He has studied their relations and their interdependence, has analyzed their causes and comprehended their effects.

Hoar has studied the era with a devout enthusiasm for the character of the people,--a people from whom he is proud to claim his own descent, and whose positive virtues (even with the spice of acridness which distinguished them) are…

Hoar is a Puritan, modified by the religious progress of two centuries, but still a Puritan--in manners, in morals, in deep earnestness, in untiring energy.

He is independent without self-assertion, courageous without bravado, conscientious without Pharisaism.

Before that time much reading had made him a very full man: when reading became impossible, reflection digested his knowledge into practical wisdom.

He perfectly arranged his storehouse of facts and cases, and pondered intently upon the first principles of jurisprudence.

If he had given all his time to the Senate, or all to the Bar, he would have found few peers in either field of intellectual combat.

The few who were left in possession of coolness and sound judgment among the public men of South Carolina, desired to stay the rush of events by waiting for co-operation with the other slave-holding States.

One of the members declared that if South Carolina again waited for co-operation, slavery and State-rights would be abandoned, State-sovereignty and the cause of the South would be lost forever.

The South had its choice, and it deliberately and after fair warning decided to reject the magnanimous offer of the North and to insist upon an advantage in representation against which a common sense of justice revolted.

In a minor degree the folly was now repeated, in resisting the mode of Reconstruction first tendered, and thus forcing Congress to confer civil rights and suffrage upon the emancipated slave.

Whatever were the deficiencies of the negro race in education, for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, they had exhibited the one vital qualification of an instinctive loyalty, and as far as lay in their power a steadfast…

The decision to that effect was made after debate in which Madison had strenuously contended for that construction, and his high authority gave to the conclusion great weight with subsequent administrations of the Government.

I believe it to be within the just power of Congress to reverse the decision of 1789, and I mean to hold myself at liberty to act hereafter on that question as the safety of the Government and of the Constitution may require.

I must still think, however, that the text of the Constitution is best interpreted by reference to the tripartite theory of Government, to which practice had conformed, and which so long and uniform a practice would seem to have…

Many were induced to join in the movement under the belief that it was important to test the true meaning of the Constitution in the premises, and that this could be most effectively done by directly restraining by law the power which had…

He wrote as one who felt that in this particular issue with Congress, whatever might be the adverse votes of the Senate and House, time would be sure to vindicate the position of the President.

It was an extreme proposition,--a new departure from the long-established usage of the Federal Government, and for that reason, if for no other, personally degrading to the incumbent of the Presidential office.

The measure was resorted to as one of self-defense against the alleged aggressions and the unrestrained power of the Executive Department.

But the history of its operation, and of its subsequent modification, which practically amounted to its repeal, is one to which the Republican party cannot recur with any sense of pride or satisfaction.

As matter of fact, a Republican Congress, largely composed of the same members who had enacted the law, indirectly confessed two years later that it could not be maintained.

That policy relied for its vindication upon the judgment and conscience of the loyal people, and it was an impeachment of their good faith to say that either could be affected by the removal of one man, or of many men, from official…

The Reconstruction policy stood upon a strong and enduring principle,--as strong and enduring as the question of human right,--and was sustained with vigor and enthusiasm by the great party which was responsible for the war measures that…

Lincoln's evident motive was to place beyond the calculation, or even the hope of the disloyal States the possibility of ever again having sufficient political power to compete in the Senate for the mastery of the Republic.

The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by its prompt and peaceful dissolution.