ce has seemed to assist me in all our
business," he writes on one critical occasion, "it has at times seemed
that I would almost sink under the weight of responsibility hanging upon
me. I believe the Lord will help us out."

Not that he left any detail to Providence to which he could personally
attend. He was a Puritan of the "trust-in-God-and-keep-your-powder-dry"
species. A little farther down, in this same letter, he writes--"Meet
Hussey in Maryland and _put him down_."

The fountain-springs of his life were wholly within. He acted from a few
basic, unchangeable convictions. If public opinion was with him, he was
gratified; if it was against him he thought no more of it than of the
rustling of the trees when the wind blew.

"When anyone opposed his plans and showed that they were impossible," said
one of his superintendents, "I noticed that he never argued; he just went
on working."

His brain had certain subjects distinctly mapped out. What he knew--he
knew. He had no hazy imaginings. He lived in a black and white world and
abhorred all half-tints. He was right--always right, and the men who
opposed him were Philistines and false prophets, who deserved to be
consumed by sudden fire from Heaven.

It was this inward spiritual force that made him irresistible. Small men
shrivelled up when he spoke to them.

"The exhibition of his powerful will was at times actually terrible," said
one of his attorneys. "If any other man on this earth ever had such a
will, certainly I have not heard of it."

Small and easy undertakings had no interest for him whatever. It was the
impossibility that enraged and inspired him. At the sight of an obstacle
in his path, he rushed forward like a charge of cavalry. When the Civil
War was at its height, he and Horace Greeley, who was very similar to him
in this respect, actually believed that they could stop it. They had
several long conferences in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, and
McCormick went so far in 1864 as to prepare a statement of principles
which he fully believed would restore peace and harmony between the North
and the South.

Such was this massive, unbendable American. As we shall see, he was far
from being the only strong, picturesque figure in the industry. But it
would make many a book to tell in detail the effect of his life work upon
the progress of the United States. It was a New World, truly, that had
been created, alike for the people of the farms and of the cit