This alliance meant much to Douglas.  Since the death of his first wife, he had grown careless in his dress and bearing, too little regardful of conventionalities.  He had sought by preference the society of men, and had lost those external marks of good-breeding which companionship with gentlewomen had given him.  Insensibly he had fallen a prey to a certain harshness and bitterness of temper, which was foreign to his nature; and he had become reckless, so men said, because of defeated ambition.  But now yielding to the warmth of tender domesticity, the true nature of the man asserted itself.[614] He grew, perhaps not less ambitious, but more sensible of the obligations which leadership imposed.

No one could gainsay his leadership.  He was indisputably the most influential man in his party; and this leadership was not bought by obsequiousness to party opinion, nor by the shadowy arts of the machine politician alone.  True, he was a spoilsman, like all of his contemporaries.  He was not above using the spoils of office to reward faithful followers.  Reprehensible as the system was, and is, there is perhaps a redeeming feature in this aspect of American politics.  The ignorant foreigner was reconciled to government because it was made to appear to him as a personal benefactor.  Due credit must be given to those leaders like Douglas, who fired the hearts of Irishmen and Germans with loyalty to the Union through the medium of party.[615]

The hold of Douglas upon his following, however, cannot be explained by sordid appeals to their self-interest.  He commanded the unbought service of thousands.  In the early days of his career, he had found loyal friends, who labored unremittingly for his advancement, without hope of pecuniary reward or of any return but personal gratitude; and throughout his career he drew upon this vast fund of personal loyalty.  His capacity for warm friendships was unlimited.  He made men, particularly young men, feel that it was an inestimable boon to be permitted to labor with him “for the cause.”  Far away in Asia Minor, with his mind teeming with a thousand strange sensations, he can yet think of a friend at the antipodes who nurses a grievance against him; and forthwith he sits down and writes five pages of generous, affectionate remonstrance.[616] In the thick of an important campaign, when countless demands are made upon his time, he finds a moment to lay his hand upon the shoulder of a young German ward-politician with the hearty word, “I count very much on your help in this election."[617] If this was the art of a politician, it was art reduced to artlessness.