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Without power as an orator, he was listened to in the Senate with profound attention, as one who never offered counsel that was not needed.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine remarks on a senator's ability to command attention despite lacking oratorical power.
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The need of action and of energy so pressed upon him that he found no time to utter lamentation, none to indulge even in the most sacred personal grief.
The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by its prompt and peaceful dissolution.
This ratio of influence went into the Electoral College, and gave to the white men of South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana double the power of that enjoyed by white men in New York, Illinois and California.
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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