public statements and behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Senator from New York Chauncey Depew wrote that Crane "never made a speech. I do not remember that he made a motion. Yet he was the most influential member of that body." Calvin Coolidge observed that "his influence was very great, but that it was of an intangible nature." He was also known to often choose inaction over action on many matters, with a common answer to requests for advice being "Do nothing. As U.S. Senator, he used his influence to help secure the state's approval of a merger of the Boston and Maine with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He was an opponent of reciprocity (reduced tariffs) with Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland, working to water down provisions of a proposed treaty. In 1905, Crane may have been instrumental in denying Democrat William L. Douglas a second term as governor. Douglas, a successful and widely-known shoe manufacturer, won election in 1904 with labor support and high name recognition. According to Charles S. Hamlin, Republicans discovered that Douglas had apparently fraudulently acquired an honorable discharge after deserting during the Civil War. The quid pro quo for this information not being revealed, supposedly engineered by Crane and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, was that Douglas would not run again. In the 1908 presidential election, Crane expressed early support for William Howard Taft, but later came to oppose Taft, believing him a weak candidate. This placed him in opposition to fellow Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a strong Taft supporter, in a struggle for control of the state delegation to the national convention. Crane preferred to leave the delegates without formal instruction as to how they should vote, while Lodge preferred that they be required to pledge for Taft. Crane won Lodge's support for an uncommitted delegation in exchange for the election of John Davis Long, a Taft supporter, as an at-large delegate. Crane ultimately reconciled with both Taft and Lodge. He became one of Taft's closest advisors after his election and worked to secure Lodge's reelection in 1911. In the 1912 general election, the Republican Party was divided by Roosevelt's defection, and conservative elements of the party dominated the state legislature's caucus. This resulted in the election in early 1913 of the ultraconservative John W. Weeks over Crane for the Senate seat. Personal life and death In 1880, Crane married Mary Benner. She died