"I understand that he has had a hard struggle with poverty. All the
money he has he earned by hard labor. Dr. Hopkins seems to have taken a
liking to him. I saw him walking with the doctor the other day."

This conversation describes pretty accurately the impression made by
Garfield upon his classmates, and by those in other classes who became
acquainted with him. At first they were disposed to laugh at the tall,
awkward young man and his manners, but soon his real ability, and his
cordial, social ways won upon all, and he was installed as a favorite.
The boys began to call him Old Gar, and regarded him with friendship and
increasing respect, as he grew and developed intellectually, and they
began to see what manner of man he was.

Perhaps the readiest way for a collegian to make an impression upon his
associates is to show a decided talent for oratory. They soon discovered
at Williams that Garfield had peculiar gifts in this way. His speaking
at clubs, and before the church of his communion in Hiram, had been for
him a valuable training. He joined a society, and soon had an
opportunity of showing that he was a ready and forcible speaker.

One day there came startling news to the college. Charles Sumner had
been struck down in the Senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks, of South
Carolina, for words spoken in debate. The hearts of the students
throbbed with indignation--none more fiercely than young Garfield's. At
an indignation meeting convened by the students he rose and delivered,
so says one who heard him, "one of the most impassioned and eloquent
speeches ever delivered in old Williams."

It made a sensation.