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.

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…

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

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

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.

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.

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…

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.

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

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…

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.

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.

His mind was a marvellous storehouse of literary gems which were unknown to most scholars, but rewarded his diligent search and loving study of his books.

They prove that the people of the American States, speaking through their legislative assemblies, are not likely to select men to represent them in this august assembly who are lacking in high qualities either of intellect or of character.

President, in this great century which is just over, when our Republic--this infant Hercules--has been growing from its cradle to its still youthful manhood, the greatest place for a live man has been that of a soldier in time of war and…

No man values more than I do the function of the man of letters.

No man reveres more than I do the man of genius who in a loving and reverent way writes the history of a great people, or the poet from whose lyre comes the inspiration which induces heroic action in war and peace.

But I do not admit that the title of the historian or that of the poet to the gratitude and affection of mankind is greater than that of the soldier who saves nations, or that of the statesman who creates or preserves them, or who makes…

But whether a man be remembered or whether he be forgotten; whether his work be appreciated or no; whether his work be known or unknown at the time it is accomplished, is not the test of its greatness or its value to mankind.

I am not ready to admit that even Shakespeare worked on a higher plane, or was a greater power on earth, than King Alfred or George Washington, even if it be that he will survive them both in the memory of man.

The name of every man but one who fought with Leonidas at Thermopylae is forgotten.

But it was Solon, and Pericles, and Miltiades that created and saved and made great the city, without which the poets could not have existed.

He That, through the channels of the state, Conveys the people's wish, is great; His name is pure; his fame is free.

There have been soldiers whose courage saved the day in great decisive battles when the fate of nations hung in the scale, yet whose most enduring monument was the column of smoke which rose when their death shot was fired.

There have been statesmen whose silent influence has decided the issue when the country was at the parting of the ways, of whose service history takes no heed.