Rufus Choate (b. October 1, 1799; d. July 13, 1859) was probably the best-equipped scholar of the public men of the century, and was unusually brilliant as orator, lawyer, and publicist. Next to Mr. Webster he was the greatest member of the Massachusetts bar. He may be called the American Lord Erskine.
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, of Italy (b. August 10, 1810; d. June 6, 1861), found a life-work in the unification of the Italian States. By pursuing a masterly course in European diplomacy he brought the states of North Italy into unity, and finally, through the efforts of Garibaldi, those of Southern Italy became united with them in one kingdom under the rule of Victor Emmanuel in 1860. Though not a man of “blood and iron,” like Bismarck, he was the equal of his great German contemporary in diplomacy.
William Ewart Gladstone (b. December 29, 1809; d. May 19, 1898) was four times premier of England. As orator, political leader and statesman, and critic in the immense range of subjects he covered, his genius was without parallel. It may be said that his was the mightiest personality and most catholic and powerful intellect of any Englishman. He championed the cause of Christianity among all nations, sounded the first trumpet call of Italian liberty, opposed Turkey as a Mohammedan power, raised England’s commercial prosperity to the highest notch, unraveled the entanglements of Beaconsfield’s ministry, inaugurated the most astonishing reforms in all directions, but especially in the church, education, army, and among the labor unions. It is almost impossible to name any matter of national or international importance in which his personality and genius were not felt for good.
Alexander Hamilton (b. January 11, 1757; d. July 11, 1804) was by all odds the ablest jurist and statesman of the early constitutional era of the United States. He became the first Secretary of the Treasury, and lifted the finances of the government from utter prostration to high prosperity. As fiscal organizer his success was unparalleled, and all after administrations of the Treasury have been practically along the lines he first laid down. He was easily the leader of that party which looked with disfavor on “States’ Rights,” and favored a strong central government.
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (b. December 21, 1804; d. April 19, 1881), stood, as premier, for English “territorial aristocracy” and for that “territorial expansion” which fixed the wide boundaries of the Indian Empire, made Queen Victoria Empress of India, taught both Russia and India to refrain from meddling with England’s possessions, made the English voice preëminent in the disposition of Continental territory, and completely defeated the schemes of Russia against Turkey. Under him the middle classes lost, and the laboring classes gained, political power. His career greatly heightened the national institutions and character, as well as the international reputation and power, of his country.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Thomas Jefferson (b. April 2, 1743; d. July 4, 1826) stood in the past century as an able exponent of American rights, and his views were incorporated into the Declaration of Independence, of which he was the acknowledged author. He equally stood as the leading exponent of that political school of thought which favored decentralization, or limitation of the powers of the central government. After his election to the presidency in 1800, he signalized his administration by what is known as the Louisiana purchase, for $15,000,000. In thus enlarging the area of the country by boundaries of vast extent, he became one of the earliest and most enthusiastic of expansionists, and that without reference to the modernly mooted question of “government without the consent of the governed.”
Richard Cobden, of England (1804–1865), was a humanitarian of great native breadth and liberality, largely increased by travel and constant observation. He was a powerful leader in the famous Manchester School of English statesmen. His share in modern progress was fourfold; first, in securing the repeal of the odious tax on corn in 1846; second, in urging arbitration rather than arms as a final resort to settle international disputes; third, in negotiating with France the Commercial Treaty of 1860, which Mr. Gladstone said no other living man could have secured; fourth, in his vigorous and successful opposition of all efforts to enforce England’s recognition of the Southern Confederacy during the late civil war.
Prince Otto E. L. Bismarck, of Germany (b. April 1, 1815; d. July 30, 1898), blended the unerring instinct, great far-sightedness, fertility in invention and expedients, and adroit diplomacy of a statesman, with absolute fearlessness, inflexible purpose, indomitable energy, and resistless force. Thoroughly German, he was preëminently and always Prussian, and his great life-work was the accomplishment of German unity with Prussia at the head. This he achieved by the humiliation of Austria and France, and the gradual accession of all the distinctively German states.