American Men of Mind

AUTHOR OF A GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY—MEN OF ACTION, A SOLDIER OF VIRGINIA, ETC.; COMPILER OF DAYS AND DEEDS—POETRY, DAYS AND DEEDS—PROSE, ETC.
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1913
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
Published, June, 1910

LONGFELLOW
CHAPTER PAGE
FACING PAGE
In the companion volume of this series, Men of Action, the attempt was made to give the essential facts of American history by sketching in broad outline the men who made that history—the discoverers, pioneers, presidents, statesmen, soldiers, and sailors—and describing the part which each of them played.
It was almost like watching a great building grow under the hands of the workmen, this one adding a stone and that one adding another; but there was one great difference. For a building, the plans are made carefully beforehand, worked out to the smallest detail, and followed to the letter, so that every stone goes exactly where it belongs, and the work of all the men fits together into a complete and perfect whole. But when America was started, no one had more than the vaguest idea of what the finished result was to be; indeed, many questioned whether any enduring structure could be reared on a foundation such as ours. So there was much useless labor, one workman tearing down what another had built, and only a few of them working with any clear vision of the future.
The convention which adopted the Constitution of the United States may fairly be said to have furnished the first plan, and George Washington was the master-builder who laid the foundations in accordance with it. He did more than that, for the plan was only a mere outline; so Washington added such details as he found necessary, taking care always that they accorded with the plan of the founders. He lived long enough to see the building complete in all essential details, and to be assured that the foundation was a firm one and that the structure, which is called a Republic, would endure.