It is a remarkable fact that of the men known to join the Know-Nothing Party, no man, unless he were exceedingly young and obscure when he did it, ever maintained or regained the public confidence afterward, with the exception of Henry Wilson, Anson Burlingame and Nathaniel P.
Hoar remarks on the lasting negative impact of the Know-Nothing Party on its members' reputations.
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More from George F. Hoar
Judge Hoar strenuously insisted that the Judges of the newly created Circuit Courts of the United States should be made up of the best lawyers, without Senatorial dictation.
His pure and lofty counsel fell unheeded upon the ears of his near neighbors, and the people of Massachusetts did not listen very patiently to lectures on political purity or reform in civil service from New York city.
His life, so far as he took part in political affairs, was devoted to objects wholly public, never personal.
He would undoubtedly have taken a very high place in the public and official life of his generation if he had found himself in accord with either of the great political parties.
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