n Confederacy.

The excitement was intense. In the midst of it Garfield rose and made
the following speech:

"MR. CHAIRMAN," he said, "I am reminded by the occurrences of this
afternoon of two characters in the war of the Revolution as compared
with two others in the war of to-day.

"The first was Lord Fairfax, who dwelt near the Potomac, a few miles
from us. When the great contest was opened between the mother country
and the colonies, Lord Fairfax, after a protracted struggle with his own
heart, decided he must go with the mother country. He gathered his
mantle about him and went over grandly and solemnly.

"There was another man, who cast in his lot with the struggling
colonists, and continued with them till the war was well-nigh ended. In
an hour of darkness that just preceded the glory of the morning, he
hatched the treason to surrender forever all that had been gained to the
enemies of his country. Benedict Arnold was that man!

"Fairfax and Arnold find their parallels of to-day.

"When this war began many good men stood hesitating and doubting what
they ought to do. Robert E. Lee sat in his house across the river here,
doubting and delaying, and going off at last almost tearfully to join
the army of his State. He reminds one in some respects of Lord Fairfax,
the stately Royalist of the Revolution.

"But now when tens of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God under
the shadow of the flag; when thousands more, maimed and shattered in
the contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death; now, when
three years of terrific warfare have raged over us; when our armies have
pushed the Rebellion back over mountains and rivers, and crowded it into
narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it; now when the uplifted hand
of a majestic people is about to hurl the bolts of its conquering power
upon the Rebellion; now, in the quiet of this hall, hatched in the
lowest depths of a similar dark treason, there rises a Benedict Arnold,
and proposes to surrender all up, body and spirit, the nation and the
flag, its genius and its honor, now and forever, to the accursed
traitors to our country! And that proposition comes--God forgive and
pity our beloved State--it comes from a citizen of the time-honored and
loyal commonwealth of Ohio!

"I implore you, brethren in this House, to believe that not many births
ever gave pangs to my mother State such as she suffered when that
traitor was born! I beg you not to believe t