Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 6 |
| AUTHOR: | Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) |
| QUOTATION: | The point I wish to make is this: [President William] McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter & did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze & the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing—“Carry a message to Garcia!” |
| ATTRIBUTION: | The message “asked the Cuban insurgent general how much coöperation our army could hope for from his forces in the forthcoming campaign against the Spaniards in Cuba. His reply, with its accompanying plans and military information, was of the greatest information to Major-General Miles. This information Lieutenant Rowan secured and delivered safely to his general at the risk of his life.”—R. W. G. Vail, “A Message to Garcia,” A Bibliographical Puzzle, p. 11 (1930). |
| SUBJECTS: | Action |