GEORGE FUISBIE HOAR. 765 



centre for anti-slavery meetings and fugitive slave cases. Abby Kelly 

 Foster was at that time the pioneer woraan-speaker in New England, 

 and Stephen Foster was one of the best known farmers of the neighbor- 

 hood. His /arm was originally of very hard soil and later was made 

 into a fertile one by his efforts, and once when I asked him why he 

 did not take a farm in a Western state instead, he remarked that he 

 should hate to put his spade into the ground and not have it strike 

 against a rock. Yet there is no mention in these two thick volumes of 

 such stalwart neigld)ors as these. All this social upheaval was going on 

 in the early days of Mr. Hoar's residence there. The peculiarity of the 

 case is that one may look through the two large volumes of his memoirs 

 and scarcely find allusion to all these curious phenomena. Indeed, he 

 says at the outset (I. 159) that there was "little pride of family or 

 wealth in Worcester," when he went there; thus omitting the key to the 

 whole situation. 



It was in 1868 that Senator Hoar began his more national public 

 career by being nominated to the lower house of Congress from Worces- 

 ter. I remember that on meeting his elder brother. Judge Hoar, in a 

 smoking car the next day, I congratulated him on the result of the 

 caucus. He replied that it was peculiarly satisfactory from the fact that 

 all the modes of manoeuvring supposed to belong to politics had been 

 entirely prohibited by his brother, whereas Mr. Francis W. Bird, his 

 leading opponent, was well known as a past-master in them. Being 

 somewhat acquainted with the ways of political life in Worcester County, 

 I felt some misgiving at the completeness of this praise, and having 

 an opportunity, not long after, to meet IMr. William W. Rice, George 

 Hoar's brother-in-law, who- had personally conducted the campaign, I 

 asked him frankly whether he thought the difference was really so great. 

 He answered with a twinkle in his eye, " Well, I guess there was not 

 much left undone on either side." I must say candidly that I th'nk the 

 same allowance is to be made throughout Senator Hoar's personal mem- 

 oirs ; you can rely on having in full his own point of view on what con- 

 cerns himself, but you are not quite sure of the rest. He represented, 

 undoubtedly, in this respect the whole tone of older politicians, yet he, 

 too, when he wished to carry a point, did not leave mucii undone. 



A cordial friend and warm admirer and vindicator of all his friends, 

 he was as cordial a hater. To those who took part in the great secession 

 from the Republican Party which put President Cleveland for the first 

 time in office, he held a bitterness of antagonism hardly equalled among 

 Republican leaders, and the slang word " Mugwump,*' which had but a 



