The fate of the country, certainly the fate of a great political party, was at stake, and, more than that, the selection of the ruler of a nation of fifty millions of people--a question which in other countries could not have been determined, under like circumstances, without bloodshed or civil war.
Hoar emphasizes the critical importance of the political decisions being made at the convention, likening it to life-and-death stakes.
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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 has fallen at the very gate of an honorable and eminent career, and a thousand hopes are buried in his grave.
One of the virtues of General Sheridan was that he knew when to act without orders.
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