f was unwilling to
accede to their request, when it reached him. He thought he could
serve the country better in the field than in Congress. Besides, he
was still a comparatively poor man. His salary as Major-General was
double that of a member of the House; and for his wife's and children's
sake he hesitated to accept the lesser position. Had he continued in
the army to the end of the war, he would doubtless have risen to the
very highest honours of that stirring epoch. But President Lincoln was
very anxious that Garfield should come into the Congress, where his
presence would greatly strengthen the President's hands; and with a
generous self-denial which well bespeaks his thorough loyalty, Garfield
gave up his military post and accepted a place in the House of
Representatives. He took his seat in December, 1863.

For seventeen years, General Garfield sat in the general legislature of
the United States as one of the members for Ohio. During all that time,
he distinguished himself most honourably as the fearless advocate of
honest government, and the pronounced enemy of those underhand dodges
and wire-pulling machinery which are too often the disgrace of American
politics. He was opposed to all corruption and chicanery, especially
to the bad system of rewarding political supporters with places under
Government, which has long been the chief blot upon American republican
institutions. As a person of stalwart honesty and singleness of
purpose, he made himself respected by both sides alike. Politically
speaking, different men will judge very differently of Garfield's acts
in the House of Representatives. Englishmen especially cannot fail to
remark that his attitude towards ourselves was almost always one of
latent hostility; but it is impossible for anybody to deny that his
conduct was uniformly guided by high principle, and a constant
deference to what he regarded as the right course of action.

In 1880, when General Garfield had already risen to be the acknowledged
leader of the House of Representatives, his Ohio supporters put him in
nomination for the upper chamber, the Senate. They wished Garfield to
come down to the state capital and canvas for support; but this the
General would not hear of. "I never asked for any place yet," he said,
"except the post of bell-ringer and general sweeper at the Hiram
Institute, and I won't ask for one now." But at least, his friends
urged, he would be on the spot to encour