From Canal Boy to President

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From Canal Boy to President

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Title: From Canal Boy to President Or The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield
Author: Horatio Alger, Jr.
Release Date: February 7, 2005 [EBook #14964]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Josephine Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: JAMES A. GARFIELD, AT THE AGE OF 16. Copied by permission of J.F. RYDER, _Cleveland, G._]

FROM
CANAL BOY TO PRESIDENT,
OR THE
BOYHOOD AND MANHOOD
OF
JAMES A. GARFIELD.
BY
HORATIO ALGER, JR.,
AUTHOR OF RAGGED DICK; LUCK AND PLUCK; TATTERED TOM, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
NEW YORK
AMERICAN PUBLISHERS CORPORATION
310-318 SIXTH AVENUE
1881

TO
HARRY AND JAMES GARFIELD
WHOSE PRIVATE SORROW
IS THE PUBLIC GRIEF,
THIS MEMORIAL OF THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER
Is inscribed
WITH THE WARMEST SYMPATHY.

GENERAL PREFACE.
The present series of volumes has been undertaken with the view of supplying the want of a class of books for children, of a vigorous, manly tone, combined with a plain and concise mode of narration. The writings of Charles Dickens have been selected as the basis of the scheme, on account of the well-known excellence of his portrayal of children, and the interests connected with children--qualities which have given his volumes their strongest hold on the hearts of parents. These delineations having thus received the approval of readers of mature age, it seemed a worthy effort to make the young also participants in the enjoyment of these classic fictions, to introduce the children of real life to these beautiful children of the imagination.
With this view, the career of Little Nell and her Grandfather, Oliver, Little Paul, Florence Dombey, Smike, and the Child-Wife, have been detached from the large mass of matter with which they were originally connected, and presented, in the author's own language, to a new class of readers, to whom the little volumes will we doubt not, be as attractive as the larger originals have so long proved to the general public. We have brought down these famous stories from the library to the nursery--the parlor table to the child's hands--having a precedent for the proceeding, if one be needed, in the somewhat similar work, the Tales from Shakespeare, by one of the choicest of English authors and most reverential of scholars, Charles Lamb.
Newtonville, Mass.

PREFACE.
If I am asked why I add one to the numerous Lives of our dead President, I answer, in the words of Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, because "our annals afford no such incentive to youth as does his life, and it will become one of the Republic's household stories."
I have conceived, therefore, that a biography, written with a view to interest young people in the facts of his great career, would be a praiseworthy undertaking. The biography of General Garfield, however imperfectly executed, can not but be profitable to the reader. In this story, which I have made as attractive as I am able, I make no claim to originality. I have made free use of such materials as came within my reach, including incidents and reminiscences made public during the last summer, and I trust I have succeeded, in a measure, in conveying a correct idea of a character whose nobility we have only learned to appreciate since death has snatched our leader from us.
I take pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to two Lives of Garfield, one by Edmund Kirke, the other by Major J.M. Bundy. Such of my readers as desire a more extended account of the later life of Gen. Garfield, I refer to these well-written and instructive works.
HORATIO ALGER, JR.
New York, Oct. 8, 1881.

CONTENTS.
I.--THE FIRST PAIR OF SHOES
II.--GROWING IN WISDOM AND STATURE
III.--IN QUEST OF FORTUNE
IV.--ON THE TOW-PATH
V.--AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION
VI.--JAMES LEAVES THE CANAL
VII.--THE CHOICE OF A VOCATION
VIII.--GEAUGA SEMINARY
IX.--WAYS AND MEANS
X.--A COUSIN'S REMINISCENCES
XI.--LEDGE HILL SCHOOL
XII.--WHO SHALL BE MASTER?
XIII.--JAMES LEAVES GEAUGA SEMINARY
XIV.--AT HIRAM INSTITUTE
XV.--THREE BUSY YEARS
XVI.--ENTERING WILLIAMS COLLEGE
XVII.--LIFE IN COLLEGE
XVIII.--THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A COLLEGE PRESIDENT
XIX.--GARFIELD AS A COLLEGE PRESIDENT
XX.--GARFIELD BECOMES A STATE SENATOR
XXI.--A DIFFICULT DUTY
XXII.--JOHN JORDAN'S DANGEROUS JOURNEY
XXIII.--GARFIELD'S BOLD STRATEGY
XXIV.--THE BATTLE OF MIDDLE CREEK
XXV.--THE PERILOUS TRIP UP THE BIG SANDY
XXVI.--THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A CONGRESSMAN
XXVII.--GARFIELD'S COURSE IN CONGRESS
XXVIII.--THE MAN FOR THE HOUR
XXIX.--GARFIELD AS A LAWYER
XXX.--THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS
XXXI.--THE TRIBUTES OF FRIENDS
XXXII.--FROM CANAL-BOY TO PRESIDENT
XXXIII.--THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
XXXIV.--THE TRAGIC END
XXXV.--MR. DEPEW'S ESTIMATE OF GARFIELD
XXXVI.--THE LESSONS OF HIS LIFE

THE
BOYHOOD AND MANHOOD
OF
JAMES A. GARFIELD.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST PAIR OF SHOES.
From a small and rudely-built log-cabin a sturdy boy of four years issued, and looked earnestly across the clearing to the pathway that led through the surrounding forest. His bare feet pressed the soft grass, which spread like a carpet before the door.
"What are you looking for, Jimmy?" asked his mother