I think he would have been Governor of the State and had a very brilliant career but for a delicacy of organization which made him break down in health when under any severe strain of responsibility, especially such as involved antagonism and conflict.
Hoar reflects on the potential of a colleague who faced health challenges that hindered his political career.
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More from George F. Hoar
Never rode to the wrong's redressing A worthier paladin.
Certainly if he had performed the promise of his boyhood he would have been one of the foremost men in American literature.
However any political antagonist might dislike him, every antagonist must respect him, and nobody could laugh at him.
Perhaps, taking him all together, the most brilliant man in Harvard in my time was John Felton.
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