where he engaged himself in a similar way at a small town on the banks
of the lovely Hudson river. At college, in spite of his rough western
dress and manners, he earned for himself the reputation of a thoroughly
good fellow. Indeed, geniality and warmth of manner, qualities always
much prized by the social American people, were very marked traits
throughout of Garfield's character, and no doubt helped him greatly in
after life in rising to the high summit which he finally reached. It was
here, too, that he first openly identified himself with the anti-slavery
party, which was then engaged in fighting out the important question
whether any new slave states should be admitted to the Union. Charles
Sumner, the real grand central figure of that noble struggle, was at
that moment thundering in Congress against the iniquitous extension of
the slave-holding area, and was employing all his magnificent powers to
assail the abominable Fugitive Slave Bill, for the return of runaway
negroes, who escaped north, into the hands of their angry masters. The
American colleges are always big debating societies, where questions of
politics are regularly argued out among the students; and Garfield put
himself at the head of the anti-slavery movement at his own little
university. He spoke upon the subject frequently before the assembled
students, and gained himself a considerable reputation, not only as a
zealous advocate of the rights of the negro, but also as an eloquent
orator and a powerful argumentative debater.

In 1856, Garfield took his degree at Williams College, and had now
finished his formal education. By that time, he was a fair though not a
great scholar, competently read in the Greek and Latin literatures, and
with a good knowledge of French and German. He was now nearly twenty-
five years old; and his experience was large and varied enough to make
him already into a man of the world. He had been farmer, carpenter,
canal driver, and student; he had seen the primitive life of the forest,