d to the United States Senate, but he
was never a member of that body. Before the time came for him to take
his seat he had been invested with a higher dignity. Never before in our
history has the same man been an actual member of the House of
Representatives, a Senator-elect, and President-elect.

On the 8th of June, 1880, the Republican Convention at Chicago selected
Garfield as their standard-bearer on the thirty-sixth ballot. No one,
probably, was more surprised or bewildered than Garfield himself, who
was a member of the Convention, when State after State declared in his
favor. In his loyalty to John Sherman, of his own State, whom he had set
in nomination in an eloquent speech, he tried to avert the result, but
in vain. He was known by the friends of other candidates to be
thoroughly equipped for the highest office in the people's gift, and he
was the second choice of the majority.

[Illustration: INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.]

Mary Clemmer, the brilliant Washington correspondent, writes of the
scene thus: "For days before, many that would not confess it felt that
he was the coming man, because of the acclaim of the people whenever
Garfield appeared. The culminating moment came. Other names seemed to
sail out of sight like thistledown on the wind, till one (how glowing
and living it was) was caught by the galleries, and shout on shout arose
with the accumulative force of ascending breakers, till the vast
amphitheater was deluged with sounding and resounding acclaim, such as a
man could hope would envelope and uplift his name but once in a
life-time. And he? There he stood, strong, Saxon, fair, debonair, yet
white as new snow, and trembling like an aspen. It seemed too much, this
sudden storm of applause and enthusiasm for him, the new idol, the
coming President; yet who may say that through his exultant, yet
trembling heart, that moment shot the presaging pang of distant, yet
sure-coming woe?"

Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, who was the President of the Convention,
in a speech made not long afterward, paid the following just tribute to
Garfield's character and qualifications:

"Think of the qualifications for the office which that man combines. Do
you want a statesman in the broadest sense? Do you demand a successful
soldier? Do you want a man of more experience in civil affairs? No
President of the United States since John Quincy Adams has begun to
bring to the Presidential office, when he