Henry, to the surpassing annoyance of clean, decent people everywhere. sticks a ghost ring rear sight right on the receiver, and to mount optics, the ghost ring sight has to go, leaving the shooter a completely useless front sight should his optics fail for any reason. Marlin, and even Rossi (whoever they are) wisely mounts the rear sight on the barrel, where God intended it to be, leaving their solid top receivers completely open for attaching optics. Orchids to Marlin and Rossi, onions to Henry.
The Henry .45-70, which lists for $799, is given a checkering pattern that is not just ugly, it's awful, the Rossi's non-existent. That leaves the Marlin, which sells for under $600. Marlin uses some pretty nice wood, available in a pistol grip or straight grip style, and they generously checker it with class and style. For all kinds of reasons, I'd buy a Marlin first, and because many moons have passed my old tired eyes, a Rossi second, if only for the scope rail they obligingly fit to their receiver top.
What scope? a decent 3x-9x should do nicely.