. Mr.
Sherman's nomination was an impossibility from the beginning.
That the majority of the convention united upon Garfield was
due to the fact that he had no enemies or antagonists in the
convention or among the people and, to some degree undoubtedly,
also to the admiration felt by his fellow-delegates for the
tact, sense and good nature which he showed in its discussions--
qualities which were in marked contrast with those of his
very able and powerful antagonist, Mr. Conkling.

Beside, when the voting for Garfield in the Convention began,
a dispatch was received from Mr. Sherman urging his friends
to unite in Garfield's support. That was before Garfield
had taken any action, except an earnest attempt to decline
the nomination which, as I have already stated, was suppressed
by a peremptory exercise of the authority of the chair.

I have given more than once my estimate of James A. Garfield,
although not as fully as I should like. Shortly after his
death I delivered a eulogy before the people of Worcester
at the request of the City Government. I was asked by John
Sherman, who more than anybody else had the matter in charge,
to deliver the eulogy before the two Houses of Congress. But
Mr. Sherman had spoken without due authority. The Committee
of the two Houses determined to invite Mr. Blaine, then Secretary
of State. That arrangement was required by every consideration
of propriety, and was in all respects the best possible. Mr.
Blaine's address on Garfield is one of the treasures of our
literature. It would have been a great public misfortune
if that noble oration had been lost to the world.

I knew Garfield very intimately. For six of the eight years
I served in the House with him my seat was so near his that
we could converse with each other in whispers. By a singular
chapter of accidents our families had been closely associated
in several generations, although neither of us knew it until
long after our friendship began.

The land of Captain John Sherman and the land of Captain John
Prescott, both my ancestors on the mother's side, adjoined
the land of Edward Garfield, the ancestor of the President,
in Watertown. His land lay on both sides of what is now the
line between Waltham and Watertown. Captain Benjamin Garfield,
who may be properly called the founder of Waltham, was the
leader of an earnest and protracted controversy in Watertown
in which my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Sherman, was