George - Frisbie - Hoar \ George - Frisbie - Hoar REPRINT FROM REMINISCENCES AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF PAST MEMBERS OF THE WORCESTER FIRE SOCIETY '1917^ 1 T a.y\k i aT^'jM^TiD ^ e S 5 «.-r GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR George Frisbie Hoar was born in Concord, Massa- chusetts, on August 29, 1826, and came to Worcester in 1849. Perhaps because he thought that his time at Harvard had been wasted or because he was impatient that place and employment did not come to him at once, this young man, slight of frame and spare of face plunged fiercely into legal and literary study. His day began earlj' by sweeping his office and building the fire and ended late after evening office hours by a long and lonely walk to his Belmont Street or his new Oak Avenue house where he rekindled the open fire and, hidden in clouds of cigar smoke, read Thucydides, Homer or the English poets until one or two o'clock in the morning. Benjamin F. Thomas gave him office room for a few months, but he soon had the good fortune to be taken into partnership by Emory Washburn, and, when Mr. Washburn became Governor two years later, he succeeded to and held his large clientage. Contrary to his expecta- tions and to what he conceived to be his abilities he found himself a trial lawyer in the days when the road to professional reputation was through the court rather than the office. The Yankee love of litigation rushed every dispute large or small to the last tribunal and a law suit was hotly contested under hampering rules of evidence and pleading before an audience that delighted in the fencing of wits and the high pitched eloquence of the address to the jury. The flood of law books and reports had not yet begun and a lawyer studied English cases and sought for principles which our great judges, Shaw, Metcalfe, Merrick and Thomas turned into pre- cedents that guided the jurisprudence of the country. Mr. Hoar's industrj^ and vigor, clearness of statement and keenness of intellect quickly won him eminence at a bar which numbered many able men, both in the rough and tumble of nisi prius and in the logical and learned arguments to the court. His practice became large and lucrative and the firms of Devens & Hoar and Bacon & Aldrich pretty much divided the law business of the county. Worcester and Worcester County were the stronghold of the new Anti-Slavery Party to which he had sworn allegiance and chiefly for this reason he chose the city as a place to live. The convention which formed the Free Soil party met in Worcester. The call for it was written by Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar and Mr. Hoar's earliest political duty was to fold and direct the circulars. The party was guided by earnest and able men who found in him an ardent and efficient lieutenant. A speech in answer to an unexpected call brought him into notice and led to an election to the Massachusetts House which he accepted only after obtaining his father's consent. Later he served a term in the State Senate. Civic matters interested him. He was active in the formation and support of the Young Men's Library Association, which, in 1859, with Doctor John Green's gift became the Free Public Library, of which Mr. Hoar was president. He helped also to establish the Worces- ter Polytechnic Institute and readily lent a hand to any measure for the common welfare. Although a busy man he always found time to chat with his law students or visit his brother attorneys. The society of the town, however, perhaps because of his diffidence in ladies' company or his brusqueness, was rather irksome to him and he fled the evening party as soon as he decently could. He got along without physical exercise. A walking tour in the Berkshires with Horace Gray and the memory of that excursion served him for all the exercise he seemed to need during his life. Looking back on those days he advised young men to seize every opportunity for pubHc speaking, to learn to dance and to enter a room properly, and to learn to box, for the time might come when the only resource was to knock down the offender. In 1868 nature demanded a rest and he spent a long summer in England, the second of his six visits, to find, on his return, that he had been elected to Congress. Thus began without his own desire a life-long service in House and Senate; a service that forbade the certain realization of his hope of professional preferment and emolument, that twice prevented his acceptance of a seat on the Supreme Judicial Court, that compelled his refusal of President Hayes' offer of the English Mission, that forced him to forsake his library and his orchard for the uncomfortable vicissitudes of Washington lodgings; and yet, a service that upheld and continued the best traditions of Massachusetts legislators and the influence of Massachusetts in national and party councils. A Senator from Massachusetts was, in his estimation, the very personification of the Commonwealth with the right and duty ever to voice and to sustain her highest ideals; there could be no greater dignity. Mr. Hoar's legal ability and industry made him a valuable committeeman. In legislation his name is connected rather with measures of a professional or administrative character, Bankruptcy, The Force Bill, the Presidential Succession, the Electoral Commission and acts relating to the Federal Judiciary, than with the more popular enactments affecting commerce, revenue or foreign policy in which he had little knowledge or interest. A moral issue won at once his support and he held fast to the faith of the Fathers. He never fought more strenu- ously or more full-heartedly than he did against the Philippine policy and it was a deep satisfaction to him c that Massachusetts, m spite of her disapproval of his position, returned him again to the Senate. Mr. Hoar has been called a partisan. He firmly be- lieved that government could only be carried on success- fully by party, and that so long as a man believed in the chief principles of the party it was his duty to support it even though some particular measure were wrong or distasteful. When the party policy had been determined, whether with his assent in all respects or without, he became its willing and vigorous champion. He was ready always to buckle on his armor and shiver a lance against any opponent, neither giving nor expecting quarter. He carried to the debates of the Senate and to the hustings, the same skill and fashion of advocacy that he had been accustomed to employ for his clients. He perhaps unduly glorified his own cause and its adherents and unduly condemned the opposition and his foeman, and perhaps too often he confused the speaker with the principle and acquired prejudices that he never forgot. A biting invective and unanswerable repartee made attack upon him hazardous. "Pungent, but not un- parliamentary" was the finding of a Committee of the Senate which had taken down his words. When ^ i wiTitor Cox, disdaining Hoar's speech, pointed to Senator Dawes who was silent and said, "Massachusetts does not send her Hector to the field," Mr. Hoar retorted that "there was no need of Hector when Thersites lead the charge." He knew the minds and hearts of the people and had a sure instinct for the paths that would reach and rouse their calmer judgment and better emotions. Alone among the New England Congressmen and contrary to the desires of the section, he supported the first River and Harbor Bill. Getting up to speak before the hostilely silent State Convention he said, "I see among you many faces of my friends; into none of them am I either afraid or ashamed to look," and tlie Convention hesitated, then applauded and the opposition faded gradually awa3\ Unnecessarily and against the advice of all his friends he wrote the A. P. A. letter, "The atmosphere of the Republic is the air of the mountain toj) and the sunlight and the open field. Her emblem is the eagle and not the bat." And the movement died in the "cellar" where it had been born. In college he evinced his dislike for the requirement of public declamations by going into the woods and yelling until he cracked his voice. Yet, with a strident and un- melodious voice and with little grace of presence or gesture he was an effective orator. Mr. Lodge describes his style as "noble and dignified, with a touch of the stateliness of the 18th century, rich in imagery and allusion, full of the apt quotations which an unerring taste, an iron memorj^ and the widest reading combined to furnish. When he was roused, when his imagination was fired, his feelings engaged or his indignation awakened he was capable of a passionate eloquence which touched every chord of emotion and left no one who listened to him unmoved." When the Session ended he hurried to Worcester to busy himself in his library with literary or antiquarian researches or to prepare the speeches upon a wide range of subjects for which he was in demand. A lifelong interest had gathered a rich collection of autographs, association books, rare editions of the Classics and Americana. His library was his workshop, every book of which he knew and loved, and where he would have been content to be immured. Harvard, of which he was Overseer and President of the Alumni, Clark University, the Polytechnic, the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Histori- cal Society, all called on him for service willingly rendered. The Riifiis Putnam House was saved from ruin, and the statue to General Devens and the Worcester County Soldiers in the Rebellion was erected through his efforts. He wrote the almost perfect motto for the Court House, "Here speaketh the conscience of the State restraining the individual will," and, discovering that Wordsworth had said substantially the same thing, was careful to see that his name, which had been placed under it, was cut out. He secured the return to the Commonwealth of the Bradford Manuscript and liked to think that thereby he had paid in some measure his debt to the Fathers. Rest or vacations were for him merely a change of labor. Virgil was his shipmate on his voyages and he made his Greek translations, as Professor Story wrote his book on Bills and Notes, in the few minutes while waiting for dinner. He had no idle moments and turned easily and at once from study to literature or from pur- poseful conversation to the scribbling of a paragraph on a handy scratch block. He loved the Massachusetts countryside and knew her trees, and flowers, and birds. The sweet and pathetic petition of the Song Birds to the Legislature shows both his love for nature and his poetic instinct. He bought the crest of Asnebumskit where he used to lie on his back and look up at the clouds and where he once saw an eagle and begged through the newspapers that people would not shoot it. A drive with the Senator was an experience not likely to be forgotten by the timid. He would urge on his horses, oblivious of grade or weather, with reins loose, and peering this way or that for some landmark or uncommon tree or bird; a graveyard would awaken some memory of a county worthy, or a farmhouse would recall a whimsical or amusing tale of a Yankee character, an ancient hard fought law suit or a bit of 9 local history. Seemingly everything he ever read or saw or heard left its imprint on his memory to be re- called at will. His humor was quick and playful. "Pardon, sir," said a stranger on the Boston train, "you resemble Senator Hoar, are you related to him.''" "Well, I am a connection of his wife by marriage." A friend's illness turned out to be indigestion instead of appendicitis — "Evidently the trouble was with his table of contents, not with his appendix." Correcting the Latin of a long-winded speaker he said that he presumed the Senator used a short "i" in order to save the time of the Senate. He liked children, not as playthings but as companions, and he told them the most wonderful stories and read the most beautiful poems and somehow could find a present that went straight to the childish heart. At Christmas time he would fill his pockets with new silver and many a little ragamuffin scampered home with a shiny quarter gripped tight in his fist. He liked pretty things, jewelry, a woman's dress, a well laid table, a little ornament. Poetry and noble prose he loved, but for music, painting, sculpture, and the drama he had no interest or appreciation and (must it be con- fessed) Primrose & West's Minstrels always found him a delighted auditor. In his youth the Puritan Sabbath had not begun to "abate" and he was still accustomed to keep Sunday as a day apart. After breakfasting, with a volume of George Herbert or Henry Vaughan in hand, on coffee and fishballs, about which he once wrote entertainingly to a newspaper, he would gather his family and read a chapter from the Bible and a prayer and go scrupulously to church. His Calvinist inheritance required him to support his church and hold up the hands of the appointed minister; but his God was the Deitv of the cathedral, the 10 mosque and the meetinghouse ahke. Censure, dis- appointment and grief were, in his philosophy, but the penalties of mortal life, powerless against a steadfast mind and an immortal soul. He lived simply and with self-restraint in all personal matters, as was the habit of the Puritan, but he was fond of the company of his friends and knew and liked good dinners. It was with no regret that he endorsed over to a Washington caterer a large cheque which had just paid a professional fee. He enjoyed greatly the dinners of the Council of the Antiquarian Society, of the St. Wulstan and of the Fire Society, and if sometimes it seemed that he controlled the feast, it was a control willingly and profitably yielded. It was at one of the Fire Society dinners that he suggested the formation of the Worcester Club of which he became the first president. He delighted to gather a few of his cronies for a junket, in the old days to Tourtelotte's in Millbury or Taft's at Point Shirley, in later times to Mrs. Pierce's in Rutland, and there, over a bird, served under a name unknown to game warden or ornithologist, with a glass of wine or a strange milk, which only Mrs. Pierce's cow knew how to give, he would tell his stories, rally his friends and frolic like a boy out of school. The loyalty that he gave to his clients and to his party he gave also to his associates, to his friends and to his family. He had no secrets from them and trusted them as freely and as fully as he was himself capable of being trusted. If one acquired a niche in Mr. Hoar's affections he became at once endowed with abilities and virtues hitherto unsuspected and capable of filling even the highest positions. Not unsusceptible to flattery himself Mr. Hoar's eulogies were apt to be extravagant. He came of sound Puritan ancestry. If there still be such things in this country as "governing families" he 11 was one of the three or four siicli families in Massachu- setts and of perhaps the dozen in the country which, in successive generations for two hundred and fifty years, rendered high service in peace and war and statecraft to viUage and state and nation. He was honorably proud of that inheritance, but his pride was not self-exaltation nor did it stifle sympathy, appreciation or affection for humbler folk. His pride was a "stern daughter of the voice of God" and imposed high ideals and forbade base actions. He believed that he who failed to meet the obligations of his inheritance was to be condemned as he who surpassed them was to be praised or he who had none was to be excused. He sacrificed, therefore, time and money and future hopes to private duties and to the public service. It may be said with almost exact truth that no public or private action of his was instigated or directed by self-interest. If benefit came to him it was the by-product and not the purpose of the act. "Let his great example stand Colossal, seen of every land. And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure; Till in all lands and thro' all human story The path of duty be the way to glory." Of course he was a poor man. However large his in- come, he would always have been poor. He rather doubted whether, if a man could earn, the words "thrift " and "economy" were to be found in a gentleman's vocabu- lary. Money was to be spent, not hoarded; not spent lavishly nor selfishly, unless a rare edition, a print, or a dinner for his friends be selfish. Good causes were to be supported and he could never quite understand why others should not give as generously as he. Nor must a friend stumble or fall by the wayside if timely word or generous gift could help. More than once has his quick 12 s\aiipathy and powerful aid prevented a catastrophe, and he justified this not as generosity but as the payment of some obhgation real or, to a nature less exacting than his, fanciful. He did not complain when this scheme of life compelled self-denial or when it prevented the ac- ceptance of President McKinley's offer of the English Mission, which came at a time when the Motherland, her lakes and downs, her cathedrals and colleges and courts, her judges and scholars and statesmen attracted him more than ever before. That was a gentleman's way of life; any other was sordid. "Libero et honesto animo et ad voluptates honestas nato." Time and quieter days (though he said giving up cigars and ceasing to try cases) had brought plumpness to his figure and a benevolent expression to his countenance which seemed to betoken a simple and unsuspicious nature, and not seldom proved a trap for the unwary. As we knew him in familiar, friendly intercourse, addressing none by his Christian name as none for years had called him "Frisbie," twirling his keys when the talk became interesting, or pursing his lips and frowning slightly if such things as "Mugwumps" or other pet crotchets were touched on; or as we saw him walking slowly down the street tapping the stones with his cane and muttering some verse or stopping to squint near- sightedly into a shop window, there remained no hint or scar of "battles long ago." Mr. Hoar was twice married. To Mary Louisa Spurr in 1853, by whom he had two children, Mary and Rock- wood Hoar; and in 1862 to her close friend, Ruth A. Miller, daughter of Henry W. Miller, by whom he had one child who died in infancy. Ruth Hoar died suddenly on Christmas Eve in 1903, and with her death his strength departed and his book of 13 life seemed siiddenlj- to close. The measures in which he was most interested had been decided and new questions whose end he could not hope to see were being debated by new men in a strange fashion and from a different standpoint. "There arose up a new king in Egypt which knew not Joseph." The friends of youth and middle life had gone, and younger shoulders could not replace the tried supports or younger tongues supply the fearless advice that he missed and needed. Quietly and willingly he laid aside his battered but unsullied armor and, with- out regret or apprehension, died at his home in Worcester on September 30, 1904. On the walls of his library were painted three mottoes and in the spirit of them he lived: (In Greek) "Work while it is day for the night Cometh when no man can work," "Man is no star, but a quick Coal Of Mortal Fire. Who blows it not nor doth Control A faint Desire Lets his own Ashes choke his Soul." "QUOVAGORULTERIUSQUODUBIQUEREQUI RITURHICESTHICESCURAQUI ESHICESTH ONESTUSAMOR" Which he was accustomed to render, "Rest I at home, why seek I more Here's comfort, books and Mrs. Hoar." F. F. D. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 785 487 9 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 111 111 illiilii illilll" 013 785 487 9 P6Rnuli(^« pH8J