so
overwhelming, that his opponent was completely crushed.

This triumph naturally raised the demand that a man of such abilities
should go into politics, and he was formally requested to become a
candidate for the State Legislature. For a long time he refused. The
interests of his school seemed so great, and his love for the work was
so strong, that for a while nothing could move him.

In the year 1859, however, the appeals of his fellow-townsmen had grown
so urgent, that he reluctantly became a candidate for the Senate of the
State of Ohio. He had held back until the trustees of the Institute
and his fellow-teachers joined their entreaties with the townsmen, and
offered during his absence to do double duty in the school to release
him for the public service. Greatly touched by these generous offers,
Garfield at length consented, and was at once nominated a candidate to
the parliament of his native State.

Though he had been slow to accept nomination, he did not hold back when
once the battle had begun, and some few who looked with doubt on his
youth and inexperience soon found that they had in their midst a bold
though prudent leader. He won the seat by a large majority, and
entered the Senate in the month of January 1860.

The United States of America consisted then of thirty-eight States and
ten Territories. Each State is governed by its own parliament, which
consists of a House of Senate and a House of Representatives. The
whole of these States and Territories are again united under a Federal
Government, at the head of which is the President of the United States.
Each State sends to the Federal Government two Senators and from one to
thirty Representatives, according to its population.

The State of Ohio, in whose Senate Garfield took his seat for the first
time, is considerably larger than Ireland, and contains a more numerous
population. It was organised into a State and admitted into the Union
in 1803. Its population then was less than fifty thousand. Twenty
years afterwards it had become ten times as great, and at the time of
Garfield's election to its Senate, numbered nearly two and a half
millions. Garfield had won his spurs as a politician in the discussion
of the slavery question, and very soon he was called to give practical
form to his opinions. For years there had been a conviction among many
of the people of the Northern States that slavery was wrong, that it
was a crime against man and