You rarely kill them in battle, and if you wound them their wounds are never mortal.

Their history is but a chain of impossibilities easily accomplished.

Their undertakings have been without preparation, their successes in the nature of stupendous accidents." Such a statement may appear critically sound from a Gallic point of view; but it leaves out the dominant element of American character, namely, heroic efficiency.

From the first we have had the courage to undertake, the practical common sense which overcomes the lack of technical training, and the vital force which never flags under the stress of adversity.
Clark knew, when he set out on his march to Vincennes, that he was not indulging a visionary impulse.

The enterprise was one that called for all that manhood could endure, but not more.