And by insisting on this he soothed the people--sat them down in comfortable chairs and said, "Now stay there." He really suppressed speech and thought.
The second error he made was in thinking that he could play a great part as peacemaker--come and give a blessing to these erring children.

This was strong in his hopes and ambitions.

There was a condescension in this attitude that was offensive.
He shut himself up with these two ideas and engaged in what he called "thought." The air currents of the world never ventilated his mind.
This inactive position he has kept as long as public sentiment permitted.

He seems no longer to regard himself nor to speak as a leader--only as the mouthpiece of public opinion after opinion has run over him.
He has not breathed a spirit into the people: he has encouraged them to supineness.

He is _not_ a leader, but rather a stubborn phrasemaker.
And now events and the aroused people seem to have brought the President to the necessary point of action; and even now he may act timidly.
* * * * * "One thing pleases me," Page wrote to his son Arthur, "I never lost faith in the American people.