Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/217

 Hon. Willi am E. Chandler

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��greatest organizer of the Democratic party since Martin Van Biiren, met his equal if not liis superior when he came in conflict with Mr. Chandler ; and was routed when he felt confident of victory.

The wise and sagacious adminis- tration of President Arthur owed much of its success to the presence in the cabinet of Mr. Chandler. He was a power in the cabinet, whose influence was felt throughout the nation, and his terse and crisp style of using the En- glish languao-e can be traced in many a public document of that period.

The late Hon. Jacob H. Ela wrote of Mr. Chandler, — "In his personal habits Mr. Chandler is above reproach, pure in speech as in action, with a mind quick to perceive, prompt to ex- ecute, and comprehensive in its scope. He is a man with convictions, and the courage to express and maintain them. He has never sought advancement by flattery or by pandering to prejudice. Those who know him best have the most faith in his integrity. The best evidence of it is the fact that in twen- ty-five years of aggressive political life, while occupying positions of temptation, and criticising freely the action of men who forgot their moral obligations, or were shirking their of- ficial duties to the detriment of the public good, no one of them has been able to connect him with personal dis- honesty, corrupt practice in official life, or political trieachery or double- dealing. His methods are correct, positive, systematic, exact, and logi- cal. The positions he has held have all come to him in recognition of his abilitv and earnest efforts in servins; the cause he espouses."

Hon. Henry Robinson, of Concord,

��with the enthusiasm of a friend, per- haps too partial, thus writes in the Granite Monthly of Mr. Chandler : "He is a man in whom we should all take pride, and of whom we should speak as becomes his real worth to his native state, where he is not with- out honor. He is a man of wonder- ful readiness of mind, of remarkable ability, and, above all else, of un- doubted integrit}^ His political op- ponents will tell you that. He says in the fewest words possible what he has to say, and he says what he means, and he means what he says : you may rely upon it. His word is to him a bond. This is one sreat reason why those who know him best love him best. This is one great reason why he is so trusted as a lead- er in his country, so influential a citi- zen in his own state, and courted, and quoted, and counted upon ever}'- where where sound principle is at stake. Integrity is a crown-jewel. Honesty is the highest and noblest element of the human character, — honesty of purpose and action, purity of thought and mind, square dealing with one's fellow-men, a scrupulous uprightness in all the thousand-aud-one petty details of a busy life, and a strict and constant adherence to truth and rectitude, whether in public or pri- vate. But in him honesty is set off bv. and has the advantaoe of, an in- tellect that rises at times almost to the level of genius ; for, as a preco- cious lad at school, as an astute lawyer at the bar, or as a commanding states- man in the clustered head of the pres- ent national administration, "William E. Chandler has developed and dis- played an intuitive keenness of dis- cernment, a remarkable clearness of

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