BLAINE
disposition of business was orderly and rapid. His power of analysis and his skill in classifica- tion enabled him to despatch a vast mass of de- tail with singular promptness and ease. His cabinet meetings were admirably conducted. His clear presentation of official subjects, his well- considered suggestion of topics on which discus- sion was invited, his quick decision when all had been heard, combined to show a thoroughness of mental training as rare as his natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged field of labor.
Garfield's ambition for the success of his ad- ministration was high. With strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of attempting rash experiments or of resorting to the empiricism of statesmanship. But he believed that renewed and closer atten- tion should be given to questions affecting the material interests and commercial prospects of jRfty millions of people. He believed that our continental relations, extensive and undeveloped as they are, involved responsibility and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be aban- doned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He belie"ved with equal confidence that an essen- tial forerunner to a new era of national progress must be a feeling of contentment in every sec- tion of the Union and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would be common to all.
The political events which disturbed the pres- 125
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