Excerpt from Arthur George Olmsted: Son of a Pennsylvania Pioneer, Boy Orator of Ulysses, For the Freedom of the Slave, Defense of the Union, Development of the Northern Tier, Citizen, Jurist, StatesmanOfficial distinctions, however high or numer ous, though denoting public confidence, are not the truest measure of success in life. Neither Franklin, nor Edison, nor Longfellow, were elevated to the highest posts of official honor. Indeed, public service sometimes interrupts careers which, if left to normal courses, might evolve into far more important spheres of usefulness. Moreover, the call to office is not alone dependent upon qualities for service, but is more or less incidental, contingent upon environment, events, his toric periods. So in¿uential are these factors that, given the period and place, the parentage and ancestry, an attentive student of biog raphy, with a sufficient knowledge of history.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis 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.