From 1882 to 1885, Mr. Spooner was a regent of the State university. He was chairman of the Wisconsin delegation to the Republican national conventions of 1888 and 1892; was offered the Interior portfolio by President McKinley , in 1898, in place of Cornelius N. Bliss resigned, a place which he declined, as he also did the chairmanship of the Joint High Commission (British and American) in the same year. At the beginning of President McKinley's second term he was offered the attorney generalship of the United States but declined it. His industry, intelligence and wisdom in the discharge of legislative duties soon marked him as one of the most influential leaders of that body. Subsequent years, and eminent services in law-making have confirmed his reputation as a truly national figure and a public servant of the highest type. He is an effective and valuable worker on committes; and probably he is the first debater in congress. His views have been expressed with clearness and force, and few if any of his compeers have brought to the consideration of public questions greater breadth of legal learning or a more just view of the proper scope of legislation. Much of his effectiveness in the Senate is due to the fact that he frees himself from the thraldom of trivial things and gives his energies to real statesmanship. He has never been a specialist; but his willingness to work, his eagerness to investigate, his tirelessness, alertness, sincerity and poise of judgment, have drawn all the specialists to him. As a lawyer and a lawmaker, as a practical deviser of plans to meet existing conditions, as a partisan of stronger and better methods, and as a censor of the furtive slippings and the blunders of routine legislation, he has no superior in either house of congress. When he speaks for party he rarely descends to partisanship, though he is capable of the sharpest repartee and the most witty rejoinder. The spontaniety of his intellect never fails him, and rarely does he write out his speeches; so encyclopedic is his general knowledge, and so perfectly under control are his faculties. He is genial in social intercourse, intensely devoted to his family, honorable and pure in all the relations of life, and has won high esteem both for his personal worth and for his official ability.
Senator Spooner was married on September 10, 1868, to Annie E. Main, of Madison, Wisconsin. Four children have been born to them, three of whom are now living.
