George F. Hoar

If a man travelled three thousand miles across the continent to say something to President Harrison, he would find himself broken in upon two minutes after the conversation began with a lecture in which the views in opposition to his were…

He was a wise, pure, upright and able President, and an eloquent orator, capable of uttering great truths in a great way, and able to bring them home to the understanding and conviction of his countrymen.

I had become very intimate with him, and had learned to respect him highly as a very able, upright and wise man, although he developed, as President, an ability which I think his most intimate friends had not known before.

I think no other person ever came so near the Presidency of the United States, and missed it.

If it had gone on, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Iowa, California, and perhaps Missouri, would have cast their votes unanimously for Allison, and his nomination would have been sure.

Allison, setting forth what I thought were the qualities that would make him a popular candidate, and would make him an able and wise President.

I thought I ought not, for a mere empty honor to myself, to permit such an injury to be inflicted upon him, although I confess I did not then think his nomination likely.

And I thought also that the office of a Senator from Massachusetts would be more agreeable to me, and better adapted to my capacity than that of the President of the United States.

To nominate him would be to go back to the early habit of placing the greatest and wisest statesmen of the country in its highest offices.

In 1888 there was a very strong, almost irresistible feeling among Republicans in the country that Blaine should be put in nomination again, although he had peremptorily and publicly refused to be a candidate.

The event proved him a much stronger candidate than I had supposed, and his subsequent career in the Department of State, I believe, satisfied a majority of his countrymen that he would have made an able and discreet President.

Our people do not want a Father Confessor in the White House," was the answer.

There has been hardly any single service to this country in recent times greater than that rendered by him when he stood against the fiat money movement in Ohio.

He was remarkably independent in forming his judgments and inflexible in adhering to them on all grand and essential questions.

You will search his speeches in vain for an appeal to a base motive or an evil passion.

During Garfield's service in the House he was the leader of its best thought.

There has been no man in public life in my time, except Charles Sumner, who was always so glad to render any service in his power to literature and science.

He seemed constantly possessed by an intelligent curiosity in regard to all subjects.

Garfield was a man of indefatigable industry and vast information.

It would have been a great public misfortune if that noble oration had been lost to the world.

Blaine's address on Garfield is one of the treasures of our literature.

Next to the assassination of Lincoln, his death was the greatest national misfortune ever caused to this country by the loss of a single life.

His will would, in my opinion, if he had been spared to us, have been the dominant will in our Government for eight fortunate and happy years.

He would have mastered for himself the great subjects to be dealt with in our foreign policy, as well as in domestic administration and legislation.

I do not believe he wold have been a tool or servant in the Presidency.