"To him [the wild animal] the hereditary countenance descends both mother's and father's. To him enter the essences of real things and past and present events—of the enormous diversity of temperature and agriculture and mines—the tribes of red aborigines—the weatherbeaten vessels entering new ports or making landings on rocky coasts—the first settlements north or south—the rapid stature of muscle—the haughty defiance of [17]'76, and the war and peace and formation of the constitution . . . the union always surrounded by blatherers and always calm and impregnable—the perpetual coming of immigrants—the wharfhem'd cities and superior marine—the unsurveyed interior—the loghouses and clearings and wild animals and hunters and trappers...the free commerce—the fisheries and whaling and gold-digging—the endless gestation of new states—the convening of Congress every December...the noble character of the young mechanics and of all free American workmen and workwomen—the perfect equality of the female with the male...the fluid movement of the population..."

-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 'Introduction'