He never flinched from uttering and maintaining his opinions.

But the fact that he came to that conclusion is enough to make me feel sure that there were strong reasons for it, which might well convince the clearest understanding, and be reconciled with the most conscientious desire to do right.

No list of the remarkable Senators of my time would be complete which did not contain the name of Senator Vest of Missouri.

On some few occasions he has made speeches, always speaking without notes, and I suppose without previous preparation so far as expression and style go, which have very deeply moved the Senate, though made up of men who have been…

Vest is a brave, sincere, spirited and straightforward man.

I think those prejudices would long ago have melted away in the sunshine of our day of returning good feeling and affection, but for the fact that his chivalrous nature will not permit him to abandon a cause or an opinion to which he has…

He is like some old cavalier who supported the Stuarts, who lived down into the days of the House of Hanover, but still toasted the King over the water.

But I have been led to form a great respect for his intellectual qualities, and for his sincere and far- sighted patriotism.

But he retains no bitterness or hate or desire for revenge by reason of the conflict of the Civil War.

That remarkable address was full of wise counsel to his countrymen.

Daniel declared the cheering and hopeful truth that great races are made of a mixture of races, and that the best and bravest blood of the world's great races is mixed in the American.

He appealed eloquently to the circumstances which should stir the heart of the whole people to a new and loftier love of country.

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.

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

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

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…

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.

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

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

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…

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

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

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.

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