The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1849-01-17
AMERICAN GENIUS.


The great peculiarly of the American
character is, that its genius is inventive, and
always adequate to emergencies. Where
others halt in the beaten pathway of pursuit
or profession: the American suddenly strikes
out a new goal, and drives on to fame and
fortune. Who would have thought Of car
rying clocks and ready made shirts 10 China
for market, or bringing Connecticut, with
its sIarp-faccd soil, into competition with
the age fortified manufactures of England.
No other man on the globe, with the same
amount OF means and chances, will or can
perform as mnch for himself and the world,
a an American. Not to individualize, but
take him in the national aggregate: Quick,
fertile, and ever ready. he needs but sug-
gestinn the details which others must in.
vcslgatc before they dare to make The cx-
pertinent, he lets follow and illustrate the
experiment, as the sparks of fire flow in the
trail of the locomotive at night.
Who ever heard OF an American being
confoundcd by the inlricacy or magnitude
of the enterprise? In the arts of peace and
war alike the same prodigal flow of invcn-
ton, the same sagaciv, prudence aud dar.
ing. blended in sori of hunanic-heroic frcs-
CO, mark the acts and aptitudcs of the Amer.
can. Ills instincts are fresh where other
men weary; and tracing his developments
industrial, inventive, and philosophic, as dis
PLAYED in the short life ofthe republic, it must
be admitted he transcnds all other speci.
mems ofthe genus homo. 1t is the result of
many causes.-liis position, physical, men,
tai, moral and social, is favorable to activity
and decision of character; and his political
equality of seIl:satislying conviction that he
is equal TO the best Of men on earth, as a
man, gives him independence in action that
is everywhere dividing-line between him
and other men.
Talk of confoundng an American with
difficulty or danger in enterprise, by sea or
Iand--in art, science, mathematical problem,
or metaphysical disqnistion. or even
bundle Of the first crop of hcroglyphics--
the idea would be ridiculous! He may new.
er have seen map of the world. nor read
geography, but he will find, with Nan.uck-
ct schooner, any port on the globe, by a
shorter cut than is laid down in the charts;
and if he finds himself in the West Indies
with cargo of bed warming pans, he will
have the wi, to strip off the covers, and sell
them for sugar ladies, at an advance Of ex-
pected profit.
The tactics Of the American arc not laid
down in books. In peace or war, his ingc-
nuty frames the plan Of operation on the
instant, from the nature the circumstances.
and if he is defeated it must be by sheer
force. To him the pillar of Hercules would
have been less than TO the Macedonian; he
would have guessed instantcr the riddle Of
Sphynx, and united between his teeth and
finger double Gordian knot A writer in
BIackwood has we'll said, that if sufficient
prize were offered for the best treatise upon
any subjec in any language. the American
would get it, even if he mad to learn the
language. study the subject, and write the
work within three months. This universal
energy, endurance invention, and power to
adapt himself to any and every end, give the
American his underworld prestige Of supe-
riority as a man.--N. Y. Sun.
The loss of the Potato crop in Ireland, is set
down as being equal to f43,oooooo.