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