cards of great historical figures

[Exhibitman]

Where the citizen is sovereign and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign — the people — should possess intelligence.

The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.

Now in this centennial year of our national existence, I believe it a good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundation of the house commenced by our patriotic forefathers one hundred years ago, at Concord and Lexington. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion.

Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support, no matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that the State or Nation, or both combined, shall furnish to every child growing up in the land, the means of acquiring a good common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistic tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards, I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.

--US Grant, speech at the Annual Reunion of the Army of the Tennessee in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept. 29, 1875

[Peter_Spaeth]

A more pedestrian Grant card.

[G1911]

Grant CDV's are a bargain. Here's my favorite, not the best image but one portraying him at his best, magnanimous in victory, the gentleman Lee had feared he was not. He allowed Lee's men to keep their horses, recieve a general amnesty, and didn't even take his opponents sword. He intervened multiple times in the next five years to prevent the federal government from going after Lee.

[G1911]

And here's two more of my Grant's. These images are hand colored, after printing. They were not colored and then printed in quantity, but each one was hand done. I can imagine these were fairly pricey for the time if done by the photographic studio that sold them instead of an artistic end buyer. On close examination, the detail is really impressive.