Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1849-02-07
AMERICAN GENIUS.

The great peculiarity oflhe American
character is, that its genius is inventive
and always adequate to emergencies.
Where others halt in the bealen. path
way of pursuit or profession; the Amer.
can suddenly strikes out new goal, and
drives on to fame and fortune. Who
would have thought of carrying clocks
and ready:made shirts to China for a
market, or bringing Connecticut, with
lis sha,p>faced soil, into competition with
The age fortified manufactures of Great
Britain.
No other man on the globe, with the
same amount of means and chances, will
or can perform as much for himself and
the world, as an American. Not 10 in:
di. ilualize, but take him in the national
aggregate. Quick, fertile, and ever
ready, he needs but suggestion; The
details which others must investigate be-
,fole they dare to make the experiment,
he let's follow and illustrate the expert
ment, as The sparks of fire flow in the
trail of the locomotive at night.
Who ever heard Of an American being
confounded by the ihtricacy or magni-
tude Of the cnterprizc? In tie arts of
peace and war alike the same prodisal
flow Of invention, the same sagaciIy,
prudence and daring, blended in sort.
Of hun,anic>heroic frcsco, mark the acts
and apliludes oflhe American: His in:
stincrs ale fresh where others weary; and
tracing his Developments industrial, in
ventive, and philosophic, as displayed
in the short life Of the. republic, it must
be admitted he transenjs all other speci.
men Of the genus homo. 1t is the result
Of many causes.-His position, physical,
mental, moral and social, is favorable to
activity and decision of character; and
his political equality Of self-sa'isfying
conviction that he is equal TO the best of
men on earth, as man, gives him inde>
pendcnce in action that is everywhere
a dividing line between him and other
men.
Talk of co:ii.foundings an American
with difficulty or danger in enterprise,
D::l<ea or land-in art, science, malhe-
m malies .SarobIem, or even a bundle OF
the shistcrol:sSc- Ssc.-hierog eroglyphics--the idea
would 45e .riill icglnusa may never
hayesseen map Of tthe world, nor eetld
a geography, but he will fiud, with a
Nantucket schooner, any por, on the
globe, by shorter Gu, than is laid down
in The charts; anG if he finds himself in
the West Indies with.a cargo OF bed
warming pans, he will have the wit to
strip of the covers, and sell them for
sugar ladies', at an advance Of expected
profit.
The tactics of the American are not
laid down in books. In peace or war,
his ingenuity frames the plan of opera
ton ON The instant, from the nature Of
the circumstances, and.if he is defeated
it must be by sheer force. To him the
pillar Of Hercules would have been less
Than 10 the Macedonian; he would have
guessed instan,er the riddle Of Sphynx,
and united between his teeth aud finger
double Gordian knot. A writer in
Blackwood has well said, thatif suffi>
cient prize we're offered for the best
treatise upon any subjec, in any. Ian
,l,o ,,,r;c,n routd oct il. even
if lie had 10 learn the language, study
the subject, and wri,c the work within
three months. This universal energy,
endurance invention, and power to adapt
himself to any and every end, give the
American his wide world prestige OF
superiority as man.-N. Y. Sun;