John Green on Charles George Gordon

“For years I have followed General Gordon's course with constantly increasing interest, wonder, and admiration, and I have felt his death as a great personal bereavement. A Providential man, his mission in an unbelieving and selfish age revealed the mighty power of faith in God, self-abnegation, and the enthusiasm of humanity. For centuries no grander figure has crossed the disk of our planet. Unique, unapproachable in his marvelous individuality, he belongs to no sect or party, and defies classification or comparison. I should be sorry to see his name used for party purposes, for neither Conservative nor Radical has any special claim upon him... We Americans, in common with all English-speaking people, the world over, lament his death, and share his glorious memory.”

“But as respects Charles Gordon, I cannot withdraw my admiration from the man, while I disapprove of his warlike methods. I learned much of him from my friend, Dr. Williams, who knew him well in China, and who thought him one of the most generous and self-sacrificing men he ever knew. Still later, I have read of his labors in the Soudan to suppress the dreadful slave trade, and it seems to me that he went to Khartoum once more really on an errand of peace, and I am not sure that he would not have succeeded if the English army had not invaded the Soudan. It is not probable that I shall write a poem on his life and death, but I thought of it, and intended to express my admiration of his faith, courage, and self-abnegation, while lamenting his war training and his reliance on warlike means to accomplish a righteous end. As it is, he was a better man than David or Joshua—he was humane and never put his prisoners into brick-kilns nor under hammers. And he believed in a living God, who reveals himself now as in the old time.”