“I implore you, brethren in this House, to believe that not many births ever gave pangs to my mother State such as she suffered when that traitor was born!  I beg you not to believe that on the soil of that State another such a growth has ever deformed the face of nature, and darkened the light of God’s day!”

CHAPTER XXVII.

GARFIELD’S COURSE IN CONGRESS.

If Garfield at once took a prominent place in the House of Representatives, it was by no means because it was composed of inferior men.  On the other hand, there has seldom been a time when it contained a larger number of men either prominent, or destined in after days to be prominent.  I avail myself of the detailed account given of its members by Major Bundy, in his excellent Life of Garfield.  There are some names which will be familiar to most of my young readers: 

“Its then most fortunate and promising member was Schuyler Colfax, the popular Speaker.  But there were three young members who were destined to a more lasting prominence.  The senior of these who had enjoyed previous service in he House, was Roscoe Conkling, already recognized by Congress and the country as a magnificent and convincing speaker.  The other two were James G. Blaine and James A. Garfield.  Only a year the senior of Garfield, Blaine was about to begin a career as brilliant as that of Henry Clay, and the acquisition of a popularity unique in our political history.  But in this Congress there were many members whose power was far greater than that of either of the trio, who may yet be as much compared as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were in former days.

“In the first place, there was Elihu B. Washburne, ’the watch-dog of the treasury,’ the ‘father of the House,’ courageous, practical, direct, and aggressive.  Then there was Thaddeus Stevens, who was one of the very few men capable of driving his party associates—­a character as unique as, and far stronger than, John Randolph; General Robert C. Schenck, fresh from the army, but a veteran in Congress, one of the ablest of practical statesmen; ex-Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts; ex-Governor Fenton, of New York, a very influential member, especially on financial questions; Henry Winter Davis, the brilliant orator, of Maryland; William B. Allison, since one of the soundest and most useful of Iowa’s Senators; Henry L. Dawes, who fairly earned his promotion to the Senate, but who accomplished so much in the House that his best friends regret the transfer; John A. Bingham, one of the most famous speakers of his time; James E. English, of Connecticut, who did valiant and patriotic service as a War Democrat; George H. Pendleton, now Senator from Ohio, and a most accomplished statesman, even in his early service in the House; Henry G. Stebbins, who was to make a speech sustaining Mr. Chase’s financial policy that was unequaled for its salutary effect on public opinion; Samuel J. Randall, now Speaker;