CHAPTER XXIII. IN MEMORIAM. RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF HIS LIFE. THE SECRET OF HIS GREATNESS. -TRIBUTES FROM DISTINGUISHED MEN. INCIDENT OF HIS SICKNESS. -LETTER WRITTEN IN HIS BOYHOOD. — SUBSCRIPTION FOR HIS FAM ILY. CLOSING WORDS. As we cast a retrospective glance over the life which has now become as a whole a matter of history, the question presents itself to the student of the biography: In what feature of his character did his greatness most exhibit itself? Unlike some of ancient renown, and who perhaps would have been less renowned had they lived in this critical, enlightened century, General Garfield was not great in all directions. What strength may have lain dormant in his nature, undeveloped for the lack of those circumstances which would exhibit or test them, cannot be estimated. Certainly, neither in war, nor letters, nor revolutions, was he placed under such fearful tests. as have been noted in the history of some other men in other countries. Yet we say, and the verdict of unbiased history will say, he is counted rightly among the great men of his time. Looking, then, closely into his character and rec ord, we should say that the noblest characteristic of his nature was his outspoken, outacted, and unrivaled sympathy with the weak. Without that principle deeply permeating his nature no man can be either noble, good, or great, in the best sense of those terms, and the grandest heroism of any age has found its impetus in that disposition. When Jimmy Garfield returned to his mother, in her old log cabin, because he could not bear to leave her alone, and pledged himself to remain by her as her support, he exhibited in a touching manner this noble impulse. When James A. Garfield, as a school-boy, spread his strong hand and arm as a protective shield to the little boys and girls which the rude youths of Orange were persecuting, the nobility of his nature came clearly into view. When James, as a student at the Chester Academy, stood boldly forth as the champion of the weak and despised denomination of Christians, against the popular opinion, ridicule, and the opposition of the professors, and declared, "They shall not want a disciple while I live," he arose to a higher plane of heroism, and exhibited the true spirit of martyrdom. When, in the Ohio Legislature, the cause of the poor slave was being bandied about in jokes, and the "nigger" was often mentioned in derision, James A. Garfield wrote to his colleague, and quoted Burns, saying: "A man's a man for a' that." The greatness of his soul again arose in view. When, in that terrible and disastrous battle at Chattanooga, the strongest wing of the Union army, under the direct command of Rosecrans himself, was scattered like chaff; when panic and dismay were shown in every soldier's pallid face; when for two miles the roads, fields, ravines, and hill-sides were covered with the ghastly dead, or the more hideous bodies of the shattered and bleeding living; when General Thomas alone held his post in the darkness of his own cannon's smoke, then, when Brigadier-General Garfield turned back the tide of retreat by pleading with the men not to leave the wounded and dying in the hands of the enemy, and rallied enough to protect the flank of Thomas's division, and save the victory, and it may be save the great republic, the sublimest heights of human greatness seemed to have been reached. For that he was made a major-general. When, in the Chicago Republican Convention of 1880, General Garfield took the side of the derided and despised Virginian who dared declare himself alone to be the keeper of his own conscience, and who enunciated the principle that right, and not party, claimed his first allegiance, then again, under the most trying circumstances, and yet in the clearest light, his sympathy for the weak gave power to his words, and elevated him far above the masses of the convention. For that he was made President. The following letter was from John G. Whittier : |