Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/146

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

chairs of their respective States and on foreign missions of great consequence; but among them all none grew so rapidly, none so firmly, as Gar- field. As is said by Trevelyan of his parlia- mentary hero, Garfield succeeded "because all the world in concert could not have kept him in the background, and because when once in the front he played his part with a prompt intrepid- ity and a commanding ease that were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy on which it was in his power to draw," Indeed, the apparently reserved force which Gar- field possessed was one of his great characteris- tics. He never did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done better. He never ex- pended so much strength but that he seemed to be holding additional power to call. This is one of the happiest and rarest distinctions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much m persuading an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument.

The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the House of Representa- tives. Ilis military life, illustrated by honorable performance, and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, prematurely terminated and neces- sarily incomplete. Speculation as to what he might have done in the field, where the great prizes are so few, can not be profitable. It is sufficient to say that as a soldier he did his duty bravely ; he did it intelligently ; he won an envi- able fame, and he retiretl from the service with- 116

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