February 1861

What magical merit belongs, over all the de- tails of any work, to the grand design ! The per- formance of steam and iron locomotive on an iron road is wonderful anywhere for a few rods or a mile, but is then only a toy ; but continued or repeated for many miles, tens or hundreds, and directed on Boston or New York, acquires sud- denly an incredible grandeur. All the details are performed by very narrow, ordinary people, but the total effect seems quite out of the reach of any one man, and a godlike gift.

Long peace makes men routinary and gre- garious. They all walk arm in arm. Poverty, the sea, the frost, farming, hunting, the emi- grant, the soldier must teach self-reliance, to take the initiative, and never lose their head. In the South, slavery and hunting, sportsman- ship and the climate and politics give the men self-reliance ; and the South is well offi- cered, and, with some right, they despise the peaceful North people, leaning on the law and on each other. In proportion to the number of self-reliant persons will the power and attitude of the State be.