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<br/>
<h2> HENRY M. STANLEY </h2>
<p>ADDRESS DELIVERED IN BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1886<br/>
<br/>
Mr. Clemens introduced Mr. Stanley.<br/></p>
<p>LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, if any should ask, Why is it that you are here as
introducer of the lecturer? I should answer that I happened to be around
and was asked to perform this function. I was quite willing to do so, and,
as there was no sort of need of an introduction, anyway, it could be
necessary only that some person come forward for a moment and do an
unnecessary thing, and this is quite in my line. Now, to introduce so
illustrious a name as Henry M. Stanley by any detail of what the man has
done is clear aside from my purpose; that would be stretching the
unnecessary to an unconscionable degree. When I contrast what I have
achieved in my measurably brief life with what he has achieved in his
possibly briefer one, the effect is to sweep utterly away the ten-story
edifice of my own self-appreciation and leave nothing behind but the
cellar. When you compare these achievements of his with the achievements
of really great men who exist in history, the comparison, I believe, is in
his favor. I am not here to disparage Columbus.</p>
<p>No, I won’t do that; but when you come to regard the achievements of these
two men, Columbus and Stanley, from the standpoint of the difficulties
they encountered, the advantage is with Stanley and against Columbus. Now,
Columbus started out to discover America. Well, he didn’t need to do
anything at all but sit in the cabin of his ship and hold his grip and
sail straight on, and America would discover itself. Here it was, barring
his passage the whole length and breadth of the South American continent,
and he couldn’t get by it. He’d got to discover it. But Stanley started
out to find Doctor Livingstone, who was scattered abroad, as you may say,
over the length and breadth of a vast slab of Africa as big as the United
States.</p>
<p>It was a blind kind of search. He was the worst scattered of men. But I
will throw the weight of this introduction upon one very peculiar feature
of Mr. Stanley’s character, and that is his indestructible Americanism—an
Americanism which he is proud of. And in this day and time, when it is the
custom to ape and imitate English methods and fashion, it is like a breath
of fresh air to stand in the presence of this untainted American citizen
who has been caressed and complimented by half of the crowned heads of
Europe who could clothe his body from his head to his heels with the
orders and decorations lavished upon him. And yet, when the untitled
myriads of his own country put out their hands in welcome to him and greet
him, “Well done,” through the Congress of the United States, that is the
crown that is worth all the rest to him. He is a product of institutions
which exist in no other country on earth-institutions that bring out all
that is best and most heroic in a man. I introduce Henry M. Stanley.</p>
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