Most of us like to think we would be willing to die for a great cause, granted the courage. A harder question is whether we would be willing to spend 20 years losing for one.
More than two centuries ago, a young British politician named William Wilberforce confronted exactly that question. His answer changed the moral character of an empire.
‘You have the far greater honour of being a Representative for the Lord, in a place where many know him not.’
Young, wealthy, and well connected, Wilberforce entered Parliament at just 21 years of age, quickly earning a reputation as one of the finest orators in Britain. Charming, witty, and socially connected, he was hardly known for disciplined seriousness. The writer and socialite Madame de Staël called him
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