A National Literature and Romantic Individualism 1826–1861

In 1776 the hand of Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. …” In 1820, in the first great crisis over slavery, the same hand wrote: “This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the knell of the Union.”