t as
the imputation of horse-stealing. He was but an oracle of opinion, and
though allowed to dictate in matters of thought as absolutely as if
backed by brigades of soldiers, he was a sovereign whose power existed
only through the consent of his subjects.

In personal appearance, he was well-calculated to retain the authority
intrusted to him by such men. He was, in fact, an epitome of all the
physical qualities which distinguished the rugged people of the west:
and between these and the moral and intellectual, there is an invariable
correspondence--as if the spirit within had moulded its material
encasement to the planes and angles of its own "form and pressure."

National form and feature are the external marks of national character,
stamped more or less distinctly in different individuals, but, in the
aggregate, perfectly correspondent and commensurate. The man, therefore,
who possesses the national traits of character in their best
development, will be, also, the most faithful representative of his race
in physical characteristics. At some periods, there are whole classes of
these types; and if there be any _one_ who embodies the character more
perfectly than all others, the tranquillity of the age is not calculated
to draw him forth. But in all times of trouble--of revolution or
national ferment--the perfect Man-emblem is seen to rise, and (which is
more to the purpose) is sure to stand at the head of his fellows: for he
who best represents the character of his followers, becomes, by God's
appointment, their leader. To this extent, the _vox populi_ is the _vox
Dei_; and the unfailing success of every such man, throughout his
appointed term, is the best possible justification of the choice.

What was Washington, for example, but an epitome of the steady and noble
qualities combined of cavalier and puritan, which were then coalescing
in the American character? And what more perfect correspondence could be
conceived between the moral and intellectual and the physical outlines?
What was Cromwell but _the Englishman_, not only of his own time, but of
all times? And the testimony of all who saw him, what is it, but that a
child, who looked upon him, could not fail to see, in his very
lineaments, the great and terrible man he was? And Napoleon, was he
aught but an abridgment of the French nation, the sublimate and "proof"
essence of French character? Not one, of all the great men of history,
has possessed, so far a