As a legislator, debater, orator and statesman he had but few equals and no superiors.

Firm, decided, full of expedients, and wonderful in debate, he not only carried his measures triumphantly through, but at each session strengthened his hold upon his party and the country.

In debate he rejected all rhetorical ornament, all ostentation and show.

Stating his premises concisely, his reasoning led to the conclusion aimed at, as irresistibly as the current of a deep and strong river leads to the sea.

There was a logical force and point to his clear sentences that tended to his conclusions with the directness and certainty with which the successive steps in a mathematical demonstration point to the grand result.

In making an attack or repelling an assault upon his position, he always had a mark, and his intellectual shots fell in and around that mark with effective proximity.

He addressed the intuitions, and consciences, of men quite as often as their reason.

He gathered up the fundamental principles underlying the complicated topics of political economy, stated them with such clearness and simplicity, as not only to bring them within the comprehension of, but to make them attractive to the…

He had strong convictions, and he uttered them with courage and earnestness.

I have seen him arise in a tumult of excitement, and as soon as the tones of his clear, ringing voice echoed through the vast hall, all was hushed, and every ear was open, and every eye was turned toward him.

Only four months was he at the helm, but his achievements in that time will be remembered long, and bless the land for years.

In that brief time he routed the army of contracting thieves from their entrenched position in the postoffice department, and established a standard of official integrity and honor that carried dismay to the spoils-hunter and dishonest…

But just as he had fully gathered the reins of government in his hands, and sent forth the uncompromising demand for honesty and integrity from all officials, and while preparing to enforce that demand, the assassin's bullet paralyzed his…

That he made mistakes may be conceded, for all human judgments are imperfect; but the cold and passionless voice of history, though it may find fault or flaw, will more than satisfy those who loved him most, and will place his name among…

Man may possess transcendant genius, and be the idol of the populace, and yet be selfish, unsocial and cruel at home.

Towering ambition may, and sometimes does, subordinate the love of wife, of children, and of parents, to its gratification.

Some one has truthfully said that there are but three words of beauty in the English language, and they are: 'Mother, Home, Heaven.' All know that the love and affection of our dead President for his aged mother, who by the cruel shot of…

These are the qualities, more than the brilliant display on the rostrum, in the forum or before enraptured thousands, that give the full measure of a noble manhood.

This display may co-exist with selfishness and meanness; love and affection sanctify the noblest gifts and the loftiest aspirations.

No man with his breadth of knowledge, with his complete mastery of the processes of induction and analysis, and with his metephysical character of mind, could ever be a disbeliever in the existence of God and the immortality of man.

He believed, and endeavored to regulate his conduct, habits, and life by Divine laws.

He has gone to the still heights where crime and pain come not.

A nation mourns his loss, and millions of freeman now and hereafter will revere his virtues and guard his fame.

Though dead in the flesh he lives in the spirit, and in the affections and memory of his countrymen.

The principles and lessons he taught are his best legacy to his country.