And so we come to their style of weapon.

Our army sword is the short, stiff, pointed gladius of the Romans; and the American bowie-knife is the same tool, modified to meet the daily wants of civil society.

I announce at this table an axiom not to be found in Montesquieu or the journals of Congress:- The race that shortens its weapons lengthens its boundaries.
Corollary.

It was the Polish LANCE that left Poland at last with nothing of her own to bound.
"Dropped from her nerveless grasp the SHATTERED SPEAR!" What business had Sarmatia to be fighting for liberty with a fifteen-foot pole between her and the breasts of her enemies?
If she had but clutched the old Roman and young American weapon, and come to close quarters, there might have been a chance for her; but it would have spoiled the best passage in "The Pleasures of Hope." -- Self-made men ?--Well, yes.

Of course everybody likes and respects self-made men.