Amendment, forbidding Congress from ever legislating on the subject of slavery in the States. He was among the foremost in maintaining the right of the National Government to coerce seceded States. "Would you give up the forts and other government property in those States, or would you fight to maintain your right to them?" was his adroit way of putting the question to a conservative Republican who deplored his incendiary views.

It was under his leadership, and of his own personal initiation, that a bill was passed declaring any resident of the State, who gave aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States, guilty of treason against the State, to be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for life.

Ohio, when the great call came, was as unpre pared as were other States. There was a small force of militia nominally organized, but the constitution and laws of the State provided that all its officers should be elected by the men, and the governor was limited in his selection of officers, in case the militia was called out, to the parties so chosen. Everywhere, however, there was enthusiasm for the cause and a wild willingness to help the government by every possible sacrifice that a great people could make. When the President's call for seventy-five thousand men was announced to the Ohio Senate, Senator Garfield was instantly on his feet, and amid the tumultuous

acclamations from the assemblage, moved that 'twenty thousand troops and three millions of money "should be at once voted as Ohio's quota! His speech he immediately illustrated by offering his own services in any capacity Governor Dennison might choose. That he should uphold the flag was demanded both by patriotism and by the logic of the Republican doctrine, that he had so nobly, so bravely upheld. It was but the second stage of resistance to slavery. While waiting a wider field, he occupied himself with the arming of the militia or any measure that had for its object the advancement of the plans then in progress. He made a hasty journey to Illinois, and procured five thousand muskets, which he shipped to Columbus to arm some of the first regiments that formed upon Ohio soil. He then returned to the capital. From here he wrote as follows to Mr. Hinsdale:

"COLUMBUS, January 15th, 1861. "My heart and thoughts are full almost every moment with the terrible reality of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look upon the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible here, that the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be any breaking up of our institutions, but stern, awful certainty is fastening upon the hearts of men. I do not see any way, outside a miracle of God, which can avoid civil war with all its attendant horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed, I cannot say that I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by the South would be hypocritical and sinful; they would neither be obeyed nor respected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is one of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. All that is left us as a State, or say as a com. pany of Northern States, is to arm and prepare to defend ourselves and the Federal Government. I believe the doom of slavery is drawing near. Let war come, and the slaves will get the vague notion that it is waged for them, and a magazine will be lighted whose explosion will shake the whole fabric of slavery. Even if all this happen, I cannot yet abandon the belief that one government will rule this continent, and its people be one people.

"Meantime, what will be the influence of the times on individuals? Your question is very interesting and suggestive. The doubt that hangs over the whole issue bears touching also. It may be the duty of our young men to join the army, or they may be drafted without their own consent. If neither of these things happen, there will be a period when old men and young will be electrified by the spirit of the times, and one result will be to make every individuality more marked and their opinions more decisive. I believe the times will be even more favorable than calm ones for the forma tion of strong and forcible characters.

"Just at this time (have you observed the fact?) we have no man who has power to ride upon the storm and direct it. The hour has come, but not the man. The crisis will make many such. But I do not love to speculate on so painful a theme. * * * I am chosen to respond to a toast on the Union at the State Printers' Festival here next Thursday evening. It is a sad and difficult theme at this time."

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COLUMBUS, February 16th, 1861. "Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at every point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and republican, but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no ap pendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am greatly pleased with him. He clearly shows his want of culture, and the marks of Western life but there is no touch of affectation in him, and he has a peculiar power of impressing you that he is frank, direct and thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simple and condensed style of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, give me great hopes for the country. And, after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's weakness and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong and vigorous leader. "I have never brought my mind to consent to the dissolution peaceably. I know it may be asked, Is it not better to dissolve before war than after? But I ask, Is it not better to fight before dissolution than after? If the North and South cannot live in the Union without war, how can they live and expand as dissevered nations without it? May it not be an economy of bloodshed to tell the South that disunion is war, and that the United States Government will protect its property and execute its laws at all hazards.

"I confess the great weight of the thought in your letter of the Plymouth and Jamestown ideas, and their vital and utter antagonism. This conflict may yet break the vase by the lustiness of its growth and strength, but the history of other nations gives me hope. Every government has periods when its strength and unity are tested. England has passed through the Wars of the Roses and the days of Cromwell. A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a republic, because its sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be powerful enough, will crush it.

Burke, this is really a great time to live in, if any of us can only catch the cue of it. I am glad you write on these subjects, and you must blame yourself for having made me inflict on you the longest letter I have written to any one in more than a year."

CHAPTER X.

W

AT THE HEAD OF A REGIMENT.

THEN the time came for appointing officers for the troops so hastily got together, Garfield displayed," says Whitelaw Reid, in his "Ohio in the War," "his signal want of tact and skill in advancing his own interests. Of the three leading Radical senators, Garfield had the most personal popularity. Cox was at that time, perhaps, a more compact and pointed speaker, he had matured earlier as (to change the figure) he was to culminate sooner. But he had never aroused the warm regard which Garfield's whole-hearted, generous disposition always excited, yet Cox had the sagacity to see how his interests were to be advanced. He abandoned the Senate-chamber, installed himself as assistant in the governor's office, made his skill felt in the rush of business, and soon convinced the appointing power of his special aptitude for military affairs. In natural sequence he was presently appointed a brigadier-general, while Garfield was sent off on a mission to some western States to see about arms for the Ohio volunteers."

On the 14th of August, 1861, some months after the adjournment of the Legislature, Governor

Dennison offered Garfield the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Forty-second Ohio, a regiment not yet formed, and one which Garfield had been instrumental in bringing into existence with the active aid of Judge Sheldon, of Illinois, Don A. Pardee, of Medina, Ralph Plumb, of Oberlin, and other patriotic citizens of his district. He did not accept the tendered command hastily, he did not grasp the glitter of command with the avidity of an aspirant for honors. He went home, opened his mother's Bible, and pondered upon the subject. He had a wife, a child, and a few thousand dollars. If he gave his life to the country, would God and the few thousand dollars provide for his wife and child? He consulted the Book about it. It seemed to answer in the affirmative, and before morning he wrote to a friend:

"I regard my life as given to the life as given to the country. I am only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage on it is foreclosed."

At the same sitting he wrote Governor Dennison his acceptance of the appointment. The regiment with which he had thus considerately chosen to cast his lot was principally recruited from Por tege and Summit Counties. Most of the officers and privates had been students of Hiram College, and it was in a certain degree the transfer of that Campbellite institution en masse to another field where the church militant was to become militant in truth and finally the church triumphant.