James had now learnt as much as the little “Eclectic Institute” could possibly teach him, and he began to think of going to some better college in the older-settled and more cultivated eastern states, where he might get an education somewhat higher than was afforded him by the raw “seminaries” and “academies” of his native Ohio.  True, his own sect, the “Disciples’ Church,” had got up a petty university of their own, “Bethany College”—­such self-styled colleges swarm all over the United States; but James didn’t much care for the idea of going to it.  “I was brought up among the Disciples,” he said; “I have mixed chiefly among them; I know little of other people; it will enlarge my views and give me more liberal feelings if a try a college elsewhere, conducted otherwise; if I see a little of the rest of the world.”  Moreover, those were stirring times in the States.  The slavery question was beginning to come uppermost.  The men of the free states in the north and west were beginning to say among themselves that they would no longer tolerate that terrible blot upon American freedom—­the enslavement of four million negroes in the cotton-growing south.  James Garfield felt all his soul stirred within him by this great national problem—­the greatest that any modern nation has ever had to solve for itself.  Now, his own sect, the Disciples, and their college, Bethany, were strongly tinctured with a leaning in favour of slavery, which young James Garfield utterly detested.  So he made up his mind to having nothing to do with the accursed thing, but to go east to some New England college, where he would mix among men of culture, and where he would probably find more congenial feelings on the slavery question.

Before deciding, he wrote to three eastern colleges, amongst others to Yale, the only American university which by its buildings and surroundings can lay any claim to compare, even at a long distance, in beauty and associations, with the least among European universities.  The three colleges gave him nearly similar answers; but one of them, in addition to the formal statement of terms and so forth, added the short kindly sentence, “If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.”  It was only a small polite phrase; but it took the heart of the rough western boy.  If other things were about the same, he said, he would go to the college which offered him, as it were, a friendly grasp of the hand.  He had saved a little money at Hiram; and he proposed now to go on working for his living, as he had hitherto done, side by side with his regular studies.  But his brother, who was always kind and thoughtful to him, would not hear of this.  Thomas had prospered meanwhile in his own small way, and he insisted upon lending James such a sum as would cover his necessary expenses for two years at an eastern university.  James insured his life for the amount, so that Thomas might not be a loser by his brotherly generosity in case of his death before repayment could be made; and then, with the money safe in his pocket, he started off for his chosen goal, the Williams College, in one of the most beautiful and hilly parts of Massachusetts.