An Autobiography of Seventy Years. was born to be loved or hated. Nobody occupied a middle ground as to him. In addition to the striking qualities which caught the public eye, he was a man of profound knowledge of our political history, of a sure literary taste, and of great capac ity as an orator. He studied and worked out for himself very abstruse questions, on which he formed his own opinions, usually with great sagacity. How far he was affected in his position by the desire for public favor I will not undertake to say. Г think the constitution of his mind was such that matters were apt to strike him in much the same way as they were apt to strike the majority of the people of the North, especially of the Northwest, where he was always exceedingly popular" (vol. I., p. 200). This is rather an under than an overestimate; but the two men are so radic ally different that it is not strange that they weie not drawn to one another. Mr. Hoar thinks that Mr. Blaine was not a corruptionist in any sense of the word; but that he was. while honest, so indiscreet in business methods that his nomination in 1876 would have been unfortunate for the party. Not only Caesar's wife but Caesar himself must be above suspicion to please this son of a puritan. Mr. Hoar is, however, convinced that as President Mr. Blaine would have given satisfaction to the whole country. In another chapter the Senator pays his respects to the late Chief Justice Chase, whose political ambition and judicial incon sistencies are exposed in rather an unfavor able light. And in the same chapter Mr. Hoar ably champions and justifies Presi dent Grant's appointment of Justices Strong and Bradley against the repeated charges of corrupt interference with cases then pending before the court. But it is safe to say that of the chapters dealing with Mr. Hoar's service in the Low er House, no chapter is more interesting to
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the general reader than that on "The Na tional House of Representatives in 1869." The venerable George S. Boutwell comes in for hearty praise, and at the end of the chapter the senator rescues from oblivion William A. Wheeler, one time vice-presi dent of the United States. That Wheeler was very much of a man the following pas sage shows: "He very much disliked Roscoe Conkling, and all his ways. Conkling once said to him: 'Wheeler, if you will join us and act with us, there is nothing in the gift of the State of New York to which yon may not reasonably aspire.' To which Wheeler replied: 'Mr. Conkling, there is nothing in the gift of the State of New York which will compensate me for the for feiture of my own self-respect.' " In con nection with Wheeler, Senator Hoar tells an amusing story, which shows how, after all, the great people of this world are not wholly without human frailties. "As soon as the nomination of President Hayes was declared in the Convention of 1876," says Mr. Hoar, "I spent a very busy hour in going about among the delegates whom I knew, especially those from the southern States, to urge upon them the name of Mr. Wheeler as a suitable person for VicePresident. I have no doubt I secured for him a great many votes, and that those votes secured his election. Mr. James Rus sell Lowell was a Massachusetts delegate. He was a little unwilling to vote for a per son of whom he had no more knowledge. I said to him: 'Mr. Lowell, Mr. Wheeler is a very sensible man. He knows the "Biglow Papers" by heart.' Lowell gave no promise in reply. But I happened to over hear him, as he sat behind me, saying to James Freeman Clarke, I think it was: 'I understand that Mr. Wheeler is a very sensible man.' Passing over the present Senator Allison (then a Congressman) and other fellow
