Excerpt from An American Commoner; The Life and Times of Richard Parks Bland: A Study of the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century Richard P. Bland combined, in a rare degree, those qualities which are essential in the successful public servant. He was, in fact, an ideal representative of the people. He was honest with himself and with his fellows; he was industrious and devoted himself conscientiously to his work; his habits, his tastes and his ambitions were such as to protect him from the temptations which hover about those who are conspicuous in public life; he had convictions deep and controlling; his ideas were high and pure; he had the ability to present and defend his views with clearness and force - his eloquence being the eloquence of one who knew what he was talking about and meant what he said; and he had the courage to express his opinion and stand by it, regardless of the consequences which might follow to himself. Measuring all questions by the fundamental principles which underlie our government, his career was remarkably free from the inconsistencies which have so often marred the lives of great men. He was reared among the plain people and was their faithful friend and champion; he never partook of the lotus fruit which makes the recipient of a public trust forgetful of those who confer it. He was democratic in the broadest sense of the term; he had implicit confidence in the capacity of the people for self government and an abiding faith that they would, in the end, solve aright every social and political problem. He was a pioneer in the great struggle for the restoration of bimetallism and for two decades led the silver fight in the House of Representatives. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.