CHAPTER VIII.THE NOONTIDE.
In troublous times when tides and winds blew high,And one stood peerless in the public gaze,A sentinel upon the battlementsOf state, the babbling miscreants said, Go to!Let us assail him!
In troublous times when tides and winds blew high,And one stood peerless in the public gaze,A sentinel upon the battlementsOf state, the babbling miscreants said, Go to!Let us assail him!
In troublous times when tides and winds blew high,And one stood peerless in the public gaze,A sentinel upon the battlementsOf state, the babbling miscreants said, Go to!Let us assail him!
In troublous times when tides and winds blew high,
And one stood peerless in the public gaze,
A sentinel upon the battlements
Of state, the babbling miscreants said, Go to!
Let us assail him!
James Abram Garfield was an honest man. You could not have known him and thought otherwise; you can not know the story of his life, and think him ever dishonored. His character was as clear as crystal; truth illumined his soul alway, and there the shadows of insincerity never fell.
Nevertheless, General Garfield could not escape the slime of the mud-slingers. Charges were made against him which, if true, would have made our Hyperion a degraded and filthy Satyr.
The time has come when Garfield’s character needs no defense. To-day the whole world believes in him. When the hurricane came he boldly and successfully vindicated himself. Then the people ratified his declarations by their suffrages. Finally, History has set her great seal upon the judgment in his favor.
The three principal accusations made against Mr. Garfield were in their day known respectively as theCredit Mobilier Steal, theSalary Grab, and theDe Gollyer Bribery. A formidable array!
There was a time when the biographer of Garfield would have been forced to devote a volume to these charges in order to refute them. Now a few pages will suffice; and their chief purpose, indeed, must only be to show how Garfield himself treated them.
The charges all came upon him at once. When elected to Congress in 1872, for the sixth time, Garfield seemed to have a life estate in his office. Before the next election came, it looked as if he never could be elected again.
In the winter of 1872–3, came the Credit Mobilier exposure; early in ’73, followed the Salary Grab; and finally, in 1874, the De Gollyer scandal appeared.
These troubles were met in the only way that could have succeeded, and also in the only way possible to Garfield’s nature—openly and manfully. Writing to his friend Hinsdale, he said: “The district is lost, and as soon as I can close up affairs here I am coming home to capture it.”
While at Washington, in 1873, he prepared two exhaustive pamphlets—one entitled “Review of the Transactions of the Credit Mobilier Company,” and the other “The Increase of Salaries.” These papers, and the general discussions which were going on at the same time, threw much light on the subjects. But the opportunity was too good for politicians to lose, and it was only after a desperate struggle that Mr. Garfield was renominated and reëlected in 1874.
But the victory was gained, and from that time on the Reserve never ceased to grow stronger, year by year, in faith in General Garfield.
Instead of a reproduction of the extensive literature on these subjects, which political necessities alone occasioned, it will suffice here to quote from a speech which in brief covered the whole field. This address was made to his constituents, at Warren, O., on September 19, 1874. September 19—anniversary of Chickamauga, and of the day of his death!
The reply proper began thus:
“There are three things which I propose to discuss; two of them may hardly be said to refer to my public career, one of them directly to my official work. The first one I refer to is my alleged connection with