foibles have been easily
forgiven and their virtues have been gratefully recognized.

When we try to form an idea of that which is most distinctive in the
American temperament, we need not inquire what Americans actually are.
The answer to that question would be a generalization as wide as
humanity. They are of all kinds. Among the ninety-odd millions of
human beings inhabiting the territory of the United States are
representatives of all the nations of the Old World, and they bring
with them their ancestral traits.

But we may ask, When these diverse peoples come together on common
ground, what sort of man do they choose as their symbol? There is a
typical character understood and appreciated by all. In every
caricature of Uncle Sam or Brother Jonathan we can detect the
lineaments of the American frontiersman.

James Russell Lowell, gentleman and scholar that he was, describes a
type of man unknown to the Old World:--

"This brown-fisted rough, this shirt-sleeved Cid,
This backwoods Charlemagne of Empires new.
Who meeting Caesar's self would slap his back,
Call him 'Old Horse' and challenge to a drink."

Mr. Lowell bore no resemblance to this brown-fisted rough. He would
not have slapped Caesar on the back, and he would have resented being
himself greeted in such an unconventional fashion. Nevertheless he was
an American and was able to understand that a man might be capable of
such improprieties and at the same time be a pillar of the State. It
tickled his fancy to think of a fellow citizen meeting the imperial
Roman on terms of hearty equality.

"My lungs draw braver air, my breast dilates
With ampler manhood, and I face both worlds."

Dickens, with all his boisterous humor and democratic sympathies, could
not interpret Jefferson Brick and Lafayette Kettle and the other
expansive patriots whom he met on his travels. Their virtues were as a
sealed book to him. Their boastful familiarity was simply odious.

To understand Lowell's exhilaration one must enter into the spirit of
American history. It has been the history of what has been done by
strong men who owed nothing to the refinements of civilization. The
interesting events have taken place not at the centre, but on the
circumference of the country. The centrifugal force has always been the
strongest. There has been no capital to which ambitious youths went up
to seek their fortune. In each generation they have gone to the frontier
where oppor