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of legal and historical knowledge which so often disconcerted Sumner's opponents.
He had a genius for the executive, and the right position for him would have been in President Grant's cabinet.
That he would have been offered such a place can hardly be doubted.
But Governor Andrew's span of life was over.
He might have lived longer if he had taken more physical exercise; but the great Civil War proved more fatal to the statesmen who were engaged in it than to the generals in the field.
None of the great leaders of the Republican party lasted very long after this.
Andrew's friends always felt that the man was greater than his position, and that he really missed the opportunity to develop his ability to its full extent.
His position was not so difficult as that of Governor Morgan, of New York, or Governor Morton, of Indiana; for he was supported by one of the wealthiest and most patriotic of the States.
It was his clear insight into the political problems of his time and the fearlessness with which he attacked them that gave him such influence among his contemporaries, and made him felt as a moral force to the utmost limits of the Union.
No public man has ever left a more stainless reputation, and we only regret that he was not as considerate of himself as he was of others.
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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