GOD, give us men! A time like this demands
strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
men whom the lust of office does not kill;
men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
men who possess opinions and a will;
men who have honor; men who will not lie;
men who can stand before a demagogue
and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
in public duty, and in private thinking:
for while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
their large professions and their little deeds,
mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps.
Josiah Gilbert Holland – American physician and novelist (1819-1881), written in 1872, Quotations book 2017