"Yes, Wilberforce had been brave. But he had also been wise. The combination of such selfless devotion to a cause has seldom gone with such cool temper and judgement. This silver-tongued orator, the darling of the world of wit, of fashion, and of politics, the bosom friend of Pitt himself, had in early youth a primrose path spread before his feet. He chose instead a rugged track that led away from office, away from his friend, away from the "respectabilities" of the closing century, and led him among unfashionable and unpopular allies—Quakers, dissenters, infidels, and whigs—who upheld his cause when it had few friends among slumbrous churchmen and hard-faced Tories. Yet he himself was all the while a churchman and a Tory. It was a difficult path to tread, and he trod it with the sure foot of absolute sincerity and single-mindedness, and ended by being the leader of the whole nation without distinction of party and sect."
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G. M. Trevelyan, 'Wilberforce: The Centenary of a Warrior', The Times (29 July 1933), p. 14
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce
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William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (August 24 1759 – July 29 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist, theologian, and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. His third son was Bishop Samuel Wilberforce.
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