George F. Hoar

The men to whom the American people gives its respect, and whom it is willing to trust in the great places of power, are intelligent men of property, dignity and sobriety.

They command votes and seem to delight popular and legislative assemblies.

They have existed in every government from Cleon and the Sausage-maker.

The race of demagogues we have always with us.

But the poor men will not vote for it, because they think the example will be unpopular, and the rich men do not care about it.

I suppose nearly every member of either House of Congress will tell you in private that he thinks the salary ought to be raised.

The result is that the poor people, the working people and people in ordinary life, cannot get persons to represent them, from their own class.

This is a great injustice, not only to members of the two Houses, but it is a great public injury, because the country cannot command the service of able men in the prime of life, unless they have already acquired large fortunes.

The salary of Senators and Representatives is shamefully small.

Minds ever open to the sunlight and the morning, ever open to new truth and new duty as the new years bring their lessons.

No distinction of birth or religious creed in the rights of American citizenship.

A school at the public charge open to all the children, and free from partisan or sectarian control.

Sympathy with Liberty and Republican government at home and abroad.

Every dollar paid by the Government, both the gold and the silver dollars of the Constitution, and their paper representatives, honest and unchanging in value and equal to every other.

An equal share in Government for every citizen.

The principles of the Republicans of Massachusetts are as well known as the Commonwealth itself; well known as the Republic; well known as Liberty; well known as Justice.

It suddenly occurred to me: Why not take these headings just as they are, and make a platform of them, leaving the Convention and the public to amplify as they may think fit afterward.

The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be No better a musician than the wren.

Thus the wise nightingale that leaves her home, Pursuing constantly the cheerful spring, To foreign groves does her old music bring.

So the question which excited so much public feeling throughout the world for nearly a quarter of a century, and endangered not only the ascendancy of the Republican Party, but the financial strength of the United States, has become almost…

The same causes have diminished the desire for a bimetallic standard, and make the difficulty of establishing a parity between silver and gold, for the present, almost insuperable.

The great increase in the gold product of the world, and the constant diminution in the value of silver, have put an end to the danger of the movement for the free coinage of silver, and made the question purely academic or theoretic, at…

But he declared that the happiness and, perhaps, the safety of the country rested on Bimetallism.

He pointed out the danger, indeed the ruin, of undertaking to reestablish silver without the consent of foreign nations.

All I have to say in reply to it is that I have done my best to get at the truth, without, so far as I am concerned, any desire except to get at and utter the truth.