WHITE HOUSE GALLERY VINTAGE PHOTOGRAVURE PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE GALLERY VINTAGE PHOTOGRAVURE OF PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD

WITH WRITTEN DEDICATION TO PRESIDENT GARFIELD  BY CHARLES DICK, Congressman from Ohio

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Garfield

IN one of his speeches delivered in the National House of Representatives in 1866, Garfield said:

"To all our means of culture is added the

powerful incentive to personal ambition which springs from the genius of our Government.

The pathway to honorable distinction lies open

to all

No post of honor is so high but the poorest may hope to reach it. It is the pride of every American that many distinguished names at whose mention our hearts beat with a quicker bound were worn by the sons of poverty, who conquered obscurity and became fixed stars in our firmament.'

These words, uttered at a time when

Garfield's splendid career was not yet in its opening stages, impart a forcible intimation of one of the marked characteristics of his earnest

and determined nature, namely, his clear conception of the opportunities afforded to young men ot the present time by our republican form of government and the guaranty it gives of equal rights to all. By these words he evidenced the fact that he had grasped the possibilities of individual attainment, and was imbued with the spirit of our institutions. possibilities of his own life, and possessed a serene confidence that his country would offer opportunities for their realization.

He never underestimated, and was always quick to see the value of an opportunity.

Whatever he set out to do he did it with his might.

He did not believe in luck. His estimate

of a man was based upon his capacity for hard work. Every effort of life, whether public or private, was to him an opportunity for the emulation of a lofty ideal.

On entering Congress he was immediately recognized as a political force.

His first

utterance secured the attention of every member. Not possessing the tricks of oratory, he had what is better, the profoundness of logic.

Sweeping aside the misty film which shrouded a

subject under discussion, he made plain and bare the intricate matter it contained, and in terse, eloquent sentences he forced his conclusions.

When he had finished, the discussion was ended.

He was a recognized leader.

He was master of all subjects.

While he adorned every

discussion with his eloquence, he enforced his views with incontrovertible argument.

He saw

and improved opportunities as they came, and day after day he grew in intellectual vigor and political strength until his reputation becan

nded rinsversal

contidence and respect.

In reaching this eminence he never crawled an inch. He moved upward as the eagle

goes to the mountain top.

Dignified, but not ostentatious, trank but not blunt, reserved but

patient and laborious, he conquered all conditions, surmounted all obstacles and

survived all vicissitudes.

When the hand of the assassin laid him low, the characteristics that

made him great in life gave the touch of beauty and sublimity to his noble spirit through the closing hours that resulted in death.

Throughout his life he had ever aimed to merit his own self-respect and the approval of

ne said:

Accepting his election as United States Senator, in:

legislature

" 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, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person and his name is Gartield

The abrupt and untimely ending of his career was a sad blow to the country, and a most bitter affliction to his many friends.

It removed from our midst in the very prime of usefulness

and ability one of the most complete and representative types of human character that our immediate civilization has produced.

As we scan the eventful life of this Colossus of men, and

consider the unrealized possibilities of his magnificent career, had Fate decreed for him the usual span of earthly existence, we cannot but feel that an irreparable loss was sustained in his death.

By reason of the exalted station he had attained and the extraordinary force and energy of his splendid manhood, great expectations were entertained by all, and especially by those who knew him best, of the good that would come to the country at large as well as to its individual citizens as the result of his further public services.

It is not too much to say that President Garfield's administration, had his term of office extended the full period, by reason of the policies he represented, and the plans contemplated, for the development of our resources and the advancement of our position as a commercial nation, would have been one of the most notable and progressive in American history.

Dick