cumstances. He has a modest house at Washington, and a comfortable little farm and dwelling at Mentor, Ohio. But these represent more than his actual financial worth, inasmuch as he is not out of debt. He can not have cheated the people, nor can he have swindled the government, as has been so often charged against candidates for office; for he possesses very little property, and lives in a very frugal style. His house, his carriage, and his clothing, are plain and cheap, having nothing about them suggestive of opulence or display.

He is a genial, sociable companion, and a kind neighbor. His neighbors love and honor him most. The citizens of his Congressional district seem to idolize him beyond reason. He is more than popu

lar. He is loved.

He holds the respect of his political opponents, and with all his hard blows, they never accuse him of insincerity, or of dishonorable intention. They say that he treats them fairly; and often quote his speech before the Ohio legislature, January 14, 1880, the day after his election as U. S. Senator, as a characteristic act. In that he said:

I recognize the importance of the place to which you have elected me; and I should be base, if I did not also recognize the great man whom you have elected me to succeed. I say for him, Ohio has had few larger-minded, broader-minded men in the records of our history, than that of Allen G. Thurman. Differing widely from him as I have done in politics, and do, I recognize him as a man high in character and great in intellect; and I take this occasion to re

fer to what I have never before referred to in public, that many years ago, in the storm of party fighting, when the air was filled with all sorts of missiles aimed at the character and reputation of public men, when it was even for his party interest to join the general clamor against me and my associates, Senator Thurman said in public, in the campaign, on the stump when men are as likely to say unkind things as at any place in the world a most generous and earnest word of defense and kindness for me, which I shall never forget as long as I live. I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden wall of party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of this world; and where we can early pluck them and enjoy their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so.

The nomination for the presidency came to him, as all his promotions have come, unasked and unsought by him. The Republican convention of 1880 was held in session seven days, at Chicago, completing its nomination on June 9. To that convention General Garfield was a delegate. He had no expectation of the nomination. But the two wings of that party were so antagonistic over the strenuous endeavors of one to nominate General U. S. Grant, and of the other to nominate James G. Blaine, that there was no hope of success for either. Under these circumstances the delegates, after several days of discussion and balloting, turned to look for another name as potent as those before the convention, and to whom none could be opposed. In that situation the name of General Garfield attracted immediate attention.

General Garfield had labored and hoped for the nomination of the Hon. John Sherman of Ohio, and had nominated him in a model speech, a part of which is here inserted :

Mr. President:-I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my heart more quickly than sentiment in honor of a great and noble character; but as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to me that you were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea, from which all hights and depths are measured; when the storm has passed, and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyor take the level from which they measure all terrestrial hights and depths.

Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall feel that calm level of public opinion below the storm from which the thoughts of a mighty people must be measured, and by which their final action will be determined.

Not here in this brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republican party to be decreed. Not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of 756 delegates, waiting to cast their votes into the urn, and determine the choice of the republic, but by 4,000,000 Republican firesides where the thoughtful voters, with wives and children about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of country, with the history of the

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past, the hopes of the future, and the knowledge of the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by. There, God prepares the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heats of June, but in the sober quiet that comes to them between now and November, in the silence of deliberate judgment, will this great question be settled.

But no sooner had the possibility of General Garfield's nomination entered the minds of the delegates, than the current of opinion turned so rapidly towards

THE WHITE HOUSE.

him, as to cause men to say, who had no knowledge of the coming votes, "I feel that Garfield will certainly be nominated." With the sudden impulse of great and excitable bodies, and amid enthusiasm, bustle and wild excitement, his name was given to the country as the choice of a great party. It was another providential approval of a great statesman and an honest man.

The letter which he wrote, accepting the nomina

tion, was an important document to himself, to his party and to the country, and was printed as follows:

MENTOR, O., July 12, 1880.

Dear Sir: On the evening of the 8th of June last, I had the honor to receive from you, in the presence of the committee of which you were the chairman, the official announcement that the Republican national convention of Chicago had that day nominated me for their candidate for President of the United States. I accept the nomination with gratitude for the confidence it implies, and with a deep sense of the responsibilities it imposes. I cordially indorse the principles set forth in the platform adopted by the convention. On nearly all the subjects of which it treats, my opinions are on record among the published proceedings of Congress. I venture, however, to make special mention of some of the principal topics which are likely to become the subject of discussion, without reviewing the controversies which have been settled during the last twenty years, and with no purpose or wish to revive the passions of the late war.

It should be said that, while the Republicans fully recognize, and will strenuously defend, all the rights retained by the people, and all the rights reserved by the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of State supremacy, which so long crippled the functions of the national government and at the time brought the union very near to destruction. They insist that the United States is a nation, with ample power of self-preservation; that its constitutions and laws,