On the record
An individual, by an effort of will, can bring himself to endure present inconvenience and even suffering, for a great good that lies beyond, but it was difficult for forty millions of people to adopt this resolve.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine reflects on the difficulty of collective action in the face of hardship.
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If you are not ready to be the Moses of an oppressed people, do not become their Pharaoh.
The Northern people shrank from the responsibility of transferring the government of States to the control of men who had already shown themselves capable of desperate deeds.
Their pirates burned your unarmed commerce upon every sea.
It was the insane folly of the South, in drawing the sword against the life of the Nation, that led irresistibly to the abolition of slavery.
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