e is himself a skilled artisan, an inventive and
ingenious mechanic, familiar through a personal experience with every
detail of the work in which they are engaged. This, coupled with his
native kindness of heart, and his unpretentious manners, makes him the
model employer.
The custodian of great wealth, he uses it in a spirit of wise
benevolence, and his public and private benefactions, while large, are
made without ostentation or affectation. Affable, approachable,
companionable, devoted and faithful in his personal friendships, it is
little wonder that some of them now and then impulsively speak of him as
"the best man in the world."
In the full vigor of a robust manhood, Mr. Ames attends to his vast
private business affairs, performs faithfully his official and public
duties, finds time for his favorite authors, and keeps fully abreast
with current thought and the progress of the age. His brow is yet
unwrinkled and cares rest lightly upon him. Free from the pride of
wealth, temperate, conservative, clear-headed, and distinguished for his
strong common sense, his generous, unsuspicious nature, and unswerving
fidelity to the interests committed to his trust justly win for him a
multitude of friends.
Faithful in his devotion to the principles of the Republican party, and
in his services to his native Commonwealth, Massachusetts has reason for
a just pride in her Lieutenant Governor. His name may yet stand the
Republican party of the State in good stead in a political exigency not
unlikely to arise in the near future. Whatever may be said of the causes
of the defection from the Republican ranks which took place in the last
national campaign, there is no doubt about one of its results,--it has
driven the Republican party to seek a closer alliance with the
working-people of the Commonwealth. The Republican bolters were almost
exclusively drawn from the aristocratic end of the party. It was Harvard
and Beacon Hill that revolted. To make good the loss the Republican
leaders had to appeal for support to the same class of voters which gave
to Republican principles their first triumphs,--the intelligent
mechanics and artisans, the laboring men. However many or few of the
deserters of 1884 may re-join the standard now that Mr. Blaine is
defeated it is not likely that for many years to come, if ever, the
Republican party in Massachusetts will be able, to lean upon the immense
majorities of former years, that ran away up to
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