George F. Hoar

But the men who criticised me most bitterly were some of them the men who applauded my purpose to do so when it was first declared.

Our system differs from that which prevails in England in that it is hard to change the political power from one party to another and hard to restore it when it is once lost.

They maintained a sound currency, amid great temptation and against great odds.

They helped to achieve the independence of American manufacture.

But their names were wanting from the honorable roll of the men who accomplished them.

I have been able by adhering to the Republican Party to accomplish, in my humble judgment, ten-fold the good that has been accomplished by men who have ten times more ability and capacity for such service, who have left the party.

Many of the things I have done in this world which have been approved by other men, or have tended to give me any place in the respect of my countrymen, have been done in opposition, at the time, to the party to which I belonged.

Whether I am right or wrong in my opinion as to the duty of acting with and adherence to party, it is the result not of emotion or attachment or excitement, but of as cool, calculating, sober and deliberate reflection as I am able to give…

I have never in my life cast a vote or done an act in legislation that I did not at the time believe to be right, and that I am not now willing to avow and to defend and debate with any champion, of sufficient importance, who desires to…

The charge is sometimes made by persons who consider that I desire to do right, but think that my understanding and intellectual faculties are guided and blinded by that emotion.

I have been often charged with a blind and zealous attachment to party.

But I think I may fairly claim that I have done my share of the work of the Senate and of the House to the best of my ability.

If elected I shall at the close of the term lay down the honors of the office with the same cheerfulness with which I now accept the nomination.

It has not been begged for, or bargained for, or intrigued for, or crawled into.

If I shall fail to satisfy myself, I shall at least have the comfort of reflecting that it is by your free choice that this nomination has been conferred.

I was found with some difficulty and went in and made a brief speech which I ended by saying: "If I shall fail to satisfy you, the trust you have so freely conferred you can as freely recall.

But chiefly I had the advantage of the good will of my associates in my own profession, a body whose influence is always justly very powerful and who were all, with scarcely an exception, my close and strong friends.

My strength was due to the fact that I had in general the good will of my competitors.

I have many intimate friends both political and personal in that Order, although I never belonged to it and never sympathized with or approved of secret societies in a Republic.

It is utterly uncongenial to the spirit of true Americanism, and will never have any considerable permanent strength.

The proscriptive and intolerant opposition to Catholicism, especially against men of foreign birth, has shown its head occasionally.

I will speak my sentiments in the face of any organization; or, if it does not show its face, though its secret mines are beneath my feet, and unseen hands ready to apply the match, I will declare those sentiments that a freeman is bound…

Its proscriptiveness and its secrecy were alike repugnant to their honest, brave and liberty-loving souls.

I always had a great liking for him, and deem him entitled to great public gratitude for his services in the rescue of Kansas from what was known as Border Ruffianism.

They had no belief in the proscriptive doctrines, and were willing that men of foreign birth and Catholics should have their just rights, and expected to destroy the Know Nothing Party in its turn when it had destroyed Whiggery and…