George F. Hoar

One vote, more than once, would have saved the country from what I think its wretched policy in regard to the Philippine Islands.

A man who is his own candidate is commonly a very bad candidate for his party.

Let me not be understood as commending the miserable self- seeking which too often leads men to urge their own claims without regard to the public interests.

He should also remember, so far as the matter of ability is concerned, that other men are likely to be much better judges of his capacity than he is himself.

I think other men are better qualified, and I will not consent to stand in their way." This is often said with the utmost sincerity.

We often hear a gentleman say: "I am not fit to be Judge; I am not fit to be Governor, or Senator, or member of Congress.

I am not sure that modesty or disinterestedness has much place in the matter of the acceptance of high political office.

Senator Pendleton, of Ohio, however, with a courage and manliness that did him infinite credit, after stating what his Democratic brethren said: "I am bound to say that I have read the evidence carefully, and there is nothing in it that in…

It is not fit to be trusted in cases affecting the smallest amount of property, much less the honor of an eminent citizen, or the title to an object of so much desire as a seat in the Senate.

The people will thoroughly understand this matter, and will not likely to be deceived again.

The men whose professions of returning loyalty to the Constitution have been trusted by the generous confidence of the American people are now to give evidence of the sincerity of their vows.

Political parties have too often been led by partisan zeal into measures which a sober judgment might disapprove; but they have ever respected the constitution of the Senate.

It will be, if consummated, one of the great political crimes in American history, to be classed with the Rebellion, with the attempt to take possession by fraud of the State Government of Maine, and with the overthrow of State Governments…

The act which is demanded of this party majority would be, in our judgment, a great public crime.

It is sought, by a mere superiority of numbers, for the first time, to thrust a Senator from the seat which he holds by virtue of the express and deliberate final judgment of the Senate.

Spofford is not entitled to a seat in the Senate of the United States.

The only appropriation of the public money to which that term can properly apply, the provision for the President's compensation, is by design and of purpose placed wholly out of the power of Congress.

The American Congress, in its discretion, never grants supplies to the President under any circumstances whatever.

It is also true that these requests furnished the occasion to the Commons to stipulate for redress of grievances.

When such an attempt has been made it has been resisted, denounced and abandoned, and the English Constitutional authorities, without exception, are agreed that such a proceeding is unwarrantable, revolutionary and destructive of the…

There has been no instance since the Revolution of 1688 of attaching general legislation to a bill for raising or appropriating money, and scarcely, if ever, such an instance before that date.

It is a mistake to suppose that it was a fight simply between the Throne and the Commons; it was equally a fight between the Lords and the Commons; and the result of two centuries of contest in England was the rule that the House of Lords…

England was saved from despotism and an absolute monarchy by the exercise of the power of the House of Commons to refuse supplies except upon conditions that grievances should be redressed . . . .

We claim the right, which the House of Commons in England established after two centuries of contest, to say that we will not grant the money of the people unless there is a redress of grievances . . . .

I have found in general that the men who deliver themselves with most bitterness and fury on political questions are the men who change their minds most easily, and are in general the most placable, and not uncommonly are the most friendly…