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…

But when he had had time and had thought the thing out and made up his mind, nobody and no consideration of personal interest or advantage would stir him an inch.

He hesitated long as to the doctrine of protection, and undoubtedly made some inconsistent utterances before he took the ground which he held at last.

But he studied the financial question, especially the great subjects of currency and the standard of value, to the very bottom.

He stood like a rock when Ohio and the whole West seemed to be going against him, and when the statesmanship even of John Sherman was of the willow and not of the oak.

When his District Convention met and passed resolutions in favor of paying interest on the Government bonds with paper, Garfield declared that he would not take the nomination on such a platform.

I do not believe he wold have been a tool or servant in the Presidency.

He would have mastered for himself the great subjects to be dealt with in our foreign policy, as well as in domestic administration and legislation.

His will would, in my opinion, if he had been spared to us, have been the dominant will in our Government for eight fortunate and happy years.

Next to the assassination of Lincoln, his death was the greatest national misfortune ever caused to this country by the loss of a single life.

Blaine's address on Garfield is one of the treasures of our literature.

It would have been a great public misfortune if that noble oration had been lost to the world.

Garfield was a man of indefatigable industry and vast information.

He seemed constantly possessed by an intelligent curiosity in regard to all subjects.

There has been no man in public life in my time, except Charles Sumner, who was always so glad to render any service in his power to literature and science.

During Garfield's service in the House he was the leader of its best thought.

You will search his speeches in vain for an appeal to a base motive or an evil passion.

He was remarkably independent in forming his judgments and inflexible in adhering to them on all grand and essential questions.

There has been hardly any single service to this country in recent times greater than that rendered by him when he stood against the fiat money movement in Ohio.

Our people do not want a Father Confessor in the White House," was the answer.

Such things lose nine-tenths of their flavor in the repetition and nine parts of the other tenth when they are put in writing.

You could not attack or rally him without some bright reply.

He has Longfellow's style very happily, including the dropping from a bright and sometimes a sublime line to one which is flat and commonplace, as for instance in the ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington.

Slow he speaks in accents solemn, Life is all an empty hum, Man, by adulation only Can'st thou ever great become.

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