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home to-day, in the absence of only one of those who made that happy, bustling family!

It was while General Garfield was engaged in overseeing the repair of the fences, the plowing of the fields, and the work upon his humble dwelling that he was chosen a delegate to the Republican Convention of 1880, which afterwards met in Chicago. As a public man well known in all parts of the country, and one who would be certain to have great influence in that political assembly, he was very strongly importuned by the friends of the prominent candidates for nomination. Hon. James G. Blaine and Gen. U. S. Grant were the leading aspirants, and General Garfield was pressed by the friends of each, in correspondence and personal interviews, to support them. But he was wise enough to see that the very. zeal which the canvassers displayed must defeat them both or defeat the party. He also felt that the only great question then before the country was connected with the management of the finances of the nation, and thought it due to the successful Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, that he should be made President. Hence he threw his whole influence and active support in favor of Mr. Sherman.

When the great convention met at Chicago, and an almost unexampled warfare was opened between the factions we have mentioned, General Garfield came before the great assembly boldly and cheerfully, - al- · though he knew he was counted with a very small minority, and while the contention over Mr. Blaine

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and General Grant was silenced for a few minutes, made the following speech, and nominated Mr. Sher

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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 heights 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 heights 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 his

tory of the 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.

At the close of his speech an enthusiastic delegate from one of the Southern States shouted, " Why don't you take the nomination yourself?"

Soon after, in the fury of the political whirlwind, the question was raised whether a delegate from Virginia should be permitted to act in the convention, who openly declared that he should not consider himself bound by its action if it did not nominate the man he desired to support. It created a noisy, angry debate, and many feared a dissolution of the convention in an angry riot, when General Garfield appeared before them. He seemed to be the only man who could pour oil on the foaming waves. Most successfully and manfully he did it. He took the side of the minority, and in five minutes it was the side of the great majority. That brave, kind act, and those noble words declaring that every man's conscience was in his own keeping and ought to be respected, had such an effect on the delegates of the convention that, while they became calm and decorous, they also felt that some time in the future they would like the privilege of voting for him as their candidate for the presidency.

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