A Frontier Town, and Other Essays (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906. Excerpt: ... SENATOR HOAR1 Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Senators, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I am here by your invitation, which is at once an honor and a command. I am to speak to you of a remarkable man and of a long and distinguished career of public service. I am to speak to you of a man who has taken his place in that noble company who have made Massachusetts what she has been in the past, what she is to-day, and to whom she owes her great part in history and her large influence in the Union of States. Here where Mr. Hoar rendered his first public service, here where he was five times commissioned to represent the State in the great council of the nation, is the fittest place in which to honor his memory and make record of our grief for his death. I cannot hope to do full justice to such a theme, but the sincerity of my endeavor and the affection which inspires it give me confidence to proceed and assure me of your indulgence. 1 An address delivered on January 19, 1905, before the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, in the State House at Boston. Men distinguished above their fellows, who have won a place in history, may be of interest and importance to posterity as individuals or as representatives of their time, or in both capacities. Hobbes and Descartes, for instance, are chiefly if not wholly interesting for what they themselves were and for their contributions to human thought, which might conceivably have been made at any epoch. On the other hand, Pepys and St. Simon, substantially contemporary with the two philosophers, are primarily of interest and importance as representative men, embodiments and exponents of the life and thought of their time. Benjamin Franklin, to take a later examp...