s we know, a physical constitution more perfectly
representing, even in its advancing grossness, both the strength and
weakness of the people he led.

In tranquil times, these things are not observed in one individual more
than in others of his class, and we are, therefore, not prepared to
decide whether, at such periods, _the one man_ exists. The great
Leviathan, the king of all the creatures of the ocean, rises to the
surface only in the tumult of the storm; his huge, portentous form, lies
on the face of the troubled waters only when the currents are changed
and the fountains of the deep are broken up.

Nature does no superfluous work, and it may require the same causes
which produce the storm to organize its Ruler. If a great rebellion is
boiling among men, the mingling of the elements is projecting, also, the
Great Rebel: if a national cause is to be asserted, the principles upon
which it rests will first create its appropriate Exponent. But when no
such agitation is on the point of breaking out--when the crisis is not
near, and the necessity for such greatness distant--national character
probably retains its level; and though there be no _one_ whom the people
will recognise as the arch-man, the representatives, losing in intensity
what they gain in numbers, become a class. They fill the civil stations
of the country, and are known as men of mark--their opinions are
received, their advice accepted, their leading followed. No one of them
is known instinctively, or trusted implicitly, as the leader of Nature's
appointment: yet they are, in fact, the exponents of their time and
race, and in exact proportion to the degree in which they possess the
character, will they exhibit, also, the physical peculiarities.

Thus it was at the time of which we are writing, with the class to which
belonged the politician, and a description of his personal appearance,
like that of any other man, will convey no indistinct impression of his
internal character.

Such a description probably combined more characteristic adjectives than
that of any other personage of his time--adjectives, some of which were
applicable to many of his neighbors, respectively, but _all_ of which
might be bestowed upon him _only_. He was tall, gaunt, angular, swarthy,
active, and athletic. His hair was, invariably, black as the wing of the
raven; even in that small portion which the cap of raccoon-skin left
exposed to the action of sun and rain, the gray wa