From “Characteristics of the Age.”

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When that history comes to be written you know whose will be the central and prominent figure.  You know that Mr. Gladstone will stand out before posterity as the greatest man of his time—­remarkable not only for his extraordinary eloquence, for his great ability, for his stedfastness of purpose, for his constructive skill, but more, perhaps, than all these, for his personal character, and for the high tone that he has introduced into our polities and public fife.  I sometimes think that great men are like great mountains, and that we do not appreciate their magnitude while we are close to them.  You have to go to a distance to see which peak it is that towers above its fellows; and it may be that we shall have to put between us and Mr. Gladstone a space of time before we shall see how much greater he has been than any of his competitors for fame and power.  Joseph Chamberlain.

From “On Liberal Aims.”

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Let us never despair of our country.  Actual evils can be mitigated; bad tendencies can be turned aside; the burdens of government can be diminished; productive industry will be renewed; and frugality will repair the waste of our resources.  Then shall the golden days of the republic once more return, and the people become prosperous and happy, Samuel Jones Tilden.

From “Address on Administrative Reform.”

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Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to which flesh is heir; had he reached that good old age to which his rigorous constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had he been permitted to see the end of his great work; had the solemn curtain of death come down but gradually, we should still have been smitten with a heavy grief and treasured his name lovingly.  But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence; killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate, but because of his fidelity to Union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us and will be precious forever.  Frederick Douglass.

From “Inauguration of the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln.”

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Let this be an occasion of joy.  Why should it not be so!  Is not the heaven over your heads, which has so long been clothed in sackcloth, beginning to disclose its starry principalities and illumine your pathway?  Do you not see the pitiless storm which, has so long been pouring its rage upon you breaking away, and a bow of promise as glorious as that which succeeded the ancient deluge spanning the sky—­a token that to the end of time the billows of prejudice and oppression shall no more cover the earth to the destruction of your race; but seedtime and harvest shall never fail, and the laborer