ory of the State. I beg
to assure my readers that I make these observations partly
as a critic and partly as a penitent.

I wrote to Benjamin Harrison after the Presidential campaign
of 1896, urging him to consent to come to the Senate from
Indiana, citing the example of Presidents Adams and Johnson,
both of whom came back to public life after they had been
President, although Mr. Johnson did not live to render any
service in the Senate.

In my letter I expressed my sense of the great value of what
he had done in the campaign. In reply I got the following
letter. Nobody who reads it will doubt that the man who wrote
it had a kind and affectionate heart.

November 10, 1896
674 NORTH DELAWARE STREET,
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.

_My dear Senator:_

It is very kind of you to take note of my work in the campaign,
and I value very highly what you say of it--though your friendship
has perhaps, in some degree, spoiled your judgment. I am
thoroughly tired of the cares and excitements incident to
public life in our country. To you I may say that the people
of this state seem to be more strongly attached to me than
ever. I never appear before an audience that I am not deeply
moved by the demonstrations of the affectionate interest of
my home people.

Possibly they would send me to the Senate this winter if I
should intimate a willingness to take the place, but I do
not feel that I can, and have said so.

If I could believe that any exigency in public affairs called
for me, then my personal wishes would be subservient--but
it is not so. My own belief is that as a free citizen I can
do more towards giving a right direction to public affairs
than I could as a Senator.

. . . . . . . . . . .

My wife joins me in the desire to be kindly remembered to
Mrs. Hoar.

Most sincerely your friend,
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Hon. George F. Hoar,
Worcester, Mass.

I had a great many interesting experiences of Harrison's
roughness of manner and honesty and kindness of heart, which
it would not be right to relate here. But I may mention two
or three.

When the term of General Corse, the Democratic Postmaster
at Boston, expired, Mr. Dawes and I earnestly recommended
that he should be reappointed. He was, with one or two exceptions,
the most eminent living veteran of the Civil War. He was
the hero of one of its noted exploits. "Hold the Fort" had
made him famous in song and story. The business men of Boston,
without