is heard in the United States Senate only on the most important questions, when he has a large audience. He is a scholar without pedantry, a lawyer uncramped with technicalities, a statesman but not a politician. He is a man fit to fill any high position to which he may aspire, and with which he may be honored by his fellow countrymen.

George Frisbie Hoar

Senior Senator from Massachusetts

JURIST AND STATESMAN

HON. GEORGE F. HOAR comes of one of the most distinguished American families, whose names have been linked with American history from the days of the Revolution. His father was the eminent statesman, Samuel Hoar, a member of Congress and state councilor.

George F. Hoar was born in Concord, Mass., August 29, 1826. He studied at Harvard, and was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1849. He served in the State Legislature from 1869 until 1877, when he was elected to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate. He served as delegate to the Republican National Conventions which met at Cincinnati in 1876, and in Chicago in 1880, 1884, and 1888, being chairman of the convention held in 1880. He was a member also of the famous Electoral Commission which declared Rutherford Hayes President in 1876. He has been president and vice-president of a great number of societies, and is recognized as the most cultured and polished of American statesmen. He has recieved the degree of Doctor of Law from several colleges, including Williams and Marys, Amherst, Yale and Harvard. He has been a staunch Republican from the first, thoroughly independent in politics, fearless in expressing his views and criticizing the policy of his party. On the subject of the expansion and the government of our new possessions he has felt it his duty to not stand with his party in the policy that they have so far pursued. His defense of his position he ably presented in a recent address, which is quoted in in this volume.

Charles Arnette Towne

Nominated by People's Party, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for Vice
President.

Few men have risen into prominence as rapidly as has the subject of this sketch, who was born in Oakland County, Michigan, November 21, 1858. After completing his academic education he took up the study of law, and began practice in Duluth, Minnesota. His early party affiliation was with the Republican party, and as such he served one term in Congress, 1895-1897. He early took up the advocacy of the coinage of free silver, and in the campaign of 1896 he sided with that branch of his party, which withdrew from the convention at St. Louis and organized a new party. He has been the national chairman of the Silver Republican party since 1897. His sympathies were so decidedly favorable to the views held by the Populist and Democratic parties, on silver and trusts, that he received the nomination of the former for the Vice Presidency on the ticket with Wm. Jennings Bryan, at Sioux Falls, S. D., and at one time it was thought that the Democratic party at Kansas City would place him on their ticket. It was only upon his earnest plea to the Silver Republican party, at Kansas City, that his name was not put as a second on their ticket. It was his duty to call to order the convention of the Silver party at Kansas City on July 4, and in doing so, he delivered a speech which was impressive and very suggestive, in which he said in speaking of his oid party that

"The men whom we to-day immediately represent left the Republican party in 1896 chiefly because of its action at St. Louis in betraying the cause of bimetallism and surrendering to the banking combination. All men who see the danger must unite to avert it. If we had not left the Republican party in 1896 we should be compelled, as patriots to leave in 1900, and forever."

CHAPTER XXIV

The Prohibition Convention

The National Convention of the Prohibition Party Met in Chicago, June 28, 1900-730 Delegates were Present--Issues of the Campaign Discussed and Platform Adopted

TH

HE convention of the Prohibition party, which assembled in Chicago, showed enthusiasm which excelled that of any other convention held previously by the advocates of total abstinence and prohibition of the liquor traffic. Forty states of the Union were represented by delegates, thirty-seven of them being represented at the opening session. Oliver Stewart, Chairman of the National Committee, called the convention to order in the large auditorium of the First Regiment Armory. The convention was opened with prayer by Dr, J. Wesley Maxwell, of Greensburg, Ill. The galleries surrounding the large drill room in which the assembly met were filled with spectators who were, of course, intensely interested in the proceedings of the convention. The delegates from the New England states marched into the hall in a body, each delegate carrying a banner on which was represented a canteen with the letters "U. S." inverted, and bearing the legend "Anti-canteen." This brought forth great applause. Chairman Stewart first delivered a brief address, after which he introduced the Rev. John H. Hill, of Chicago, who, at considerable length, welcomed the delegates to Chicago. There were present in the convention many who had been delegates to the convention held in Chicago in 1869. They were invited to the platform and given seats of honor. Chairman Stewart then announced the temporary officers, as follows: For chairman, Samuel Dickie, of Michigan; secretary, A. E. Wilson, of Chicago. Mr. Dickie, in accepting the chair, made a brief and forcible speech, in

which he outlined the work to be done by the convention, and declared that he believed the "Prohibition party is on the eve of important events, as it represents reforms before which all other national reforms pale into insignificance or disappear altogether," and that the old parties stood for the continuance and perpetuation of the liquor traffic. He severely arraigned the national administration for its attitude on the Canteen Law, and charged it with debauching the peoples of the new possessions in the Philippines, charging also that the government had used its consular service for the gathering of information for the use of distillers and brewers.

In the afternoon session the Committee on Credentials reported seating 693 members at the first session, to which others were expected to be added in the succeeding days. The Committee on Permanent Organization recommended Samuel Dickie, of Michigan, for permanent chairman, and Colonel R. S. Cheves, of Tennessee, for permanent secretary. The list of national committeemen, as selected by the delegates of various states and reported by the committee, was read and unanimously adopted.

EVENING SESSION

The evening session of the convention expected to hear the reading of the platform, but upon assembling it found that the committee was not yet prepared. An hour was spent very pleasantly and profitably in speeches and campaign songs, all of which were given great applause, which gave the convention the appearance of the campaign rally of a great party. Soon after nine o'clock Chairman Chafin appeared with the report of his committee, and the reading of the platform was listened to with great interest. At its conclusion it was received with the wildest enthusiasm. The parts which condemned President McKinley for his attitude in regard to the Canteen Law and the conduct of the war in the Philippines were greeted with shouts of approval, the delegates standing on their chairs to make themselves seen and heard. The woman's suffrage plank had been left out of the platform, and was distasteful

to many delegates. The secretary read a resolution recommended by the Committee on Resolutions, as follows:

"Resolved, that it is the sense of this convention that the right of the ballot be not denied any citizen on account of sex." After considerable discussion a rising vote was called for, and the platform and the additional resolution favoring woman's suffrage was adopted by a practically unanimous vote, amid a tempest of cheers. It was a magnificent sight when some of the delegates started the old hymn, "Blest be the Tie that Binds," and the whole assembly joined in the thunderous song of praise, after which the convention adjourned until the succeeding day, with the expectation that the nominations would be made for the two places on the ticket.

SECOND DAY'S SESSION

Chairman Dickie called the convention to order at 10 o'clock sharp, and the galleries of the great First Regiment Armory were thronged with interested spectators, and the number of delegates had increased over those reported the previous day. Rev. C. H. Mead, of New Jersey, offered a brief prayer, and the chairman of the Committee on Credentials made a second report, showing that the total number of delegates present was 730, representing forty States. Chairman Dickie's voice failing him, A. G. Wolfenbarger, of Nebraska, took the chair. The chairman of the National Committee, Mr. Oliver W. Stewart, was recognized by the chair, and at considerable length outlined the work of the National Committee during the last four years, speaking especially of the difficulties which stood in their way and the evidence of success they had met with in the different States. He also outlined the proposed plans for the coming campaign, which they expected to make more far-reaching and enthusiastic than any campaign in the history of the Prohibition party. He made an earnest appeal for

funds with which to conduct the campaign, and as a result several thousand dollars were soon subscribed by the delegates and visitors present. Colonel Brewer, of the Salvation Army, and widely known for his interest in the temperance work, was introduced, and