emory of the wild eagerness with
which the North answered that note of defiance, and went forth with
overpowering faith and eagerness to fight the good fight on behalf of
human freedom. Such a spontaneous outburst of the enthusiasm of
humanity has never been known, before or since. President Lincoln
immediately called for a supply of seventy-five thousand men. In the
Ohio Senate, his message was read amid tumultuous applause; and the
moment the sound of the cheers died away, Garfield, as natural
spokesman of the republican party, sprang to his feet, and moved in a
short and impassioned speech that the state of Ohio should contribute
twenty thousand men and three million dollars as its share in the
general preparations. The motion was immediately carried with the
wildest demonstrations of fervour, and Ohio, with all the rest of the
North, rose like one man to put down by the strong hand the hideous
traffic in human flesh and blood.

During those fiery and feverish days, every citizen of the loyal states
felt himself to be, in reserve at least, a possible soldier. It was
necessary to raise, drill, and render effective in an incredibly short
time a large army; and it would have been impossible to do so had it
not been for the eager enthusiasm with which civilians of every sort
enlisted, and threw themselves into their military duties with almost
incredible devotion. Garfield felt that he must bear his own part in
the struggle by fighting it out, not in the Senate but on the field;
and his first move was to obtain a large quantity of arms from the
arsenal in the doubtfully loyal state of Missouri. In this mission he
was completely successful; and he was next employed to raise and
organize two new regiments of Ohio infantry. Garfield, of course, knew
absolutely nothing of military matters at that time; but it was not a
moment to stand upon questions of precedence or experience; the born
organizers came naturally to the front, and Garfield was one of them.
Indeed, the faculty for organization seems innate in the American
people, so that when it became necessary to raise and equip so large a
body of men at a few weeks' notice, the task was undertaken offhand by
lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, and schoolmasters, without a minute's
hesitation, and was performed on the whole with distinguished success.

When Garfield had organized his regiments, the Governor asked him to
accept the post of colonel to one of them. But Garf