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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS
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[promise] of such a result. I had once seen the mettle of Mr. Garfield tried when it
seemed to me he did not exhibit the pure gold of moral courage; when in
fact he quailed under the fierce glance of Randolph Tucker, a returned slave
holding rebel. I can never forget the scene. Mr. Garfield had used the phrase
"perjured traitors" as descriptive of those who had been educated by the
Government and sworn to support and defend the Constitution and yet had
betaken themselves to the battle field and fought to destroy it. Mr. Tucker
had resented these terms as thus applied, and the only defence Mr. Garfield
made to this brazen insolence of Mr. Tucker, was, that he did not make the
dictionary. This was perhaps, the soft answer that turneth away wrath, but it
is not the answer with which to rebuke effrontery, haughtiness and presumption.
It is not the answer that Charles Sumner or Benjamin F. Wade or Owen
Lovejoy would have given. None of these brave men would, in such a case,
have sheltered himself behind the dictionary. In nature exuberant, readily
responsive in sympathy, shrinking from conflict with his immediate surroundings,
abounding in love of approbation. Mr. Garfield himself admitted
that he had made promises that he could not fulfill. His amiable disposition
to make himself agreeable to those with whom he came in contact made him
weak and led him to create false hopes in those who approached him for
favors. This was shown in a case to which I was a party. Prior to his inauguration
he solemnly promised Senator Roscoe Conkling that he would
appoint me United States Marshal for the District of Columbia. He not only
promised, but did so with emphasis. He slapped the table with his hand
when he made the promise. When I apologized to Mr. Conkling for the failure
of Mr. Garfield to fulfill his promise, that gentleman silenced me by
repeating with increasing emphasis." But he told me he would appoint you
United States Marshal of the District of Columbia." To all I could say in
defence of Mr. Garfield. Mr. Conkling repeated this promise with increasing
solemnity till it seemed to reproach me not less than Mr. Garfield; he for
failing to keep his word and I for defending him. It need not be said to those
who knew the character and composition of Senator Conkling, that it was
impossible for him to tolerate or excuse a broken promise. No man more
than he, considered a man's word his bond. The difference between the two
men is the difference between one guided by principle and one controlled
by sentiment.

Although Mr. Garfield had given me this cause to doubt his word, I still
had faith in his promised new departure. I believed in it all the more because
Mr. Blaine, then Secretary of State and known to have great influence with
the President, was with him in this new measure. Mr. Blaine went so far as