He was strong not only in the powerful support of these great political leaders, but in the solid confidence of the great Methodist denomination to which he belonged, in the love of the old soldiers, in the memory of his great public…

Against this was the unwritten, but well-understood, rule of action by which the people had been governed since the time of Washington, that no person should be elected to the office of President for more than two terms.

Nothing could have prevented his carrying Massachusetts as by a great wave, but the fact that he had been, in his second term, subject to a most unworthy influence in the matter of appointments to public office.

Brave soldiers, honored Republicans, were turned out of post-offices, to be replaced by incompetent and dishonorable adventurers, odious in the neighborhoods from which they came, to please this ambitious and unscrupulous man.

No personal respect for General Grant could induce the Massachusetts Republicans to run the risk of having again a President who was subjected to personal influences like these.

If elected, I believe he would have administered the Presidency on the principles which a large majority of the people of Massachusetts hold.

But he possessed what persons of that temper commonly lack, great capacity for constructive statesmanship.

Any measure of which he was the author would be likely to accomplish its purpose, and to stand fire.

If I know myself, I have no desire to be President of the United States.

I do not think I am fit for it, and if I were, I should much prefer my present service as Senator.

One of the greatest oratoric triumphs I ever witnessed was obtained by Garfield.

The fate of the country, certainly the fate of a great political party, was at stake, and, more than that, the selection of the ruler of a nation of fifty millions of people--a question which in other countries could not have been…

I can only compare it in its grandeur and impressiveness to the mighty torrent of Niagara.

Nothing touches my heart more quickly than a tribute of honor to a great and noble character.

I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured.

When the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its peaceful surface, then the astronomer and surveyor take the level from which they measure all terrestrial heights and depths.

When your enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of the hour have subsided, we shall find below this storm and passion that calm level of public opinion from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which their…

Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the ballot-boxes of the Republic, in the quiet of November, after the silence of deliberate judgment, will this question be settled.

I said on the first day of the convention that in my opinion if the delegates could be shut up by themselves and not permitted to leave the room until they agreed, the man on whom they would agree would be General Garfield.

We were in thorough accord in our love for New England, our firm faith in her hereditary principles, and our pride in her noble history.

No man has a right, without the consent of the person voted for, to announce that person's name, and vote for him, in this convention.

I do not believe it ever happened before that anybody who attempted to decline the Presidency of the United States was to be prevented by a point of order, or that such a thing will ever happen again.

But the precedent of permitting such a body to be addressed under any circumstances by a person not a member would be a dangerous one, if repeated.

Lincoln, under the circumstances, could not have got the support of his own State, and without it it seemed unwise to attempt a union upon him.

He has fallen at the very gate of an honorable and eminent career, and a thousand hopes are buried in his grave.