INTRODUCTION.
Mountainsare the homes of giants,—giants in brawn and giants in brain. The giants of brawn may be the more numerous, and in the sense of muscle and fisticuffs, more powerful; but not in the sense of manhood and power that achieves results that are far-reaching and that endure,—results that thrill a nation’s heart and command the admiration of the world.
Whoever makes you proud that you are a man,—that you are an American citizen,—makes you feel that life is not only worth living, but that to live is joy and glory,—such an one lifts you up toward those higher regions from which man has evidently fallen, and gives some glimmer and hint of the old image and likeness in which we were created. That man who comes from nearest to the nation’s heart and gets nearest to the world’s heart, brings with him lessons of wisdom, goodness, and love which shall work like leaven with transforming power.
Great not only in brains, but great in heart, also, are the giant men of true greatness, who come down from the mountains into the arena of the world’s activities. They need no introduction. The world awaits them, recognizes, and hails them. They know and are known; they love and are beloved. Place awaits them, and they enter; fitness fits; life is a triumph, and they are happy. Such men, fresh from nature’s mint, bring consciences with them,—consciences unseared, into the battle of life.
These are not only the germ of character and the source of joy, but chief among the elements of that stupendous strength which makes victory their birthright, and victory is the birthright of every good, true soul that will work to win. Only the false and the indolent are sure to fail; the true and industrious are ever succeeding.
Especially great in powers of will are the men who come forth from the nation’s strength and give themselves back in exalted service to a nation’s life. The great streams that flow into the ocean, went forth of the ocean in mists and clouds of rain. The great men of Rome were the products of Rome. The great men of Germany and France are the products of those respective countries. And so the great men of America are the products of America. It took generations to produce the heroes of the Revolution, but when the hour struck, they came forth, full armedwith a purpose that blood could not weaken, clad in a panoply that no host could destroy. Washington blazed forth as an orb of greater magnitude in the chair of state, in time of peace, than in the saddle in time of war. As a warrior he cut out the work, as statesman he made it. Statesmanship is more the work of the whole man and of a life-time. Garfield was splendid upon the field of battle, but while there he shone as a star among suns, while in the halls of state he shone as a sun among stars. There was a steady grandeur of purpose, a magnificence of character, a wealth of intellect, a power of thought, a loftiness of courage, of that high, heroic type which moral stamina alone can produce, which created a greater demand for him in the councils of the nation than in the battle-front when warriors were the nation’s sorest need. Others could take his place in Tennessee, but not in Washington.
Among the nation’s great productions, born midway between the war of the Revolution and the war of the Rebellion; born in times of peace, for times of direst carnage and divinest peace again, a very prince of the land; born to lead, and born to rule; springing at once with the bound of youthful blood into the foremost ranks of the nation’s monarchs of forces, and emperors of kingly powers, is he who leads to-day the giant forces of the great nation’s conquering host, the Hon.James G. Blaine, not of Maine, orof Massachusetts; not of Minnesota, or the Golden Gate, but of America. He is a man of the nation’s heart, a man of the nation’s brain, a man of conscience, and a man of will; large, vivid, and powerful in his consciousness, wherein he realizes, in most brilliant conceptions, both the power and glory of men and things. He came forth from the mountains of the Alleghanies, a giant from the nation’s side.
Never since the nation’s youth was there such demand for any man. He is emphatically the typical American, and the yeomanry would have him. They caught his spirit, and would not shake off the spell of his genius. They forget not to-day that he was Garfield’s first choice, and sat at Garfield’s right hand. They remember, as only they who think with the heart can remember, that as his pride and confidant, he was by Garfield’s side in that awful hour of holy martyrdom, thrusting back the terrible assassin with one hand, and with the other catching the falling chief. Garfield knew him, Garfield loved him, Garfield sanctioned, honored, trusted, and exalted him. And the sentiments of that great heart which beat out its life-blood for the nation’s glory then, it is firmly believed, are the sentiments of the nation’s heart to-day.