Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/94

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GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR

stituents and by the administration he helped to put into power. Such distinction as between the academic conviction of the speaker, and the political aspect as seen by the legislator on the final issue of a measure, is not usual in the history of American politics; and Senator Hoar's course of argument in the debate on the Philippine question when before the senate, may well have created alarm and much adverse criticism in his own party; but his vote caused a greater degree of surprise in the ranks of the opposition, when their hopes for still further help from so powerful an ally were destroyed, as his name was called and his vote recorded in the final judgment of the senate. He says in his autobiography: "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." In another place he says: "The lesson which I have learned in life and which is impressed on me daily, and more deeply as I grow old, is the lesson of Good Will and Good Hope. I believe that today is better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better than today. I believe that in spite of so many errors and wrongs and even crimes, my countrymen of all classes desire what is good and not what is evil."

Senator Hoar died at his home in Worcester, Massachusetts, September 30, 1904.