Mr. Moore was a close and painstaking student; reluctant to appear in any case without careful preparation; yet when he entered the combat, the rich and fertile resources of his well-stored mind clearly manifested that nothing rusted in his intellectual armory.
His mind was logical, his manner forcible, his ideas, without undue ornamentation, were clothed in strong and graphic language. He seized at once the strong points of his case, and pressed them with skill and sagacity. Possessed of a strong mind and robust constitution, he was a fine exemplification of the mens sana in corpore sano.
In politics he was a Whig, and admired a strong and stable government; an ardent lover of civil liberty, he watched with jealousy all legislation tending to encroach upon the guaranteed rights of the citizen.
A bold and avowed Union man, while the States were engaged in an unremitting and unrelenting civil war, his high character and recognized integrity secured him, even amidst the clash of arms, a respectful hearing, for it was known that he sympathized with his own people in their unequal conflict, and that often his hasty expressions were the result of deep convictions. Recognized as a pronounced and outspoken Unionist, it was but natural that he should be sought for and consulted by the President of the United States at the termination of the war.
His respect, however, for the constitutional limitations of the General Government compelled him to oppose the whole reconstruction policy, for he was incapable of yielding to the intrigues of the politician or the subservient traffic of a mere placeman.
He was a leading member of the State convention called by the President, and ably advocated the adoption of all such measures as were proclaimed as indispensably necessary to a rehabilitation of the State, believing that wise statesmanship required an early submission to the demands of the General Government.
Reared in a conservative school of politics, and devotedly attached to his State and the high character of her judiciary, he ever looked with distrust upon the election of judges for short terms and by popular ballot as an alarming inroad.
As a citizen, to the poor he was liberal and unostentatious, to his equals, frank and manly, to all, kind and just.
That he had his faults, none will deny; he was impatient of contradiction, at times impetuous and irascible, yet these were but the natural emotions of an ardent and sanguine temperament, and while they tended to obscure, did not infect those true and excellent qualities which lay beneath the surface.