George F. Hoar

The difference was not only as to the interpretation of the Constitution, and the welfare of the people, but seemed to go down to the very roots of the moral law.

There is hardly a political question among the great questions that have excited the American people for the last half century on which we did not differ from each other.

It is a remarkable truth, which impresses itself upon me more and more the longer I live, that men who are perfectly sincere and patriotic may differ from each other on what seem the clearest principles of morals and duty, and yet both…

When he did speak the Senate listened to a man of great ability, eloquence and dignity.

If I were to select the one man of all others with whom I have served in the Senate, who seems to me the most perfect example of the quality and character of the American Senator, I think it would be Edward C.

He once made a speech in Executive session, on a topic which was suggested suddenly and he could not have anticipated, on the character and history of French diplomacy, which was marvellous alike for his profound and accurate knowledge of…

I think his grave, scholarly style, and his powerful reasoning, the propriety, dignity and moderation with which he dealt with important subjects, made him nearly the finest example of Senatorial behavior I have ever known.

If, as some of us think, he erred, his error was that of a brave man ready to give life and health and hope to the unequal struggle.

He was faithful to truth as he saw it; to duty as he understood it; to Constitutional Liberty as he conceived it.

Throughout the whole land the word 'countryman' has at last become a title of endearment.

President, it is delightful to think how, during the lives of the men who took part in the great conflict which preceded and followed the Civil War and the greater conflict of the war itself, the old bitterness and estrangements are all…

His great legislative experience made him invaluable as a servant of his own State, of the country and as a counsellor to his younger associates.

How often a few simple and clear sentences of his have dispersed the clouds and brought order out of confusion in this Chamber.

He was an acknowledged master of parliamentary law, a system upon which not only the convenient procedure of legislative bodies largely depends, but which has close relations to Constitutional Liberty itself.

He was not afraid of any antagonist, whether in the hall of debate or on the field of battle.

He was a man of brief, clear and compact speech.

I was about to say he was a man without the gift of diplomacy; but he was a man with the gift of the highest diplomacy--directness, simplicity, frankness, courage--qualities which make always their way to their mark and to their goal over…

The thought that was in his heart corresponded absolutely with the utterance of his lips.

He was a man of absolute frankness in public behavior and in private dealing.

Yet I have no memory of him that is not tender and affectionate, and there is nothing that I can honestly say of him except words of respect and of honor.

So far as I have been able to exert any influence upon the history of my country during the long conflict now happily past, it has been in opposition to him, to the party to which he belonged, to the opinions which he held, I am sure…

The farthest star in the heavens will bear the name of Washington, and the city he founded be the Capital of the universal Republic.

He called upon his countrymen to stand by the Monroe Doctrine, to be ready to defend it, if need be, in arms.

He pointed out the National strength, the power of our great Republic stands at the dawn of a new century, with every man under its flag a freeman and ready to defend it.

He pointed out that the differences in forty- five great Commonwealths are not greater than ought to be expected, and indeed not greater than is healthy.