In the summer of 1880 James A. Garfield received from the republican national convention at Chicago the nomination as candidate for President of the United States. At that time the states of Indiana and Ohio continued to hold their state elections early in the month of October, and the result of the elections in those two states in October had a most important and almost controlling influence upon the result of the presidential contest at the ensuing November election.
Early in September of that year I received from the state central committee of the state of Indiana an invitation to accompany ex-Governor Kirkwood of Iowa in a canvassing tour of two weeks, which invitation I accepted. We had a very agreeable and enjoyable trip. Governor Kirkwood was a very companionable man and was received with much honor and enthusiasm, and our meetings were largely attended and were quite successful. Part of the time we did not speak together at the same meetings, but had separate appointments assigned us. At one point where there existed a considerable manufacturing industry, the local committee waited upon us at our hotel before the speaking, and suggested that they desired us to especially discuss the tariff question and its effect upon our American manufacturers. After the committee had retired Governor Kirkwood walked the floor of the room for a few minutes, and turning suddenly upon me he said, "Charlie, do you understand this tariff question?" I told him no, I knew very little about it. "Well," he said, "I was raised a democrat and am not much of a tariff man anyhow, and I want you to take up this tariff question if either of us must." I told him that I could talk about the general effect of protecting American labor and the duty of the American congress to so arrange the tariff upon imports as to relieve our people from competition with the low wages paid in Europe; that the American laborer must receive higher wages than the European laborer for he must educate his children and must enjoy better conditions in life, and as our free institutions were based upon the intelligence of the voter, we could not afford to allow the laboring man to occupy the position socially or politically of the European laborer; that I could talk along that line all they wanted, but when it came to discussing schedules or specific duties I should not venture upon any such discourse; in fact, I was satisfied that few people understood the subject sufficiently to discuss the detail of tariff duties with intelligence. I filled the bill accordingly, as Governor Kirkwood placed that part of the program in my charge, but he himself did not say "tariff" once.
At Indianapolis we attended a grand rally at which Roscoe Conkling, of New York, was the principal orator of the day. The managers had arranged for a grand parade, and the Governor with myself and several other gentlemen were assigned to a carriage that was to take prominent part in the procession. Conkling had arrived, it seems, early in the day, and the procession was delayed for over an hour waiting for that distinguished gentleman to complete his toilet before making his appearance in public. The streets and the balcony of the hotel were lined with ladies in their holiday attire, and as the procession passed by we heard frequent inquiries from the finely dressed maidens as to which was Conkling, and when he was pointed out to them they were enthusiastic in their declarations that he was a handsome man. I was introduced to Mr. Conkling in the corridor of the hotel, after his speech, and was shocked and surprised at his want of courtesy and decent manners. He was there for the purpose of advocating the election of Mr. Garfield, and adding if possible enthusiasm to the occasion, and yet openly in the hearing of the crowd he was cursing the folly of the convention in nominating Mr. Garfield instead of renominating Grant for the third term. A more arrogant and conceited public man it has never been my misfortune to meet.
An incident occurred the following Sunday morning more pleasant to record. I got up very early, and going down to the lower portico of the hotel I found a few persons astir. I felt somewhat lonesome and seeing a well dressed, intelligent looking colored man on the pavement, I entered into conversation with him in regard to the political situation, and asked him whether or not the colored men of the city would not all support Mr. Garfield, the republican nominee. To my surprise he said, "No, sah, some of them will vote the democratic ticket." I said to him, "How is it possible for a colored man to support the democratic ticket in view of the history of the past twenty-five years? The colored race have been emancipated and enfranchised and made equal before the law through the efforts of the republican party of the nation. How, then, can any of your people support the democratic party?" "Well, sah," said he, "in some respects a colored man is very much like a white man." Said I, "What do you mean by that?" "Well, sah," said he, "I'll tell you. Occasionally, sah, you will find a colored man that is a damn fool." I saw a twinkle in his eye and realized that he was intending his reply for a joke. I immediately offered him my hand and shook hands with him heartily, telling him that since there were so many white men of that kind I supposed it would be unreasonable not to expect occasionally a colored man that was a fool.
Upon my return to Iowa after the October election in Indiana I made a speech in the opera house at Oskaloosa, Iowa, and the gallery was filled with colored men, many of them from What Cheer, a mining district near Oskaloosa. I related to them the particulars of my interview with the colored gentleman of Indianapolis. They enjoyed it hugely and gave me rounds of applause, and I told them I hoped that in some respects they would not be like the few that were back in Indiana.
After the election of Mr. Garfield, Governor Kirkwood was appointed Secretary of the Interior, and as I had official business before the supreme court that summer I visited Washington City in company with my wife, and spent a pleasant two weeks admiring the wonders of the national capital. Bishop Andrews, of the Methodist Episcopal church, had been for a number of years a resident of Des Moines and our near neighbor on Fourth street, and in company with his excellent wife Mrs. Nourse had a very enjoyable time. Governor Kirkwood also arranged that we should attend a private reception of the President and his wife, and Mrs. Nourse enjoyed the privilege of quite a tete a tete with the President's lady, officially known as the first lady of the land. When my wife bid her good evening she shook hands with her and expressed the hope that she would be very happy in her new position. Mrs. Garfield was rather a sad faced person and responded in a tone almost prophetic, "I hope so. We do not know." Afterwards upon the assassination of Mr. Garfield I was called upon to take part in a meeting held in the Baptist church in Des Moines, commemorating the memory of that excellent man. I found in my wife's scrap book some years afterwards a newspaper clipping containing a report of the remarks I made on that occasion which I here insert:
For the past five days our nation has been in mourning and the Christian civilization of the world has sympathized with us in our bereavement. By official proclamations, by public meetings and resolutions, by draping our homes and places of business and houses of worship with the emblems of mourning, we have sought to give expression to our sorrow and to testify our appreciation of our noble dead.
Tomorrow the whole nation is to attend upon his burial and the day is set apart as sacred to his memory. And yet with all this we cannot restore the life that has been so wantonly destroyed. Death is inexorable, and we can do nothing for him who has gone out from the shores of time forever.
But in a better sense of the word Garfield is not dead. So long as we cherish the manly virtues of which his life was the exponent, so long as we remember the trials and sacrifices of his boyhood, the labors and successes of his riper years, the heroism, faith, fidelity of his life, and the calm triumphant heroism of his death, so long will he live to us and to the nation, and so long may we be profited by his life.
I can think of no better text this morning for profitable consideration than one of the many rich gems of thought he has left us out of the storehouse of this great heart and intellect. At the graves of the fallen heroes of the late war he expressed this sentiment, "I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the characters of men are molded and inspired by what their fathers have done, that treasured up in American souls are all the unconscious influences of the great deeds of the Anglo Saxon race, from Agincourt to Bunker Hill."