The Memories of Fifty Years: Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the SouthwestSparks, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The Memories of Fifty Years: Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest
Sparks, W. H. (William Henry)
Georgia -- History -- 1775-1865; Southwest, Old -- History; United States -- Biography
protected their interests, at the hazard of the horrors of Fort Pulaski
and the sweat-box--the favorite instruments of torture of this infamous
defendant of an irresponsible Congress, and now for personal safety,
exiled from home and country, finds protection under a foreign flag.
This one act alone will be sufficient to immortalize the name of
Charles J. Jenkins, and to swell with pride the heart of every true
Georgian who aided to place such a man in such a position, at such a
time. Governor Jenkins still lives, and if the prayers of a virtuous
and oppressed people may avail on high, will be spared to reap in
better days his reward in their gratitude.
An exalted intellect, unaccompanied with exalted virtue, can never
constitute greatness. In whatever position placed, or whatever
inducements persuade, virtue and a conscientious conviction of right
must regulate the mind and conduct of man to make him great. The
tortuous course of politics, made so by unprincipled men, renders the
truly upright man usually a poor politician. He who possesses the
capacity to discern the true interests of a country, and who will
virtuously labor to secure and promote those interests, defying
opposition and fearlessly braving the calumnies of interested, corrupt
men, organized into parties--which so often lose sight of the interests
of their country, in promoting party ends, or from inflamed
passions--is the great man. He whose pedestal is virtue, and whose
action is honest, secures the respect of his own age, and becomes the
luminary of succeeding ages. Stern honesty often imposes unpleasant
duties--strict obedience to its behests, not unfrequently involves
apparent inconsistencies of conduct; but the conscientious man will
disregard these in doing what his judgment determines right--the only
real consistency which sustains a man in his own estimation, and leaves
no bitter reflections for the future. To subserve the cause of right,
is always a duty--not so the cause of party or selfish interest. All
men respect the right, but many have not the virtue to resist wrong.
Ambition prompts for success the expedient: and hence the laxity of
political morals. This is slipping the cable that the ship may swing
from her anchorage and drift with the tide; any minnow may float with
the current, but it requires a strong fish to stem and progress against
the stream. A man, to brave obloquy and public scorn, requires strong
moral courage; but when his judgment convinces him that he is right,
and when he feels that his intentions are pure, conscientious, and
sincere, this may ruffle him for a time, but never permanently disturbs
his peace or injures his reputation. The truly great are only known by
nobly resisting every temptation to wrong, and braving the world's
condemnation in pursuing and sustaining the right. It is the soul to
which greatness belongs, not the mind. This latter is too often, in its
transcendent greatness, coupled with a mean and degraded soul, which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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