PREFACE. OR several years President Garfield had looked forward to a time when he would be able to revise and publish such of his speeches and writings as he deemed worthy of a place in American literature. It was a purpose that lay near his heart. What he would have selected for publication, and how far he would have carried revision, can now be only matters of speculation. His untimely death, which defeated so many other plans and dashed so many other hopes, prevented the realization of this fond anticipation, and, through the partiality of Mrs. Garfield, devolved the editorship of his works upon me. An account of the manner in which I have discharged the trust seems called for. The works were to be limited to matter that had been published in its author's lifetime. All letters, manuscripts, etc. were reserved for future use. As to the handling of this material, it should be said, first of all, that no editor could have the same rights and powers over it that belonged to him who produced it. Equally obvious are the principles that should govern the selection of material to be used. Everything of real value that deals with questions of permanent interest, everything that is a material part of the history of the times, and everything that has a considerable personal interest flowing from its author, as illustrating the man, should obviously be included in the authorized edition of his Works. It has seemed best not to draw upon such material as exists produced before 1863, but to leave that to the biographer, and to begin these Works with Mr. Garfield's entry into Congress. Accordingly these two volumes are made up wholly of matter which, in some form, has already been given to the public. They do not by any means contain everything that President Garfield said and wrote which has been published; but they give a full measure both of the quantity and quality of his published thought. All of his utterances had life in them; but it is believed that everything, or nearly everything, is here presented, the value and interest of which entitle it to admission to the popular edition of his works. If anything has been omitted that should have been included, it is owing either to the editor's having overlooked it, or to a false judgment of its value. The larger number of these speeches, addresses, and papers, making due allowance for needed verbal corrections, appear as they came from their author's hand. From some of them portions have been omitted, since they would but load down the work. These portions may be divided into two classes; namely, passages that were of merely local or temporary interest, and passages that contain what has been as well or better said in some other place. Perhaps some critics will say that the rule of exclusion, under both these heads, might have been carried further with advantage. The following remarks will, therefore, be pertinent. First. More or less matter has been retained that is not now and will never again be of immediate practical utility. If this is not true of whole compositions, it certainly is of parts of compositions. Some of the statistical tables, and the analyses of national expenditures found in the speeches on Appropriations, may be instanced. But this matter should obviously be retained; first, because it is a part of the history of the times; and secondly, because it is part of the history of President Garfield's mind and work, and will well illustrate his mental habit and method of discussion. Second. It has been found impossible wholly to prevent repetition and overlapping. Mr. Garfield was eminently a didactic statesman. He was a teacher both of the National Legislature and of the public. He discussed the same subject in many different places and at many different times. He often discussed the same subjectas Resumption of Specie Payments, and the Tariffin the House of Representatives, and before popular assemblies. Naturally, therefore, perhaps it may be said necessarily, his speeches and writings contain frequent repetitions, not only of facts and arguments, but also of diction and illustration. The widest as well as the most frequent overlapping is found in his Congressional speeches and popular addresses on political subjects which were delivered at about the same time. In these volumes, notwithstanding a constant effort to reduce repetition to a minimum, repetitions will still be found. Touching these it may be said that they could not be omitted without impairing the integrity of the composition, or weakening the force of the related parts of the speech or paper. The reader will not, however, weary of these passages. He will find the same subject coming up for discussion again and again; but he will find that, even upon those subjects which President |