18933 Stanford' 's Personality 



especially in postponing and thus defeating the ill- 

 considered and exasperating Lodge "Force Bill" of 

 1890, which provided for Federal control of elec- 

 tions in the Southern states. 



Leland Stanford's far-reaching influence never 

 rested wholly or even mainly on wealth. Indeed, 

 during his early career he was far from affluent, and 

 a fundamental simplicity of life kept him always 

 in touch with the people. In person of massive 

 build, and rather slow-spoken though extremely 

 direct and earnest, he had a considerable fund of 

 dry humor, and a rarely beautiful smile which il- 

 lumined his otherwise impassive face. Broad- 

 minded and long-headed, he was a keen but sym- 

 pathetic and benevolent observer of human nature. 

 I never heard him speak in bitter terms of any 

 opponent. His kindness of heart was naturally Kindness 

 sometimes imposed upon by political and other f heart 

 parasites; yet even in these matters he was seldom 

 deceived, being able to penetrate the various masks 

 with which ambitious impecuniosity tries to dis- 

 guise itself. In the words of his secretary, Herbert 

 C. Nash, "he was active when other men were idle; 

 he was generous when other men were grasping; 

 he was lofty when other men were base." 



Caring nothing for creed or ceremony, he had Religious 

 nevertheless a deeply religious nature. To him, the 

 fundamentals in religion constituted the basis of 

 character. He recognized certain emotional values, 

 however, and his theological position, the result of 

 clear thinking combined with warm feeling, might 

 have been partially defined as 'Unitarian Metho- 

 dist." His conception of the goodness of God, the 

 measure of divine bounty, he put into the form of 



C 483 3 



attituac- 



