Republican himself. To a friend he wrote thus, with that calmness of contemplation of great events in which he is the most interested observer, that he so richly possesses:

"MENTOR, Ohio, November 1st, 1880. "DEAR: The evening mail brings me your letter of the 31st, and I take a moment in the lull before the battle to say how greatly glad I am for all the earnest and effective things you have done for me. Whatever may be the issue of to: morrow, I shall carry with me through life most grateful memories of the enthusiastic and noble work my friends have done, and especially my college class-mates. The campaign. has been fruitful to me in the discipline that comes from endurance and patience. I hope defeat will not sour me, nor success disturb the poise which I have sought to gain by the experiences of life. From this edge of the conflict I give you my hand and heart, as in all the other days of our friendship. As ever yours, "J. A. GARFIELD."

Happily for the country and the world, he had no "defeat to sour" him. The total vote on the morrow was 8,871,360. Of this General Garfield received 4,437,345, and his opponent 4,435,015. The country rang with rejoicing. The wild excitement of election night everywhere was succeeded by the settled calm that attends on a deed well done, the quiet, always grateful feeling of one who has avoided a danger after long exertion, and who may now lie down to peace and the pleasant dreams born of brilliant victory. For the country had won a President with an unclouded title, a statesman, a citizen, and a man.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

T

THE INTERIM AND INAUGURATION.

HE election satisfied the most sanguine hopes of the Republicans, and loud were the rejoicings of the victors.

He who should have most rejoiced was not so much elated as the humblest of his supporters. He felt the great crown of responsibility that had been conferred upon him. The whirlwind of congratulations that blew upon Mentor bore a lesson in its fierce persistency-a lesson the President-elect was learning by heart.

On the day succeeding the election, the first of the many delegations that came to congratulate him put in an appearance at Mentor. Several hundred of the faculty and students of Oberlin College called to offer their kind words and wishes To them, President Garfield replied:

"MR. PRESIDENt, Ladies and Gentlemen:-This spontaneous visit is so much more agreeable than a prepared one. It comes more directly from the heart of the people who participate, and I receive it as a greater compliment for that reason. I do not wish to be unduly impressible or superstitious, but, though we have outlived the days of augurs, I think we have a right to hold some events as omens, and I greet this as a happy and auspicious omen, that the first general greeting since the event of yesterday is tendered to me

542

by a venerable institution of learning. The thought has been abroad in the world a good deal, and with reason, that there is a divorce between scholarship and politics. Oberlin, I believe, has never advocated that divorce, but there has been a sort of a cloistered scholarship in the United States that has stood aloof from active participation in public affairs, and I am glad to be greeted here to-day by the active, live scholarship of Ohio, and I know of no place where scholarship has touched upon the nerve centre of public intelligence so effectually as at Oberlin. For this reason I am specially grateful for this greeting from the faculty and students of Oberlin College and its venerable president. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this visit. Whatever the significance of yesterday's event may be, it will be all the more significant for being immediately indorsed by the scholarship and culture of my State."

This was the beginning of the storm, and for some weeks thereafter the President was busy receiving and replying to his visitors. Having some business that required his attention in Washington, he, on November 23d, in company with Mrs. Garfield and Hon. Amos Townsend, Congressman from the Cleveland District, started for the capital. In accordance with the General's request, no public demonstration was attempted, and very little conversation of a political character permitted. He remained in Washington three days, and then returned to his home. By this time the campaign torches, so long ago extinguished, had been forgotten; the campaign banners rent beyond repair. The tide of surmise and guesswork was in full flow upon the question of a Cabinet. Counting

the cost of the election, it was pretty generally agreed that the incoming President would endeavor to harmonize all differences in the party; that he would adopt a policy of reconciliation, and not, by allying himself with one Republican wing, deal death and destruction to the other.

The months came and went rapidly. Lawnfield was soon a shrine for pilgrims, almost as importunate as those who cast their prayer carpets be fore the gates of Mecca. Every train from Cleveland, or the East, landed somebody at Mentor. Now it was a great politician; now a little one; now a delegation; now a club of congratulating citizens. A score of newspaper men hovered about Lawnfield like fireflies, and each carried an illuminating pencil. Another score used Cleveland as a basis of operations, and made daily forays on Mentor. As the winter wore away and premonitions of the approach of spring became more noticeable, the stream of these pilgrims waxed greater and more virulent. The daily mail grew to an enormous size, and one private secretary was kept busy filing applications for office, which became so persistent as to be very annoying. All sorts of devices were adopted to reach the President's attention. Some of the more hungry ones appealed to the General's gentle wife, or to his mother, in a vain hope that they would interest themselves in behalf of the applicants. All applications were filed and not replied to.

544

This led to much assertion of a certain sort, that the President-elect had promised this office to that man, this office to the other, and so on. It was claimed that he would make a stalwart Cabinet; that he would make an anti-stalwart Cabinet. It transpired finally, that Mr. Blaine was to be the Secretary of State. This position was offered him by Mr. Garfield when in Washington in November, and the selection was greeted with pleasure. Then came a special announcement in the New York Tribune, that those who fought the stalwarts in the Grant campaign would not be forgotten. Then it was said that Mr. James was booked for the position of PostmasterGeneral. Others were named for other places, and the interest was at fever-heat, because no other except Mr. Blaine's appointment was definitely decided in the President's mind until the day of his inauguration.

The writer visited the President-elect two days before he left Mentor for Washington to be inaugurated, and conversed with him on the question of the Cabinet. In the course of this conversation, I learned from Mr. Garfield that he had decided upon nobody, out and out, save Mr. Blaine. It was, however, settled that Pennsylvania was to be recognized, either in the appointment of Mr. Wharton Barker as Secretary of the Treasury or Interior, or by the appointment of Mr. Wayne McVeagh to the office of Attorney