columbus, February 16th, 1861.
Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him
at every point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and
republican, but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair of
dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no appendage can ever
render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am greatly pleased with him.
He clearly shows his want of culture, and the marks of Western life but there
is no touch of affectation in him, and he has a peculiar power of impressing
you that he is frank, direct and thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense,
simple and condensed style of expression, and evident marks of indomitable
will, give me great hopes for the country. And, after the long, dreary period
of Buchanan's weakness and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong
and vigorous leader.
I have never brought my mind to consent to the dissolution
peaceably. I know it may be asked, Is it not better to dissolve before war than
after? But I ask, Is it not better to fight before dissolution than after? If
the North and South cannot live in the Union without war, how can they live and
expand as dissevered nations without it? May it not be an economy of bloodshed
to tell the South that disunion is war, and that the United States Government will
protect its property and execute its laws at all hazards.
I confess the great weight of the thought in your letter of
the Plymouth and Jamestown ideas, and their vital and utter antagonism. This
conflict may yet break the vase by the lustiness of its growth and strength,
but the history of other nations gives me hope. Every government has periods
when its strength and unity are tested. England has passed through the Wars of
the Roses and the days of Cromwell. A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a
republic, because its sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be
powerful enough, will crush it.
Burke, this is really a great time to live in, if any of us
can only catch the cue of it. I am glad you write on these subjects, and you
must blame yourself for having made me inflict on you the longest letter I have
written to any one in more than a year.
SOURCE: William Raston Balch, The Life of James
Abram Garfield, p. 122
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