The first American scholar to actually work with Goethe, brought back enlightenment themes from the German, and antedated and contributed to the flowering of Transcendentalism. Appeals to free markets and the existence of a factual truth free of prejudice.
He saw himself as a scribe of important dynamics: "The formation in the New World of a people of European origin with a political life of its own was the most pregnant event of the seventeenth century....every effort, every contention, every war pointed to the rivalry of the powers of Europe in North America." It's hard not to get caught up in the sweep arm of this clock.