shown
by his letter to his wife the next day, in which he says: "I
never in all my life opened my lips with a purpose more single
to the interests of our Southern people than when I made this
speech."

I said of this speech in an article in the _North American
Review:_

"The eloquent words of Mr. Lamar so touched the hearts of
the people of the North that they may fairly be said to have
been of themselves an important influence in mitigating the
estrangements of a generation."

The following letter explains my absence from the Senate
when Judge Lamar's death was announced:

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 29, 1893

_My Dear Madam:_

I was kept in bed, under the orders of my physician, the
day the death of your husband was announced to the Senate.
I regret exceedingly that I could not be in my place to express
my sense of the great public loss and my warm personal admiration
for his great qualities of intellect and of heart. I served
with him in the House of Representatives for more than four
years, and in the Senate for more than eight years. It was
a stormy and exciting time. We differed widely on very grave
questions, and this difference was more than once very sharply
manifested in public; but the more I knew him, the more satisfied
I became of the sincerity of his patriotism, of his profound
and far-sighted wisdom, of the deep fountain of tenderness
in his affectionate and simple heart, and of his brave and
chivalrous quality of soul. I was more than once indebted
to him for very great kindness indeed, under circumstances
when I do not think he supposed it would ever come to my knowledge.

Some of his judgments on the Supreme Bench are characterized
by marvellous beauty and felicity of style. He maintained
his place on that great tribunal to the satisfaction of his
friends and that admiration of his countrymen, in spite of
failing health and of the fact that the best years of his life
had been given to other studies than that of the law.

It is a good omen for our country that the friends and disciples
of Charles Sumner unite with the people of Mississippi in
their reverence for this noble and manly character.

I am faithfully yours,
GEORGE F. HOAR
Mrs. Lamar.

CHAPTER XVI
SOME SOUTHERN SENATORS

Another most delightful Democrat, with whom it was my pleasure
to form quite intimate relations, was Senator Howell E. Jackson
of Tennessee. He had been in the Confederate service. I
think h