When he first rose
to speak in that body, John Adams said, "That young man reminds
me of my old friend, Roger Sherman." He was a Federalist,
afterward a Whig, and in the last years of his life a Republican.
Mr. Hoar succeeded Edward Everett as Representative in Congress
from the Middlesex District in 1835. He served there but
a single term. He made one speech, a Constitutional argument
in support of the power of Congress to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia. He also took rather a prominent
part in a discussion in which the Whig members complained
of one of the rulings of the Democratic speaker.
His service was not long enough to gain for him any considerable
national distinction. But that he made a good impression
on the House appears from an extract of a letter I lately
received from my classmate, Rev. Walter Mitchell, the author
of the spirited and famous poem, "Tacking Ship off Fire Island."
He says: "I heard your uncle, Mr. Eliot, say that when your
father went to Congress the Southern members said, 'Where
has this man been all his life, and why have we never heard
of him? With us a man of his ability would be known all over
the South.
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