rn he was appointed teacher of
ancient languages and literature there, and to this office he came full
of enthusiasm.

The salary was only one hundred and fifty pounds a year, less by
one-third than the sum offered him by the trustees of the high school
at Troy, but that made no difference to Garfield. He brought to the
duties of his profession a profound love for the school to which he
himself was so greatly indebted, and an ardent desire to help young
fellows as poor as himself. He found plenty of scope for his gifts,
and he taught with such success that in two years' time he was
appointed principal of the Institution.

This was the height of his ambition. Around him were some three
hundred young people, sons and daughters of the great West, whose
mental and spiritual training was in his hands. He regarded it as a
sacred trust, and he solemnly devoted his life to the service of these
Western students.

His ideal was a high one. The teacher, he felt, was a builder of the
nation, and he resolved that no work should leave his hands that was
ill planned or badly done.

The memory of his own early struggles made him especially mindful of
the poorer scholars, and his keen eye was always on the look-out for
young men of promise. Perfectly free in his intercourse with the
students, the young principal maintained his influence by the nobility
of his character and the steadiness of his aim. His only wish was to
help his pupils. And they believed in him with a faith that in the
years to come transformed his classes into battalions on the field of
battle.

The slavery question was still exercising the minds of all parties when
Garfield returned to Hiram. His power as a speaker made him an
important ally to the Abolitionist party in his country, and his fame
brought numberless demands for platform work. The Democratic party in
the States had unhappily identified itself with slavery. Its leaders
defended the system, its members voted in its favour; while the
Republicans led the way for its abolition.

Soon after Garfield's return to Hiram, a well-known Democrat named Hart
visited the town, to deliver an address on slavery. It was a clever
speech, and made some impression, and the principal of the Institute
was urged by the Republicans to reply. After some hesitation, Garfield
did so. The answer was said to have been calmly given, but its grim
facts of slavery horrors, its awful pictures of slavery evils, were