to New York, they were determining with what cere- monials he should be received, and with what formalities the intercourse between the President and the congress should be conducted. A joint committee of both houses met him on the Jersey shore, in a richly furnished barge, and, landing at the battery, escorted him to the resi- dence which congress had prepared and furnished for his reception. Then came the question of the title by which he should be addressed. The senate insisted that "a decent respect for the opinion and practice of civilized nations required a special title," and proposed that the President should be addressed as "his highness, the President of the United States of America, and protector of their liberties." At the earnest remonstrance of the more republican house, the senate gave way, and finally agreed that he should be addressed simply as "the president of the United States."

It was determined that the President should, in person, deliver his "annual speech," as it was then called, to the two houses in joint ses- sion; and that each house should adopt an address in reply, to be de- livered to the President at his official residence.

These formalities were manifestly borrowed from the practice of the British parliament, and were maintained until near the close of Jeffer- son's administration.

Communications from the executive departments were also to be made to the two houses by the heads of those departments in person. This custom was unfortunately swept away by the Republican reaction which set in a few years later.

Among questions of ceremony were also the rules by which the President should regulate his social relations to citizens. Washington addressed a long letter of inquiry to John Adams, and to several other leading statesmen of that time, asking their advice on this subject.

The great historic theme is further pursued, under the suggestive sub-titles of "Congress and the Executive,' "Congress and the People," and the significant one of "Congressional Culture."

One hopes Mr. Garfield will take this interesting sub- ject up in the later of time and give the world a book. With his sagacious perception and discrimination, his going alway to the foundation and building logically, his reverence for truth, his copious language and clear style, he certainly could write history, and of the highest order.

There is also his masterly article on "The Currency Conflict," in the same magazine for February, 1876, of twenty compact pages, furnished at the request of the editor. So good a statement of the whole case, with his- torical references, and forceful argument, from his posi- tion, cannot be found in the copious literature of the subject, in space so narrow.

All the utterances of the mind whose labors we have so slightly dealt with, upon any subject, are curious as well as valuable. One likes to see how things look to such an intellect. One wants to know how it deals with them and what are its estimates of them. One expects fresh, vigorous treatment, and looks for light. Here is

LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD.

an oration delivered at Ravenna, July 4, 1860; "National Politics," at Warren, September, 1866; an address to the Geauga historical society; "Free Commerce between the States," in the house, in 1864, and might have been most profitably delivered anywhere. We cannot mention his addresses to literary societies.

There is another class of productions. I hold in my hand two-"In Memoriam" addresses, and in view of my swollen copy, hesitate to open either. One is in- scribed "George H. Thomas;" almost a book, of fifty-two noble pages, delivered before the society of the army of the Cumberland, November 25, 1870, Garfield talking to his comrades of their great old commander. Some things from this without comment. Here is his sketch of the old hero, among the opening paragraphs:

No line can be omitted, no false stroke made, no imperfect sketching done, which you, his soldiers, will not instantly detect and deplore. I know that each of you here present, sees him in memory at this mo- ment, as we often saw in life; erect and strong, like a tower of solid masonry; his broad, square shoulders and massive head; his abundant hair and full beard of light brown, sprinkled with silver; his broad fore- head, full face, and features that would appear colossal, but for their per- fect harmony of proportion; his clear complexion, with just enough color to assure you of robust health and a well-regulated life; his face lighted up by an eye which was cold gray to his enemies, but warm, deep blue to his friends; not a man of iron, but of live oak. His attitude, form and features all assured you of inflexible firmness, of inexpugnable strength; while his welcoming smile set every feature aglow with a kindness that won your manliest affection.

* * * * * *

No human life can be measured by an absolute standard. In this world, all is relative. Character itself is the result of innumerable in- fluences, from without and from within, which act unceasingly through life. Who shall estimate the effect of those latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a new-born child-forces that may date back centuries and find their origin in the life, and thought, and deeds of remote ancestors-forces, the germs of which, enveloped in the awful mystery of life, have been transmitted silently from generation to generation, and never perish! All cherishing nature, provident and unforgetting, gathers up all these fragments, that nothing may be lost, but that all may ultimately reappear in new com- binations. Each new life is thus the "heir of all the ages," the possessor of qualities which only the events of life can unfold. The problems to be solved in the study of human life and character are, therefore, these: Given the character of a man, and the conditions of life around him, what will be his career? Or, given his career and sur- roundings, what was his character? Or, given his character and career, of what kind were his surroundings? The relation of these three fac- tors to each other is severely logical. From them is deduced all gen- uine history. Character is the chief element, for it is both a result and a cause-a result of influences and a cause of results.

On the twenty-sixth page is this extract, summing up a perfect thing:

In the presence of such a career, let us consider the qualities which produced it, and the character which it developed. We are struck, at the outset, with the evenness and completeness of his life. There were

no breaks in it, no chasms, no upheavals. His pathway was a plane of continued elevation.

A little further on is this :

In such a career, it is by no means the least of a man's achievments, to take his own measure, to discover and understand the scope and range of his own capacity.

Did Garfield ever apply this rule to himself?

To him (Thomas) a battle was neither an earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of brave men and frantic horses, involved in vast explo- sions of gunpowder. It was rather a calm, rational concentration of force against force. It was a question of lines and positions; of weight of metal, and strength of battalions.

I resolutely pass marked, great passages to the grand, simple close.

To us, his comrades, he has left the rich legacy of his friendship. To his country and to mankind, he has left his character and his fame, as a priceless and everlasting possession.

" O iron nerve to true occasion true! O fallen at length that tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!" " His work is done ; But while the races of mankind endure, Let his great example stand Colossal seen of every land, And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure, Till in all lands and through all human story, The path of duty be the way to glory."

The other bears the name of Almeda Booth ! The reader may remember her ; a noble-souled, high-hearted, large-brained woman, with corresponding form, asso- ciated with Garfield's professor years. A great help of his in many ways, worthy to associate with the largest and most generous nature on terms of equality. She was one of his first discoverers. She early penetrated that big-boyism that has ever surrounded him as with an atmosphere, making him seem the equal of common men only, or exceeding them mainly in mere quantity. Everybody ran to him, all wanted him, and he had what they wanted ; often thinking that they had only received their own back again, so generous and delicate was the alms bestowed. It was as the rendering back of an over- due debt, paid with excuses for the long delay. She early set her face against this waste, not of thought, mental property, but of himself, the fame and consideration his due, without which the common mind would never measure the immense distance between common men and him. "James I don't want everybody and anybody should feel, that they can have you, everywhere and any- where, not that you will be exhausted or they will not be helped. You are to grow upwards up, and not spread yourself over a great surface." Wise, far-seeing woman that she was who would fence him about and protect his upward growth.

MISCELLANEOUS WORK.

I am not to sketch Miss Booth, worthy as she is to be drawn in even a glancing history of Garfield, but I show his estimate of her for the purpose of helping out a more complete picture of him, and of his many-form work. The address was delivered at Hiram college, June 22d, 1876. The subject of it passed away December 15th, 1875. Sweet and tender are his first words.

Mr. President: You have called me to a duty at once most sad and most sacred. At every step of my preparation for its performance, I have encountered troops of thronging memories that swept across the field of the last twenty-five years of my life, and so filled my heart with the lights and shadows of their joy and sorrow that I have hardly been able to marshal them into order or give them coherent voice. 1 have lived over again the life of this place. I have seen again the groups of young and joyous students, aseending these green slopes, dwelling for a time on this peaceful height in happy and workful companionship, and then, with firmer step, and with more serious and thoughtful faces, marching away to their posts in the battle of life.

And still nearer and clearer have come back the memories of that smaller band of friends, the leaders and guides of those who encamped on this training ground. On my journey to this assembly, it has seemed that they too were coming, and that I should once more meet and greet them. And I have not yet been able to realize that Almeda Booth will not be with us. After our great loss, how shall we gather up the fragments of the life we lived in this place? We are mariners, treading the lonely shore in search of our surviving comrades and the fragments of our good ship, wrecked by the tempest. To her, indeed, it is no wreck. She has landed in safety, and ascended the immortal heights beyond our vision.

The sailor boy's figures of the sea!

Then, with that elementary force of mind which al- ways finds or lays the foundations of things, he constructs the solid base of the beautiful structure of her life and character, which he builds. One all the time, as in the case of Thomas, can't help seeing the builder notwithstanding his effort to disappear. How many beautiful compari- sons he draws between her and others, so that those to whom she, like him, had made herself so common, that the power of estimating her was lost, could see and feel her true proportions. His is the rare gift of seeing and reading the real about him, to which the eyes of common men had been blind. How striking the contrast he draws between the second Adams and Lincoln, and what a masterly comprehension of both. Mark this just appreciation of woman's nature :

Woman's nature is of finer fibre; her spirit is attuned to higher harmonies. "All dipped in angel instincts," she eraves, more keenly than man, the celestial food-the highest culture which earth and heaven can give; and her loss is far greater than his, when she is de- prived of those means of culture so rarely found in pioneer life. Suc- cess in intellectual pursuits, under such conditions, is the strongest possible test of her character.

Then comes the rapid sketch of the pioneer life; of Ezra Booth, the father, whose life deserved a care- ful study. One sees the young girl grow in all her

various lovely ways, under his hand, till the catastrophe of her younger life, thus told:

In the family of her nearest neighbor, she had formed the intimate acquaintance of Martyn Harmon, a young man of rare and brilliant promise. Like herself, he was an enthusiastic student. Ambitious of culture, he had pushed his way through the studies of Meadville col- lege, and was graduated with honor. He had given Almeda his love, and received in return the rich gift of her great heart. The day of their wedding had been fixed. He was away in Kentucky, teaching; while she was in Mantua, preparing to adorn and bless the home of their love. On the sixth of March, 1848, he died of some sudden ill- ness, and was buried near Frankfort, Kentucky.

Hers was an essentially great life, rounded in complete and just proportions, so far as it was permitted to reach, a life which required just such a man as he, whose hand sketched it, to justly appreciate and estimate it. There is a striking sketch of the work of Margaret Fuller, with which he contrasts that of Almeda Booth, with this con- clusion :

Highly as I appreciate the character of Margaret Fuller, greatly as I admire her remarkable abilities, 1 do not hesitate to say that in no four years of her life did her achievements, brilliant as they were, equal the work accomplished by Miss Booth during the four years that fol- lowed her coming to Hiram.

The judgment of a man endowed with a rare insight into the nature and character of men, and what is more unusual, of woman.

Here is the living form of the woman.

We shall never forget her sturdy, well-formed figure; her head that would have appeared colossal but for its symmetry of proportions; the strongly marked features of her plain, rugged face, not moulded according to the artist's lines of beauty, but so lighted up with intelli- gence and kindliness as to appear positively beautiful to those who knew her well.

The basis of her character, the controlling force which developed and formed it, was strength-extraordinary intellectual power.

Here he acknowledges his indebtedness to her.

On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say that for her powerful and generous aid so often and so efficiently rendered, for her quick and never-failing sympathy, and for her intelligent, unselfish and unswerv- ing friendship, 1 owe her a debt of gratitude and affection, for the pay- ment of which the longest term of life would have been too short.

His close was fitting and tender.

What a temptation to sketch in here, as a companion piece, the rough, strong figure of Dr. Robison, whose commanding voice, filling "all space," coming from those great lungs and admirable digestion, moves things by its quantity, on his theory that as rocks are lifted easier in water-so he "inundates" a weighty matter. Not all lung and voice; there are the granite foundations of a man, topped out with a mind practical, accurate, strong and forceful. A famous preacher of the Disciples, to whom Alexander Campbell was more than a hero, almost more than a prophet. He, too, was one of the first, if not the very first, discoverer of Garfield. What

LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD.

a picture is this of the doctor silently leading the callow youth on commencement day, away from the college into a sheltering thicket, and there with the young man kneeling before him, grimly and phrenologically hand- ling that great head, and then in suppressed thunder, declaring it a Daniel Webster head-a greater than Daniel-and solemnly dedicating the weeping youth to a grand career. After which, kneeling himself, he breathed a fervent prayer for his guidance, and laid his hand again on that head, now in benediction. The far- seeing doctor, tender and generous, had before opened his heart to the boy, now his door was opened also.

Other striking forms arise. That Uncle Boynton, of the men and women who early come around to love, cherish and encourage, never to leave him after. He has never lost a friend. Ponder that. And of the nearer and dearer circle where he sits a crowned king, ruling and being ruled by the divine right of love. She who bore him, with her thin bent form, high brow and striking aquiline face, Eliza, great mother, wise as sweet, whose strength equals the sum of wisdom and sweetness, sitting ever at his right hand, as watchful and tender, as anxious now as in his boyhood. Silent she sits with pleased face when he utters a noble thought, reproving what to her is unworthy or un- seemly for him to say; often enforcing her rebuke with her hand smartly on his cheek, as when a little boy; selecting choice and tender bits, or rare fruits, and transferring them to him, which he accepts with the pleased eager air of a boy receiving sugar plums. What a picture she would make with the delicate lines of character running and crossing, and which most men never see, well drawn-Eliza, rebuking the noisy plaudits of the unthinking crowd, and hiding in her heart the sincere words, the prophecies of „,myboy," like Mary, silent and tender. These are not for my hand-never will be, nor yet the other-all the others who form this rare group of home and love.

CHAPTER III.

THE MAN.

His Nature and Qualities .- The Real Man .- The Man as he Appears.

Scattered through my little volume are various esti- mates of some of the striking qualities, with references to the physical mould of James A. Garfield, where such mention seemed apt or asked to be noted down. My purpose mainly has been to translate to my countrymen my conception of the man as it exists in my own mind. Was there a great deal less of him, was he less symmet- rical, rounded and complete, less balanced, less perfect, one may say, so that some one of his great qualities stood out alone and strikingly, the labor would have been less, the result more certain.

THE REAL MAN.

In moulding him Nature had before her one or several of her grandest and noblest models. She did not stint him to a genius-she did not want a poet, a sculptor, a warrior, or merely a statesman, an engineer, or a discov- erer. For some purpose, or many, she wanted a man, as if to vindicate again to herself her own old, true concep- tion of a man, and she made him. She took no effete matter, worn by the long descent of a remarkable strain of men, but used new, fresh, abundant in quan- tity, of rare excellence of quality, all of equal fineness, and each part carried out in symmetrical proportion, large, generous, superabundant, not coarse, not poreus, no gilding, but strong, solid, sweet all through-a primitive man who sees and thinks at first hand. Taking to himself all the thoughts, all the seeings, all the struggles of all other men, and testing them anew by his own seeings and thinkings, with the power of seeing all the significances of the common things around him, not before seen of others, finding new meaning in common words, and the meanings of many things before thought superfluous and without meaning, and so rejected, natural, fresh, vigorous, strong, and so in just and pure relations with primitive forces and ideas. Himself a force, simple and sweet as a child, to whom God is and the Heavens are-one who will never largely depart from the great simples, the spirit, the life and significance of things. A man whose self is the large and generous self, which embraces other selves whom he cherishes and keeps as parts of him, and

THE MAN.

so unconsciously advances his own self, whose vision is broad and high, and not marred by the small defects on which small-eyed men fasten to convict God of un- wisdom, or which to them so large are, that they hide God, and so the seers are atheists; but large, seeing the whole, its beauty and symmetry, and so sees God every- where. A man with instinctive reverence for duty, which don't seem duty, but the thing is attractive to him which he does, because he loves to do it; so it becomes love's work and is easy. It is not as the work of other men, but it gives pleasure to an eager mind, and is as other men's pastimes are-done freshly with laughing brow and happy, jocund words. The things that others can- not do or produce with sweatings and groanings he does easily. He finds things out of place, incongruous, and searches out their true foundations, and puts them back in their places,and goes his way laughing, and other men take the credit. He laughs and don't care. It did not seem much to him, nothing to have praise tor-so easy and natural for him to do. Things which needed to be done sought him out, and placed themselves docilely in his hands, as that of a master for whom they waited, and so being done, stay forever accomplished, and curiously and naturally he never thought of himself, or of any come-out to or for himself. He remained on the common ground of common men, doing their works and jobs without thought of pay or reward. He went about finding discouraged groups here and there, tugging and toiling over their in- evitable tasks, and they instinctively made way for him, and he did it, asking nothing; or they would push him to some new obstruction in their way, too huge for them, and he would remove it, not leading or caring to, though knowing better than another the true way, and with vastly more strength than others to clear it, and secure easy and certain advance. Loving all, serving all, asking only love in return, which no one withholds, and so he lives on the earth.

AS HE APPEARS

To most men, finely formed, of the full, large height; large, unusually large and well-formed head, and carried well; finely moulded limbs; of the rounded fullness of chest and limb, which fill the idea of just, not over bulk and proportion. Two defects: perhaps the neck lacks length; the feet seem too small for a man of his proportions. Hands good, manly, well-formed, strong, firm, forceful; shoulders broad; chest deep; face large-had to be for such a head; well-formed nose ; splendid brows-turn back and study it; blue eyes; fine, light blond, diminishing hair ; soft, full lips; well-formed chin, hidden by the curling blond whiskers; Saxon- Saxon or Norse without doubt. The best likeness ever

made of him fronts my title page. So persistently does the common mind cling to the common of its own plane, cherish and cling to the common of Garfield's early life and surroundings, so insistent that he remain there amid the dwellers of the level, that men who would see and describe him to others, still see only that common in his person, manners and dress. He dresses as do other gentlemen. On his farm he is a farmer, frank and manly, as farmers are. His manners are the out-come, largely, of his hearty kindli- ness, and an inherent courtesy of heart and soul, that instinctively protects the feelings and sensibilities of others; courteous and dignified. The head is well borne; great natural majesty is its proper air, and the whole figure, when the man rises to his true proportions and position, is one of easy, simple dignity, unconsci- ous of what is its due. The man always gives more than he receives, in his common intercourse in life-giv- ing spontaneously, because he has it to give. The spirit, nature and essential man are fine-fibered, not coarse never could have been; never could have been vul- gar. It was all there in the rude-looking, youthful form of the poor canal boy; as real as in him to whom the eyes of a Nation are now turned. They are the same person. The boy did not escape and get new outside impressions, helps and gildings; en- abled to take on new powers, and grow to new life, by accretion, carrying within the vulgar canal hand. All there ever was in him, he received from Eliza Ballou and Abram Garfield. That ever essential thing has never been changed or hidden. It carried him naturally and easily along all the way he ever trod, growing, develop- ing, broadening and deepening, rising higher, and be- coming luminous, till a Nation has caught its rays and turns to it, to light up the high broadway of its own march. In the nature of things, Garfield can not be proud of the everlastingly dwelt-on canal, its malarias and swamps, its coarse, soiled associations, its foul smells and noisome surroundings. We must deplore them; all men deplore them; one weeps that in any tender boys' helplessness and unseeing, there should be no hand to guide him to the something-anything better than that. The instinct so careful of the slightest hurt to the feel- ing of another, cannot but be tenderly sensitive to these early hurts and bruises of soul and spirit, which the thoughtless world in its noisy adulation so constantly re- minds him of. It is too bad-that in his unsought eleva- tion he should hear nothing else. Had the young prince worn it as a disguise, he did not know he was a prince. The first thing which strikes all men, women and chil-

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History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 138

Author: Williams bros., Cleveland, pub. [from old catalog]; Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin), 1816-1902 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams brothers Number of Pages: 574

Author: Williams bros., Cleveland, pub. [from old catalog]; Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin), 1816-1902
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 574