USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 15
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of Latin, philosophy, and botany. He worked at mechanical or faim labor during the summer, studied in the fall, and taught district school in winter and spring. In August, 1851, he entered as pupil the new institute established by the Dis- ciples at Hiram, a small village in Portage County. He con- tinued at this school the greater part of three years, part of the time as tutor for the younger classes, and here he
prepared himself to enter the junior class at college. His future wife recited to him at this academy two years in Greek, when she went to teach in the public schools in Cleveland. It was his first intention to finish a college course at the Dis- ciples' College, in Bethany, Virginia, but circumstances di- rected him to Williams College, which he entered in 1854. He had saved up three hundred and fifty dollars, and had
paid his way so far without incurring debt. Upon graduating from Williams College, Mr. Garfield returned to Hiram, where he became professor of Latin and Greek; and infusing new energy into its instructions, he soon rose to be its principal.
On the IIth of November, 1858, he married his former school-fellow and pupil, Lucretia Rudolph. A more happy marriage was never consummated, nor one better calculated to conserve the interests and affections of both husband and wife. While teaching he studied law, and determined to make that his profession for life. He also gained reputation as an orator, and made numerous political speeches. As a Republican, he had always resisted the encroachments of slavery, and both by voice and vote occupied advance ground on the subject of abolition. In 1859 he was nominated and elected State Senator by the people of Summit and Portage Counties. When the war broke out he accepted a com- mission, tendered him by Governor Dennison, to proceed to Springfield, Illinois, and procure five thousand stand of arms, removed to that city from St. Louis. These he saw safely delivered in Columbus, and then went to Cleveland, to assist in enlisting men for the army. He was appointed Lieutenant- colonel of the Forty-second Regiment, which was largely com- posed of Garfield's pupils, friends, and associates, and after five weeks spent in drilling and completing the organization, he became its Colonel. The regiment went to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, in December, 1861, and its colonel was directed to report in person to General Buell. The general soon per- ceived of what stuff Garfield was made, and gave him com- mand of the Seventeenth Brigade, with orders to expel the rebel forces, under Humphrey Marshall, from Sandy Valley, in Eastern Kentucky. For several months subsequently, in 1862, he kept that military district free from the Confederate forces, and was probably the chief means of expelling them from it permanently. Attacked with malarial fever, Colonel Garfield was an invalid for some time, and on his recovery was ordered to Washington, where he served as a member of the court-martial that tried Fitz-John Porter. In January, 1863, he was ordered to join General Rosecrans, in Tennessee, who, though prejudiced against him at first, soon recognized his great abilities, and made him chief of his staff. In this position he rendered important service, and by his prompti- tude of action turned the doubtful battle of Chickamauga, September 20th, into a victory. For his conspicuous bravery on that occasion, he won the rank of Major-general, having been created a Brigadier-general during his campaign in Kentucky. The year previous, General Garfield had been nominated and elected by the Republicans of Joshua R. Gid- dings's old district their representative in Congress. When he accepted the nomination, it was with the understanding.
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that he was not to take his seat, if elected, until December, 1863, as he supposed the war would by that time be over. As it, however, continued, he thought of resigning his seat, so that he might remain with the army, but President Lincoln told him he greatly desired his influence in the House, as being one well acquainted with the military wants of the country, and able to assist in pushing through the needed war legislation. Accordingly, he threw up his commission as General, December 5th, 1863, and took his seat. He was appointed on the Military Committee, with General Schenck as chairman, and was of great service in carrying through the measures which recruited the armies during the closing montlis of the war. He soon took rank in the House as a ready and well-informed debater. His knowledge was always at command, his memory was accurate and extensive, and his judgment never at fault. In social intercourse his genial manners and unruffled temper won him many friends. He always commanded the respect of his opponents, and his in- tellectual force made itself felt by all. When Mr. Garfield entered the House he was but thirty-one years old, and there were many experienced statesmen members of that body. He did not venture, at first, to cope with any of them, but in the committees on which he served he showed his industry and his skill. His opinions were formed after careful inves- tigation and study. His research was thorough and deep, and he made himself master of every subject which he took in hand. His first notable speech in the House was upon the Camden and Amboy Railroad, in 1864. In the summer of that year a difference took place between the President and some of the most radical leaders of the Republican party in Congress, upon the subject of the reconstruction of the States of Louisiana and Arkansas. Congress passed a bill providing for the organization of loyal governments within the Union lines of those States, but President Lincoln vetoed the act, and appointed military governors. Senator Wade, of Ohio, and Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, severely criticised the course of the President, in a letter addressed to the New York Tribune, and with them General Garfield strongly sympathized. When the Republican Convention of his district met, a few weeks subsequently, to nominate their candidate for Congress, the feeling against him, on account of the stand he had taken, was so bitter, that he regarded his renomination as hopeless. He, however, at- tended the convention, and being called upon to explain his position, went upon the platform. Every one expected an explanation, in the nature of an apology, but he boldly de- fended his position, approved the manifesto, justified Senator Wade, and said he had nothing to retract, and could not change his honest convictions for the sake of a seat in Con- gress. He had great respect, he said, for the opinions of his constituents, but greater regard for his own. If he could serve them as an independent Representative, acting on his own judgment and conscience, he would be glad to do so, but if not, he did not want their nomination-he preferred to be an independent private citizen. Leaving the platform, he went out of the hall and down the steps, supposing that he had effectually cut his own political throat. No sooner had he disappeared than one of the youngest delegates sprang to his feet, and said: " The man who has the courage to face a convention like that, deserves a nomination. I move that General Garfield be nominated by acclamation." The shouts with which the motion was carried reached the General's ears, and his nomination was speedily followed by his elec-
tion, with over twelve thousand majority. In the Congress which assembled in December, 1865, General Garfield asked Speaker Colfax to transfer him from the Committee on Mil- itary Affairs to that of Ways and Means. He foresaw that the financial questions which would come up would soon occupy the attention of the country, and he desired to prepare himself to meet them. He studied them in all their bearings, poring over the works which treated of finance and State's- economy in the Congressional Library, and minutely exam- ining the history of national wealth in all the countries of Europe. He soon became at home in these and the kindred subjects of tariff and taxation, and was ready to speak upon them. In 1866 he made his first great argument on the cur- rency question. He assumed a position which he was pre- pared to defend, and which he ever afterward maintained. His speeches on the tariff attracted almost as much attention as those on the currency. They were eminently broad and statesmanlike. General Garfield served successively in the Lower House during all the sessions of Congress from the time of his first election until the year of his elevation to the Presidency. In the Fortieth Congress he was Chairman of the Military Committee. He set afoot a thorough examina- tion of the condition of the army, the organization and effi- ciency of the staff and line, and sought by legislation to correct the errors of routine and tradition, and to modernize the service. To do this, he prepared a report which has since been a standard work in military circles. During this Congress he secured the passage of a bill for the establish- ment of a Bureau of Education, and suggested a new method of compiling the census statistics, which failed of adoption in 1870, but which was substantially enacted in 1880. In the Forty-first Congress he was made Chairman of the Com- mittee on Banking and Currency. It is due largely to his championship of the measure that the government bonds were declared payable only in coin, and the bill to this effect was the first one signed by President Grant, who thus made it a law. In the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses he was Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. The next three Congresses were Democratic, and he was placed on the Committee of Ways and Means. In the last of these he was the acknowledged leader of his party, and an able one he proved himself, especially at the extra session in 1879. His speeches at this session, in opposition to the Democratic attempts to coerce the President by imposing "riders " to appropriation bills, were the climax and the crown of his legislative career. They made him the central figure in the politics of his native State; and in January, 1880, when the Ohio Legislature met, and it became neces- sary to elect a Senator to succeed Hon. Allen G. Thurman, whose term was about to expire, General Garfield received the unanimous vote of his party for this office, and was accord- ingly elected. He had before been thought of for this place; and in 1877, when John Sherman, then Senator, was selected by President Hayes as his Secretary of the Treasury, and it was necessary for the Legislature to fill the vacancy caused by his resignation, General Garfield would have been chosen for the unexpired term, but he peremptorily refused to allow his name to come before the nominating caucus. This he did at the personal solicitation of President Hayes, who thought he could be of more service to the administration as a leader of the Republicans in the House than as a mere peer in the Senate. Just after his election, Mr. Garfield made an address to the members of the Legislature, in the Senate
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Chamber of the Ohio State Capitol. In it he paid a high compliment to Mr. Thurman, who, though belonging to a different school in politics, was a man of large ideas and a despiser of partisan trickery and meanness. In that address the Senator-elect, speaking of himself, said, and his words are both characteristic and true to fact: "During the twenty years that I have been in public life (almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States) I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my convictions, at whatever per- sonal cost to myself. I have represented for many years a district in Congress whose approbation I greatly desired ; but, though it may seem perhaps a little egotistical to say it, 1 yet desired still more the approbation of one person, and his name was Garfield. He is the only man that 1 am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and live with, and die with; and if I could not have his approbation I should have bad companionship." These are the utterances of loyalty to conscience, and it is this loyalty which gave him not only the control of himself, but the leadership of others. He that is untrue to his own convictions is leaning upon a broken staff, which will fail him in the hour of need. General Gar- field was not permitted to take his seat in the Senate, for the entire nation claimed him for the highest office in their gift. Before the date when his term of service was to begin, the Republican Convention, which met at Chicago, June, 1880, nominated him for the Presidency. Of the subsequent cam- paign it is not necessary to speak in detail. It was one of the closest political struggles ever fought in this country. As against Mr. Garfield, it was one of calumnies and slanders. Old scandals, which had no shadow of truth, were revived ; and almost on the eve of the election a forged letter was published over Mr. Garfield's signature, designed to influence votes against him. But all the efforts of his political oppo- nents failed, and he was triumphantly elected, November 2d, 1880, carrying all the Northern States, except California (in which he received one electoral vote), New Jersey, and Ne- vada. The entire electoral vote for James A. Garfield was two hundred and fourteen, and for Winfield Scott Hancock one hundred and fifty-five. On the 4th of March, 1881, he was inaugurated President, at Washington, and three days afterward his Cabinet was confirmed by the Senate, as fol- lows: James G. Blaine, Secretary of State; William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury; Thomas L. James, Postmaster- general; Robert T. Lincoln, Secretary of War; William H. Hunt, Secretary of the Navy ; Samuel J. Kirkwood, Secretary of the Interior; and Wayne McVeagh, Attorney-general. The extra session of the Senate soon developed a dead-lock, which continued several weeks. The Republican party was divided into two factions; the President endeavoring to carry out his policy of civil service reform, and the Senators from New York resisting the confirmation of nominations in pur- suance of that policy, for their State. Then came the resig- nations of Senators Platt and Conkling. The air was filled with rumors. Determined opposition to the President mani- fested itself, and he was even accused of ingratitude toward those who had used their best efforts to secure his election. Meanwhile the President was resolute, and calm, and self- possessed. He determined to lead, not to follow. His course was taken, and he swerved not for an instant from the general policy which he marked out for himself. In the midst of the contending elements, his wife was seized with an illness which threatened her life. She was long and tenderly watched by
her husband, until her recovery was assured. few days, and returned to the capital, June 27th. He now President took her to Long Branch, where he remained a Then the
built high hopes of future usefulness, was secure in the affections of the people, and for the first time seemed to sit
easy in the chair of state. His wife's health continued to
improve, and he then determined to seek needed rest. It
was his intention to visit New England, to get away from the
importunities of office-seekers, and breathe the pure air of
the sea-coast and the mountain-tops. He expected to revisit
cruited in health. The day was fixed for him to leave. On make a flying visit to Ohio; and return to Washington, re- his alma mater, and deliver the annual address; thence to
the morning of the 2d of July he left the Presidential mansion, in company with Secretary Blaine, and rode down the avenue to the Baltimore and Ohio Depot, where he expected to take the cars for Long Branch. He is described as being unusu- state were in a prosperous condition, partisan strife was lulled, the New York nominations had been confirmed, affairs of ally joyous on that morning. The Senate had adjourned, and the bitter antagonisms of the past few weeks were quieted, if not ended; and, above all, his wife was steadily recovering reached the center of the apartment, when two pistol-shots, the Secretary, he passed into the ladies' parlor, and had from her sickness. As he entered the depot, arm in arm with fired in rapid succession, startled the bystanders. Secretary Blaine turned around to see what the firing meant, when he observed that his chief had fallen to the floor. It was then instantly perceived that the shots had been intended for the President. He was immediately borne on a couch to a room in the second story, where a preliminary examination was made of his wounds, by Dr. D. W. Bliss, who was the first
surgeon summoned. Associated with him were Drs. J. J. Woodward, Robert Reyburn, and Surgeon-general J. K. Barnes. It was at once determined to remove him to the White House, and orders were given for this purpose. By direction of the sufferer, a dispatch was sent immediately to Mrs. Garfield, at Long Branch, saying that he was seriously hurt, and that he hoped she would soon be with him. She started immediately for Washington, and was by his side the next morning. An ambulance was soon in attendance, and gently the wounded President was lifted in, and rapidly driven home. Meanwhile the excitement in the city was intense. Before it had recovered from the shock, the assassin was secured, and instantly carried off to jail. In the feverish excite- ment of the moment, it was supposed that he had accomplices. None knew how widely a conspiracy existed, nor who were in- volved. Men's hearts failed them because of fear ; but as the days went on, and the transaction became fully known, it was found that the assassination was the sole act of a dis- appointed office-seeker-a vain, contemptible wretch, whose vanity was scarcely less than his depravity, and whose cow- ardice was greater than either. When the President inquired of his surgeons of the probability of his' case, and was in- formed that there was only one chance in a hundred of his living, he said: "Well, then, we will take that chance." He expressed himself ready to die, if it must be, and contem- plated death with serenity. For weeks he lay, a patient sufferer, at the White House, and the American people-in fact, the entire civilized world-watched with anxiety the daily bulletins that told of his condition ; now hoping for the best, now fearing the worst. At length it was decided that a change of air might prove beneficial. Sixty-five days of agony had
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BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
been bravely endured, and he was himself anxious to be borne away. A pleasant cottage by the sea-side, at Elberon, Long Branch, was placed at his disposal, a railroad track of over three thousand feet was laid directly by the very door of the cottage, connecting with the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania Railroads, and the entire line was ordered to be cleared for the President's special train. September 6th, he was carefully carried out on a stretcher from his chamber of sickness, placed in an easy van, driven rapidly to the depot, and there gently laid upon a new bed arranged for him in one of the coaches of the train, and so, speedily and without interruption or stoppage, conveyed to Long Branch. He reached Elberon about one o'clock, P. M., and was im- mediately transferred from the car to the cottage. He stood the journey well, and his condition seemed to improve. Millions of hearts were, all that day, lifted up in supplication . for his safety and restoration. By general agreement, the Gov- ernors of the States had appointed the day to be observed in the churches and homes with fasting and prayer in the Presi- dent's behalf. For several days thereafter the President was apparently better and stronger. From his reclining couch he could see through the low window the ships at sea, and spoke with interest of their movements. But the end came at last. Almost unexpectedly, he suffered a relapse, and grew weaker. Yet even then he took a hand-glass in his hand, and survey- ing his features in it, said he could not understand why he should be so weak, when his face looked so bright. This was at six o'clock, P. M., Monday, September 19th. At ten o'clock he started from a disturbed slumber, and on General Swaim, his attendant, saying to him : "You have had a nice, comfortable sleep," he replied : "O Swaim, this terrible pain," placing his hand over the region of his heart. He drank a few drops of water, again spoke of the intense pain, and in a few seconds relapsed into unconsciousness. The house- hold was summoned, and Dr. Bliss and Mrs. Garfield were by his bedside at once. At 10.30 P. M. he breathed his last. The news was received everywhere with sincere sorrow. His long contest with death, his brave and serene demeanor in suffering, his cheerfulness and resignation, and his manly virtues, heightened by sickness, attached to him all hearts. Kings and queens, and rulers of all lands, hastened to ex- press their profound sympathy. Tributes of affection were laid on his bier. The whole world hastened to do him honor. Never had any death, in any land, so moved the hearts of men, and it seemed as if in every home in America death had entered and carried off the best beloved of every family. His remains have been laid at rest in his native State, near his old home. He leaves a name untarnished-a better in- heritance for his children than the treasures which have been generously bestowed upon their mother and them. In future history the name of James A. Garfield will occupy a large place. His assassin-his name shall not pollute this page- " good were it for that man if he had never been born." In person Mr. Garfield was well built. His frame was large, compact, and erect. He weighed about two hundred pounds, in his best condition, and his manners were easy, natural, and free. His head was massive, set upon broad shoulders; his features wore a kindly expression, and were such as to invite rather than repel confidence. His voice was deep- toned and rich. Though always earnest, he was not severe; though scholarly, he was not pedantic; and though firm as adamant, he was as docile as a child. His reverence was . only equaled by his humility. He was never ashamed of
his religion, and dared to carry his convictions of divine things into the realities of political life. His perceptive fac- ulties were large; so were his meditative. Hence he never spoke rashly nor crudely. His congressional speeches, and all his public utterances, bear the marks of a full mind. He was ready upon all occasions that called him forth ; and often was an orator of impassioned eloquence. A few words of his in New York City, upon the morning after President Lincoln's assassination, subdued a mob, and reduced to quiet a raging, surging multitude of men ready at a rash word to indulge in riot and bloodshed. To Mr. and Mrs. Garfield seven children were born, of whom five are living.
McLEAN, JOHN, jurist and statesman, was born in Morris county, New Jersey, March 11th, 1785, and died at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 4th, 1861. His father, a man in humble circumstances, with a large family, moved to the western country in 1789, settling, for brief periods, first at Morgantown, Virginia, afterwards near Nicholasville, Ken- tucky, and still later in the neighborhood of Mayslick, in the same State, whence, finally, in 1799, he removed to that part of the Northwestern territory now included in Warren county, Ohio, where he occupied and cleared a farm upon which for forty years, and until his death, he resided. After working upon his father's farm until he was sixteen years of age, im- proving such occasional opportunities of schooling as the neighborhood afforded, our subject received instruction from one or two private teachers in the classical languages, with which he became well acquainted; meanwhile, that he might not tax his father's limited means, he supported him- self and paid for his tuition with his own labor. Determining to adopt the legal profession, he came to Cincinnati and en- gaged himself, at the age of eighteen, to write in the clerk's office of Hamilton county, devoting a part of each day to this employment, so as to maintain himself while studying law under the direction of Arthur St. Clair, a son of General St. Clair, then eminent in the legal profession. While thus sup- porting himself he gained, in connection with the principles of the law itself, a knowledge of its practical forms, with the details of public business, and acquired methodical and dili- gent habits, which were serviceable in his subsequent career. At this time he became a member of and took part in the discussions of a Cincinnati debating society, several of whose members, besides himself, afterward reached distinction in the public service. He was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1807, and entering upon the practice of law at Lebanon, in Warren county, soon found himself in the road to professional success. At the October election of 1812, having become a candidate to represent his district, which then included Cin- cinnati, in Congress, he was elected by a large majority after a lively contest with two competitors, over both the opposing candidates. From his first entrance into public life he was identified with the democratic party, but in Congress he was not a blind advocate of merely party measures, sometimes voting against his political friends; yet so highly were his in- tegrity and his judgment estimated, that neither his demo- cratic colleagues nor constituents withdrew from him on that account. Mr. McLean gave his warm support to the admin- istration of James Madison, and by an able speech defended the measures adopted for carrying on the war against En- gland. He originated the law to indemnify individuals for property lost in the public service, and introduced a resolu- tion, which led to favorable Congressional action, directing
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