Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/223

 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 183 asked him to prepare the brief. The brief was to show the superiority of the pavement (the sub ject of patent) over forty other kinds, and did not otherwise concern the contract or have anything to do with its terms. The fraud, as is generally understood, was in the contract, not in the quality of the pavement. Garfield prepared the brief and delivered it to Parsons, but did not himself make the argument. Parsons sent Garfield subsequently $5,000, which was a part of the fee Parsons had received for his own services. As thoughtful peo ple reviewed the case, there was no harsher criticism than that suggested by Gen. Garfield s own lofty standard of avoiding even the appearance of evil that he had not shown his usual prudence in avoiding any connection, even the most honest, in any way, with any matter that could in any shape come in for congressional review. It was the unjust charges made in connection with these calumnies which sent the iron into his soul, and made wounds which he forgave but never forgot. In June, 1880, the Republican convention to nominate a successor to President Hayes was held in Chicago, and to it came Garfield, naturally, at the head of the Ohio delegation. He sympathized heartily with the wish of that delegation to secure the nomination for John Sherman, and labored loyally for that end. There could be no criticism