In Memoriam
James A. Garfield was elected President of the United States of America in November, 1880, and was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1881; was shot and mortally wounded on the 2nd day of July, 1881; and was removed to Elberton, New Jersey, where he lingered until September 19th, and on that day he died—to the great sorrow of a waiting, hopeful and sympathetic Nation. No death in our history, save possibly that of Lincoln, so generally and profoundly filled the hearts of the American people with sorrow as did the death of Garfield. After its announcement a Nation, inspired by a common impulse, at once hung out the dark emblems of sorrow.
September 27th was appointed Memorial Day. On the 25th a public meeting was called in Seattle at the old Pavilion. Honorable Roger S. Greene was elected chairman of that meeting, and he was to act as such on Memorial Day. Myself, Rev. George H. Watson and Honorable William H. White were invited to deliver at that time addresses on the character and public career of the fallen statesman.
On the appointed day an audience of over four thousand people assembled in front of and on each side of the west end of the old Occidental Hotel. The officers of the day and the speakers occupied the first balcony of the hotel. The exercises were appropriately opened with prayer by Rev. Ellis. Honorable Roger S. Greene made a brief but earnest and impressive address, and introduced me in the following complimentary language:
"We shall hear from one to-day who can occupy an appreciative standpoint and speak of the departed President with more than common sympathy for his public purposes and deeds.
"Yet more. You yourselves have something to say. You seek one of yourselves to speak for you; one who not only, like the lamented dead, thinks as the people think and feels as the people feel, but one who belongs to this local community and who shares our own peculiar shade of sorrow.
"Such an one is here. He is a man skilled in the use of words, a man identified with yourselves, a man experienced and accomplished in public and national affairs, a man personally acquainted with James A. Garfield.
"Fellow citizens, I introduce to you Orange Jacobs, your orator of to-day."
Thus eloquently introduced to the audience, I delivered the following address:
"FELLOW CITIZENS:—In arising to address you on this occasion I feel my own inability to do the subject justice; and the hollow impotence of human language to express the sentiment of national woe. We have assembled to honor the memory, to revere the character, and recount the living virtues of a fallen patriot and statesman. James A. Garfield, the popular idol of the nation, is no more. His spirit has passed the bourne from whence there is no return. We have, in time of our greatest need, lost one of our greatest statesmen and purest patriots. In the mid-day of his manhood, in the midst of his usefulness, just as hope became steady, and faith reliant and sure, Mr. Garfield descended to the grave. His sun of life has set forever. It fell from its meridian splendor, as falls a star from the blazing galaxy of heaven. No twilight obscured its setting.