To him the hereditary
countenance descends both mother's and father's. To him enter the essences
of the real things and past and present events---of the enormous diversity
of temperature and agriculture and mines---the tribes of red aborigines---the
weatherbeaten vessels entering new ports or making landings on rocky coast
---the first settlements north or south---the rapid stature and muscle---the
haughty defiance of '76, and the war and peace and formation of the constitution
. . . . the
union always surrounded by blatherers and always calm and impregnable---the
perpetual coming of immigrants---the
wharf hem'd cities and superior marine---the unsurveyed interior---the
loghouses and clearings and wild animals and hunters and trappers . . .
. the free commerce---the fisheries and whaling and gold-digging ---the
endless gestation of new states---the convening of Congress every December,
the members duly coming up from all climates and the uttermost parts .
. . . the noble character of the young mechanics and of all free American
workmen and workwomen . . . . the general ardor and friendliness and enterprise---the
perfect equality of the female with the male . . . . the large amativeness---
the fluid movement of the population---the factories and mercantile life
and laborsaving machinery---the Yankee swap---the New-York firemen and
the target excursion---the southern
plantation life--- the character of the northeast and of the northwest
and southwest---slavery
and the tremulous spreading of hands to protect it, and the stern opposition
to it which shall never cease till it ceases or the speaking of tongues
and the moving of lips cease. For such the expression of the American poet
is to be transcendant
and new.
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