In the companion volume of this series, “Men of Action, “ the
attempt was made to give the essential facts of American history by
sketching in broad outline the men who made that history—the
discoverers, pioneers, presidents, statesmen, soldiers, and sailors—
and describing the part which each of them played.
It was almost like watching a great building grow under the hands
of the workmen, this one adding a stone and that one adding
another; but there was one great difference. For a building, the plans
are made carefully beforehand, worked out to the smallest detail,
and followed to the letter, so that every stone goes exactly where it
belongs, and the work of all the men fits together into a complete
and perfect whole. But when America was started, no one had more
than the vaguest idea of what the finished result was to be; indeed,
many questioned whether any enduring structure could be reared on
a foundation such as ours. So there was much useless labor, one
workman tearing down what another had built, and only a few of
them working with any clear vision of the future.
