DANVERS, MASS., 9th mo., 24, 1881.

W. H. B. CURRIER, -My dear Friend: I regret that it is not in my power to join the citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury in the memorial services on the occasion of the death of our lamented President. But in heart and sympathy I am with you. I share the great sorrow which overshadows the land; I fully appreciate the irretrievable loss. But it seems to me that the occasion is one for thankfulness as well as grief. Through all the stages of the solemn tragedy which has just closed with the death of our noblest and best, I have felt that the Divine Providence was overruling the mighty affliction; that the patient sufferer at Washington was drawing with cords of sympathy all sections and parties nearer to each other. And now, when South and North, Democrat and Republican, Radical and Conservative, lift their voices in one unbroken accord of lamentation; when I see how, in spite of the greed of gain, the lust of office, the strifes and meanness of party politics, the great heart of the nation proves sound and loyal, I feel a new hope for the republic, I have a firmer faith in its stability. It is said that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself; and the pure and noble life of Garfield and his slow, long martyrdom, so bravely borne in the view of all, are, I believe, bearing for us, as a people, "the peaceable fruits of righteousness." We are stronger, wiser, better, for them. With him it is well. His mission fulfilled, he goes to his grave by the lake-side honored and lamented as man never was before. The whole world mourns him. There is no speech nor language where the voice of his praise is not heard. About his grave gathers, with heads uncovered, the vast brotherhood of man.

And with us it is well also. We are nearer a united people than ever before. We are at peace with all;

our future is full of promise; our industrial and financial condition is hopeful. God grant that, while our material interests prosper, the moral and spiritual influence of this occasion may be permanently felt; that the solemn sacrament of sorrow whereof we have been partakers may be blest to the promotion of the righteousness which exalts a nation. JOHN G. WHITTIER. Alfred Tennyson wrote to Mr. Lowell from Hasle

Thy friend,

mere:

We learned yesterday that the President was gone, We had watched with much admiration his fortitude, and not without hope the fluctuations of his health, these many days. Now we almost seem to have lost a personal friend. He was a good man and a noble one. Accept from me and my wife and family assurance of heart-felt sympathy for Mrs. Garfield, for yourself, and for your country.'

A day of fasting and prayer was appointed by all the governors of the United States at the time President Garfield was removed to Long Branch, and a Philadelphia paper related an incident connected with that solemn and universally observed day :

"Crete," said the President to his brave little wife about eleven, Thursday morning, as the ringing strokes from the belfry of the Episcopal Church, almost across from the cottage, reached his ears, "what are they ringing that bell for?" "That? said Mrs. Garfield, who had been waiting for the surprise. "That's the church where we were when you first came down. They're all going to pray for you to get well;" and, falling on her knees, she said, "and I'm going to pray, too, James, that it may be soon; for I know already that the other prayer has

been heard." From where he lay Garfield could see the carriages draw up, and group after group go in. He could even hear the subdued refrain of "Jesus, lover of my soul," as it was borne by on its heavenward way. Thrilled with emotion, a tear trickled down the President's face. After a while a sweet, woman's voice arose, singing from one of Sir Michael Costa's oratorios. "Turn Thou unto me, and have. mercy upon me," sang the voice, "for I am desolate; I am desolate and afflicted; the troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh, bring Thou me out of my distresses, out of my distresses, my God!" The people in the church sat almost spell-bound under the voice. Mrs. George W. Childs, who sang the recitative, was affected deeply, and made it seem to all, what it must have been to her, a prayer in music.

We give below a letter written by President Garfield, and addressed to Mr. C. E. Fuller, now of Des Moines, Iowa, who had been a room-mate of the lamented President while at college. At the time this letter was written the future President had just recovered from a dangerous illness.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE, August 10, 1854.

MY DEAR SIR, — I have been down near to the gates of the "Silent City" since last I wrote to you. Perhaps it were better had I entered, God knoweth. But the crisis is passed, and I am slowly returning now. Your kind, good letter was received to-day, and I will respond immediately. I think I told you in my other that I had taken cold nearly every night since I came, and had had a severe headache for about ten days. However, I kept on studying until Friday, the 4th, when the hot water streamed from my eyes so that I could not see, and I was

Oh,

obliged to stop and send for a physician. how much I have felt the absence of dear friends during these long, dreary hours of pain! I must subjoin some lines that have been ringing through the chambers of my soul, and though I do not know the name of the author, yet they possess the elements of immortality. I know you will love them.

and feel them:

He cannot wear a smiling face

When mine is touched with gloom,
But like the violet seeks to cheer
The midnight with perfume.

"Commend me to that generous heart
Which like the pine on high
Uplifts the same unvarying brow
To every change of sky;

Whose friendship does not fade away
When wintry tempests blow,
But like the winter's icy crown
Looks greener through the snow.

"He flies not with the flitting stork,
That seeks a Southern sky,

But lingers where the wounded bird
Hath laid him down to die.

Oh, such a friend! He is in truth,
Whate'er his lot may be,

A rainbow on the storm of life,
An anchor on its sea."

Thank God, I enjoy such friends as that, though

they are not with me. But I must stop.

not say I am, as ever, your brother,

...

I need

JAMES.

Cyrus W. Field, and other capitalists of New York, soon after the President's assassination, started a subscription for his family, which was increased after the President's death to nearly $350,000. Cyrus W. Field will also place a memorial window to the late President in the chapel of Williams College, of which General Garfield was a graduate.

The greatest poets of the world vied with each other in tributes of poetic measure, a collection of which would fill a volume, and, in despair of making anything approaching a comprehensive collection of the world's intellectual tributes to this loved martyr, we lay down our pen, quoting the last verse of the sweet poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes :

"Farewell! the leaf-strown earth enfolds

Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears,

And autumn's golden sun beholds

A nation bowed, a world in tears."