REV. MARK HOPKINS, D. D., EX-PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL & CO., 57 CORNHILL. PHILADELPHIA: QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE. NEW YORK: CHARLES DREW. PORTLAND: JOHN RUSSELL. HARVARD COPYRIGHT BY B. B. RUSSELL & CO. 1880. Printed by 46 Federal Street, BOSTON. DEDICATION. TO MRS. ELIZA GARFIELD, AND TO HER SISTER, MRS. ALPHA BOYNTON, PIONEERS AND CO-WORKERS IN THE DE VELOPMENT OF A GREAT STATE, THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. FROM SUCH SPRANG THE NOBLEST AND MOST POWERFUL RACES OF MANKIND. PREFACE. It is a delicate and difficult task to write the record of any man's life under any circumstances, and the work is the more arduous and perplexing when he of whom we write is still in active fields of labor and engaged in Political contests. To measure a man's success and pass an unbiased judgment upon his career, while the events of a single day may mar the picture, and while. great political parties have much to gain by misrepresentation or falsehood concerning the subject of the biography, is an undertaking full of perplexity and anxiety. Such a task was this when the writer entered upon it. There was a sudden and unusual interest taken in the History of General Garfield owing to his nomination for the Presidency of the United States by a strong political party, and a great demand created for a trustworthy account of his life. That fact coupled with the probable benefit which the biography would be to the thousands of young men in America who need the encouragement which the success of General Garfield gives, led to the preparation of this work. The writer asks the indulgence of the reader in view of the diffi |