special meeting of the council. · 2015-02-25 · george frisbie hoar, ll.d. as a member third upon...

1904.] Special, Meeting. 255

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

A SPECIAL meeting of the Council was held at the hallof the Society at 11 A. M., on Oct. 3, 1904.

Present: President Salisbury and Messrs. Paine, S. A.Green, Davis, S. S. Green, Adams, Engler, Wright andChase.

President SALISBURY said:—

It is with feelings of great sorrow that we are met to-day to consider the irreparable loss this Society has metin the death of our first Vice-President, the HonorableGEORGE FRISBIE HOAR, LL.D.

As a member third upon the list in date of election,in 1853, Vice-President in 1878, and President from 1884to 1887, when he was forced by the pressure of his sena-torial duties in Congress to resign and to resume his placeas Vice-President, we mourn his death. As was the casewith the founder of the Society, Isaiah Thomas, of thelibrarians, Christopher Columbus Baldwin and SamuelFoster Haven, and of other past officers and members ofthe Society, Senator Hoar loved this Society, and was inturn loved and respected by its members.

Often has he made this statement, that no literaryorganization with which he was connected gave him morekeen satisfaction and pleasure than ours, nor was thereany whose purposes were more congenial to his tastesand mental activities.

Certainly the Council of the Society has had opportunityto observe, that in season and out of season betweenthe stated meetings, the constant loving thought of theSenator, while far away and occupied with great nationalproblems, was busy with some course of action or someinvestigation that would advance the welfare of our asso-ciation. His gifts of valuable books, paintings, historicalrelics and pecuniary assistance have been among the

256 American Antiquarian Society. [Oct.,

largest we have received from any source. He has pre-pared five stated reports of the Council and more thantwenty formal papers on historical and belles-lettres litera-ture, besides innumerable shorter communications madeat our regular meetings, which only he could have broughtto our notice, on account of his special opportunities ofacquaintance with the facts.

For many years, it has been the practice of the Senatorto entertain the Council at his home when the preparatorymeetings were held, and his hospitality, joined with hiscourtesy and unselfish devotion to what might j be forour best interests, animated this Board to strive for thehighest good of the Society.

The Council of the Society realize that in the deathof Senator Hoar, they have lost an officer, frierid andadviser, whose place cannot be filled. His great learning,eloquence and sound judgment were always devotedunstintingly to the furtherance of what is best in literatureand art, and to what he thought was for the improvementof the community. He was fearless, honest and i! sincerein his convictions, and was persistent and untiring inhis efforts to bring about results that commended them-selves to his judgment and conscience. We feel thathis example and infiuence upon us and upon our Societywill long remain, to inspire us to greater activity in thelines so conspicuously shown by his constant and unremit-ting devotion to his country, his state and to thé publicwelfare.

To the family and all those most near and dear to thedeceased Senator, we offer our profound sympathy andcondolence.

NATHANIEL PAINE, A.M., said:—

Mr. President, while there is but little to add to whathas already been said by you in eulogy of our departedassociate, I cannot let the occasion pass without a fewwords to express my own feelings at this time.

The death of Senator HOAR comes to me as a personalloss, as it has been my great good fortune to haye beenon somewhat intimate terms with him for several years.I am indebted to him for many kind words in my' behalf,and for many manifestations of his kindness and considera-

1904.] Special Meeting. 257

tion, and I look back to his friendship as a most preciousmemory. All who have known him will bear testimonyto his great modesty. A man of great ability and havinghad the highest honors of the state and nation bestowedupon him, yet to the humblest of his friends appearingon such terms of good fellowship that one could not butfeel at ease in his company. With a delightful conversa-tional power and a wonderful memory that could at oncecall to mind words of wisdom or of humor from the bestin English literature, his society was a pleasure and aninspiration to those privileged and honored by his friend-ship.

As you are aware. Senator Hoar was often called uponto give his aid and sympathy in enterprises and interestsintended to benefit our goodly city or county, and tothese calls he responded cheerfully. It has been mypleasure to have been associated with him in some ofthem, and I can testify that he was a tower of strengthto those acting with him. His strong and judicial presen-tation of any matter in which he was interested neverfailed to enlist their co-operation and sympathy.

Of the great loss sustained by the Antiquarian Societyit is not necessary to speak at length. We all recognizeit, and shall miss him greatly at our meetings,—ablervoices will express in fitting terms at the proper timehow greatly; and I can only add my appreciation andrespect to those of yourself and other members of theCouncil. I will, however, mention the fact that at oneof my last visits to Senator Hoar, a short time beforehis death, he spoke of the Antiquarian Society and ofthe hope that he might be able to present at least onemore paper upon a subject he had in mind.

I join with you, Mr. President, in wishing to spreadupon the records our realization of the great loss we havesustained by the death of our.most honored and distin-guished associate.

SAMUEL A. GREEN, LL.D., said:—

When a public man has reached the age allotted bythe Psalmist, and passed beyond that period, and hasdied in the fulness of his mental powers and at the heightof his successful work, his death should not be the subject

258 American Antiquarian Society. . [Oct.,

of sorrow, but rather of gratitude and thanksgiving thathe had lived so long. While we all shall miss Mr. HOAR'and mourn his loss, we can but feel that he died at anopportune time for his own reputation, when not a dis-cordant note was heard in the testimony to the universallove and affection in which he was held by all classes ofthe community. With his keen wit, in his younger dayshe had the faculty of saying sharp things; and he waswithal a good deal of a partisan in politics. Sometinieshis caustic reply would, leave a sting, but with the flightof time this trait in his character melted away. In recentyears his heart grew so big that in his loving kindnesshe included all races and creeds, and he hated only oppres-sion and hypocrisy. I do not think that therej was aman in this Commonwealth, and perhaps not in the country,who had such a large following from the various classesof society, and made up, too, from all the different elements.They each and every one had so much faith in his utterincorruptibility, that in a general way they accepted hisjudgment on all public questions.

Mr. Hoar came of sturdy New England stock, his motherbeing a daughter of Roger Sherman, one of the signersof the Declaration of Independence, and he was broughtup in a country village, where he acquired those ' honielytraits of character which cannot be taught by rule, butare absorbed by early associations and by contact withothers. .

He began his professional life on a solid foundation,and from the start his success was sure. Such 'was hisintegrity that men believed in him, and he became a strongforce in the neighborhood. Throughout his public lifethis power was always exerted in favor of human rightsand the moral law." To a remarkable degree Jie keptup his- knowledge of the Greek and Latin classics, and

• few persons were so familiar with what is best in Englishliterature. Whatever topic was under discussion, I neverknew one so ready with an apt quotation to fit the subject.He was a ripe scholar and a wise statesman; and it willbe a long time before we see another such instance ofa man who could illustrate in his own life so many sidesof a distinguished career.

Perhaps I ought here to mention the fact that Mr- Hoarwas connected with the administration of the Peabody


Education Fund, as a Trustee, and that in this capacityhe was a constant attendant at the meetings. He waschosen in October, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused bythe death of Judge Lowell; and no member of the Boardever paid closer attention to the merits of each individualcase that came up for consideration.

SAMUEL SWETT GREEN, A.M., said:—

Mr. President, it is pleasant to speak of Mr. HOAR inthe presence of the gentlemen sitting here. He lovedevery member of the Council, and every member of theCouncil loved and admired him. He always kept thisSociety in min'd and its interests in his heart.

You have spoken of the many papers which Mr. Hoarprepared for us and read at our meetings. Birt he shouldbe credited also with securing papers from other membersof the Society. Various events and sequences in historywhich it seemed to him needed investigation, suggestedthemselves to his mind, and it was his custom to seekout members and others who had the qualifications, andurge them to write papers on these subjects. Is therea gentleman here who has not on more than one occasionbeen stimulated by Mr. Hoar to make a communicationto the Society on a subject recommended by him?

A short time before he became confined to the househe took me out to ride, and drove to Sutton to show methe monument which had just been put up in honor ofGeneral Ruf us Putnam, at the dedication of which hedelivered his last elaborate address. In the course of con-versation during the drive, he talked about the future ofthis Society, and expressed great regret that the youngmen who are now coming into active life, and those whohave just begun to achieve success, show little interest inhistorical pursuits, becoming wholly absorbed in the pursuit .of their daily occupations, in making money and in socialenjoyments.

"Why," said he, "when I was young I used to lookwith profound reverence upon such a man as CharlesDeane, delighted to be in his company, and was anxiousto catch his spirit. It saddens me to see that young mentoday do not study outside of professional work, andcare little for general or special scholarship,"


My recollections" of Mr. Hoar, associates, are largelyconnected with delightful excursions which he got upfor our enjoyment. There was nothing that gave himso much pleasure as to gather his close friends Í aroundhim and take them on an outing in which intellectual .enjoyment should be joined with friendly social intercourse.It was a common thing for him to take his friends to theRufus Putnam place at Rutland. He carried John Shermanthere. He would have taken President McKinley toRutland had it not been for the sudden illness of thePresident's wife, which prevented hihi from coming toWorcester. He delighted to show his friends from Ohiowhere one of the leading founders of the state lived, andthe house from which he went forth to render his power-ful aid in settling the Northwestern territory. He tookthe members of the Council and others to Copp's HillCemetery and the Granary and King's Chapel burying-grounds. Again he took us to Concord, where his lamentednephew, Samuel Hoar, entertained us at luncheon, andwhere he himself pointed out the objects of historicalinterest and dwelt upon the scenes which they commem-orated with the enthusiasm and loving interest of a devotedhistorical student to the manner born. Another, timehe took us to Quincy, upon the invitation of our associatein the Society and Council, Mr. Adams, who entertainedthe party with heartj'- and profuse hospitality and, showingus the famous burial-ground, the historic houses of Quincyand other objects and scenes of especial interest, openedfor us the vault in which lie the tombs of the two Presi-dents of the United States, his ancestors. It was fromMr. Adams's desire to please Mr. Hoar that we wereindebted for our visit, and on this occasion, as on theothers mentioned, Mr. Hoar's hospitality was continuedby taking us to one of the best hostelries in Boston todinner.

Mr. Hoar was very fond of nature, and always wishedto enjoy beautiful scenery in the company of friends.He liked to take us to the top of Asnebumskit, alongthe charmingly bordered roads in the neighborhood ofWorcester, and to go out with us for a drive by moon-light. His earnest efforts and protracted exertions tohear a nightingale sing, in England, are remembered byhis intimates.

1904.] . Special Meeting. 261

A mountain in the western part of the state had beengiven to the commonwealth, and placed in the handsof the Trustees of Reservations, of which Mr. Hoarwas President. An early thought of his, quickly actedon, was to charter a train of cars and take many of hisfriends to see the new acquisition of the state and enjoywith him the charm of the views from the mountain'stop. Again we must go with him to Springfield andHolyoke and climb Mount Tom. Men of parts spent aday together, wit sparkled and information was pleasantlyexchanged. Cares were thrown aside and social enjoymentreigned. Mr. Hoar's friends " delighted to entertain himand his friends, and he made profuse provision himselfon these trips to gratify the cravings of the body as wellas the desires of the mind and the heart.

These excursions under the guidance and as the guestsof Mr. Hoar have been red-letter days in our lives, and,linked with the remembrance of them, our delightfulrecollections of,the beaming geniality, the frolicsomeness,the bright sayings, the wise words, the beautiful simplic-ity and modesty and the charming presence of our host.

Among the many traits which endeared us to Mr. Hoarone stands out prominently. I mean his uncomproniisingaffection. As we pass through life we are often criticisedand meet with many rebuffs. But if we were assuredof the friendship of Mr. Hoar we soon found that he sawno imperfections in us, but loved us with his whole heart.

A great and good man has passed away, but his memorywill always be green, and the remembrance of companion-ship with him will recall some of thci pleasantest daysof our life.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, LL.D., said:—

I hold Senator HOAR one among the fortunate men-with whom I have in life come in contact. He was fortu-nate in two respects. It was given him to follow thecareer which he probably would most have preferredin life, to an ultimate result; and that ultimate result,while it filled the measure of his desires and ambition,did not assume the shape of what might be called a falseclimax. In other words, his career continued, and steadilydeveloped, until the end came. His sun went down fullorbed.


I well remember the first time I ever saw Senator Hoar.It was before he entered public life, and while yet a prac-tising lawyer in Worcester. He came into the Bostonoffice, in which I had a desk, one day, in the winter of1868, being then a man of a little over forty. I had laeforeknown his brother, Rockwood Hoar; and, afterwards,I knew "the Judge" better than I ever knew "the Sena-tor." In fact, of the two, I may say ' ' the Judge " appealedto me most. Nevertheless, my acquaintance with ¡"theSenator" covered thirty years of our common lives; and,while letters I have in my possession show that it wasnot otherwise than agreeable to him, I can say for myselfhe placed me under many and deep obligations. I everfound him ready to render me any service in his power.Indeed, I think he had a somewhat traditional feelingtowards me, coming down from the days of his fatherand my grandfather; and, with George Frisbie Hoar,traditions went far. He was apt to venerate those whomSamuel Hoar venerated.

Senator Hoar, however, holds in my thought a inostinteresting, and quite dramatic, position among the publicmen of Massachusetts. . With him ends an era. Or rather,perhaps I ought to say, with him ends a succession ofpublic men who were characteristic of an era,—its na|;uralproduct. I refer to what may best be described as theperiod of Massachusetts anti-slavery agitation,—a periodduring which a class of men forged to the front who hadgrown up in, and drew their inspiration from, what maybe termed the School of Human Rights; that is, lookingto the principles laid down in the Declaration of Indepen-dence, they went into political life with the applicationof those principles to the African in America alway s inview. Thus they approached all questions which con-fronted them from a somewhat doctrinaire standpoint,—tbat of the everlasting and inalienable Rights of Man,as man,—his equality before the law. It was a humanita-rian, rather than a religious or an economic dispensation.Men of this class, therefore, regarded all political questjionsin a more thoroughly altruistic spirit than probably j anyother of its public men since the commonwealth wasfounded. In the early days, and among the first schoolof Massachusetts statesmen,—of whom John Winthropwas the great exponent,—the question was always of


the rights of the Colony in opposition to possible demands,or the encroachments of the mother country. The nextrace of statesmen, that of the early period of the Provinceas distinguished from the Colony, were largely theologicalin their views, and their thought was intent on a classof material questions growing out of a young industrialdevelopment, and upon the issues which arose out ofthe wars of Queen Anne and the first two Georges. Thenfollowed yet another, and distinct, class, of whom ThomasHutchinson was the best type;—men whose minds weredevoted to commerce, law and finance. After that camethe statesmen of the Revolution, followed by the Federal-ists; and, not until after the war of 1812, did a new schoolcome forward, of whom, perhaps, Daniel Webster, EdwardEverett and Robert C. Winthrop were most prominent.These men,—scholarly, somewhat given to orations ofthe formal school, high-toned politically,—applied them-selves more especially to questions relating to banks,tariffs and, above all, nationality. It was in 1835 thatthe presence of yet a new school began to make itselffelt. It was a school developed out of the agitation overAfrican slavery, and its extension into the territoriesof the common country. Of this school Massachusettsfurnished three marked exponents,—Charles Sumner, JohnA. Andrew and George F. Hoar. . In the councils of theUnited States, the Massachusetts succession in this schoolwas distinct and dramatic. It is a sequence of greatnames. I have said that it began to make itself felt in1835. It was then that the struggle over the right ofpetition was inaugurated in Congress, John Quincy Adamsits champion. The succession that followed was, as Ihave said, dramatic; and it was complete. J. Q. Adamsdied in 1848; Charles Sumner first came into notice, withhis "True Grandeur of Nations" oration, in 1845, andhe was elected to succeed Mr. Webster and Mr. Winthropin the United States Senate, in 1851. Sumner sat con-tinuously in the Senate until 1873; and, at the time ofhis death, Mr. Hoar was already serving his second termin the House of Representatives. Six years later he waspromoted, succeeding Gov. Boutwell in Sumner's seat,continuing the Adams-Sumner succession. The sequence,therefore, covering sixty-nine years, or more than twogenerations of men, has been nearly complete and consecu-


tive: first, John Q. Adams, from 1835 to 1848; CharlesSumner, from 1851 to 1874; George F. Hoar, from 1869 to1904. The first of the four,—even then long a veteran,—was, of course, closing his life when he came forward as thefirst exponent in Congress of Human Rights under- theDeclaration and the Constitution. He dated back tothe Declaration itself. The principles therein set forthfor the Anglo-Saxon, were by him extended to the African.The others I have named were, so to speak, his disciples.When Mr. Adams died, Mr. Hoar was already a man oftwenty-three. Five years before his father had beenexpelled from South Carolina. This made at the timean impression on him which never passed away; for hewas then in the second year of his college course. Thatearly impression beyond a doubt infiuenced his views andaction for the whole remainder of his life. Mr. Hoarnever was an economist; he never was a financier; materialquestions never appealed strongly to him. Essentiallya statesman of Human Rights, with him the school, sofar as Massachusetts is concerned, passed out of existence.He has left no successor. On no one does his mantlefall.

There was a trite old Greek saying to the effect thatno man was to be reputed happy until his death. Measuredby that test Senator Hoar is a happy man. He lovedthe Senate; and he died. Senator: he loved a politicalcareer; and he died in full political career. While, in>that career, he met, as men necessarily must meet, occa-sional set-backs and mischances, he never encountereddisaster. The fate of so many puíslic men as conscientiousand obedient to the sense of duty as Senator Hoar unques-tionably was, unto him was spared; for he was not fatedto undergo defeat, bringing his public life to a standstillat a point from which the fall was sharp and recoveryimpossible. He died surrounded by friends, held in respectby both parties, at the head of one of the leading com-mittees of the Senate, the object of universal respectand deference. He had honor, love, obedience, troopsof friends,—much to enjoy. He was not a man caringgreatly for wealth, or what wealth brings. He had acompetence, not a superfluity; it sufficed. So, as lifeslowly ebbed away, and he looked back over his record,he could not but have felt that it had been a success. In


one of Tennyson's earlier and better poems,—that, Ithink, called The Miller's Daughter,—there is a stanzaI have on more than one occasion already repeated, yetwhich, in connection with certain persons, ever recursto me. The speaker is supposed to be an Englishmanof wealth, sitting at his table, in his old age, talking tohis wife. In reply to some remark of his with a possibletinge of complaint, she asks him whether on the wholehis life has not been a happy one. Repeating her words,he replies as follows:—

" Have I not found a happy earth?I least should breathe a thought of pain,

Would God renew me from my birthI'd almost live my life again."

My own belief is, there are not many men who can saythis. We would all like to live our lives over if the secondlife could be, as it were, a revised and corrected editionof the first; but to live it all over marred by the sameweaknesses, and committing the same faults, which markand mar the average, is something which few, I think,would really care to do. I am inclined, however, to thinkSenator Hoar was one of the exceptional cases. Hislife was a successful sequence. Beginning with his boy-hood in Lincoln and Concord, following through his Harvardcourse, his professional life at Worcester, his public career,first in the House of Representatives and then in theSenate, and gradually working up to the climax of hisfinal term in that body, I am inclined to think SenatorHoar is one of the few happy, exceptional cases in whicha man, looking back from a death-bed, would be willingto say that his life had been a happy one, and he wouldlike to live it all over, just as it had passed.

CARROLL D. WRIGHT, LL.D., said:—

My acquaintance with Senator HOAR began in 1871,but my intimate relations with him began only four orfive years ago. But during this latter period I learnedmuch of the greatness of the man, not only as evidencedby his superb mental powers, but as coming from hisgreat heart. He seemed to me a man capable of under-standing in the most analytical way all sides of a question;that if he did not so understand, it was because of the


insufficiency of the facts, but when his mind grasped whatwas truth to him, he had the courage to take the positionthe truth indicated. This was as true of his attitudetoward individuals as toward great problems of statesman-ship. With confidence in a man. Senator Hoar couldalways consider every attack or opposition to him withperfect justice and fairness. He was thus enabled towin the friendship and the warmest personal regard ofhis associates, whether in the Senate or in the communityin which he lived.

My admiration for him, acquired through observationof many years, was greatly increased when I found hisattitude toward the new college, with which he had somuch to do. Advocating as he did the highest academicwork, yet believing that young men should acquire morethan a smattering of the classics, he insisted that anyyoung man taking a college course should receive an equip-ment for citizenship. The making of good citizens wasto him pre-eminently the duty of college authorities,but in this making he felt that a knowledge of the bestto be obtained from all sources was essential. This gaveus a common ground.

Another thing which always impressed me, was SenatorHoar's consideration for young men. It was his cielightalways to help a young man in achieving success in life.The private secretaries that he has sent out into honorablepositions constitute a living evidence of this friendlinessand helpfulness in shaping the lives and careers of youngmen.

In politics, in science and in the professions, elderlymen are too apt to look with jealousy upon the youngmen following them. They somehow feel that they donot wish young men to succeed where they have in ameasure failed; nor can they accept the situation of i givingtheir experience, whatever it may have been, to the youngerelements. I think this attitude is particularly noticeablein men filling political positions and engaged in scientificwork, but the feeling never existed with Senator Hoar.He always welcomed the young man, gave him a cordialhand and sound advice. Approaching his age I alwaysfelt when with him as if I were a young man starting inlife and sitting at the feet of a teacher who could guideme through the intricate problems which life offers.


I know of no grander tribute to a man, or granderencomium that can be pronounced on him than the recog-nition of this attitude of Senator Hoar's: his readiness,his synipathy, his helpfulness for the young men whoare to make the public of the future. And certainly noman, of whatever age, could be associated with SenatorHoar in any way, without feeling that his education wasbeing supplemented by the wisdom and the preceptswhich fell from the lips of the great teacher.

The other gentlemen present spoke in support of thePresident's tribute, and it was voted that it be enteredupon the record.

Attest :

CHARLES A. CHASE,Recording Secretary.

special meeting of the council. · 2015-02-25 · george frisbie hoar, ll.d. as a member third upon...

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