Pine to Potomac

James G. Blaine
“LOG CABIN TO WHITE HOUSE” SERIES.
LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE
HIS BOYHOOD, YOUTH, MANHOOD, AND PUBLIC SERVICES .
WITH A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN
By E. K. CRESSEY
BOSTON: JAMES H. EARLE, PUBLISHER, 178 Washington Street. 1884.
Copyright, 1884. By James H. Earle.
To All, Young and Old, THE WHOLE WORLD OVER , WHO LOVE THE NAME America, IS THIS LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE, The Typical American, DEDICATED, By the Author.
Mountains are the homes of giants,—giants in brawn and giants in brain. The giants of brawn may be the more numerous, and in the sense of muscle and fisticuffs, more powerful; but not in the sense of manhood and power that achieves results that are far-reaching and that endure,—results that thrill a nation’s heart and command the admiration of the world.
Whoever makes you proud that you are a man,—that you are an American citizen,—makes you feel that life is not only worth living, but that to live is joy and glory,—such an one lifts you up toward those higher regions from which man has evidently fallen, and gives some glimmer and hint of the old image and likeness in which we were created. That man who comes from nearest to the nation’s heart and gets nearest to the world’s heart, brings with him lessons of wisdom, goodness, and love which shall work like leaven with transforming power.
Great not only in brains, but great in heart, also, are the giant men of true greatness, who come down from the mountains into the arena of the world’s activities. They need no introduction. The world awaits them, recognizes, and hails them. They know and are known; they love and are beloved. Place awaits them, and they enter; fitness fits; life is a triumph, and they are happy. Such men, fresh from nature’s mint, bring consciences with them,—consciences unseared, into the battle of life.