When, after he had expressed his opinion, some strong and positive man came to him with a confident utterance of a different opinion, unless Garfield had gone to the bottom of the subject himself, he was very likely to defer, to hesitate, to think himself mistaken.
Hoar describes Garfield's tendency to defer to others when he had not fully explored a subject.
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The large majority was made up of sensible, strong-headed country farmers, rather slow in making up their minds, but making them up always on considerations of what was best for the Commonwealth.
His life, so far as he took part in political affairs, was devoted to objects wholly public, never personal.
He proceeded to attack, to promote his own ambitions, the fair name and fame of the Commonwealth itself.
It would have been a worse civil war than that of the Rebellion, because the country would have been divided not by sections, but by parties.
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