CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



vidual whim and caprice, and when duties and 

 responsibilities are too apt to be ignored. 



Above all constituted authorities stood a 

 man's own conscience. This was McCormick's 

 faith, and it was this that made him the fighter 

 that he was. It gave him courage and the 

 fortitude that is rarer than courage. It com- 

 pelled him to oppose his own political party 

 at the Baltimore Convention of 1861. It made 

 him stand single-handed against his fellow- 

 manufacturers, in defence of his rights as 

 an inventor. It enabled him to beat down 

 the Pennsylvania Railroad, after a twenty- 

 three year contest, and to prove that a great 

 corporation cannot lawfully do an injustice 

 to an individual. 



McCormick was nourished on this virile Cal- 

 vinistic faith from the time when he first learned 

 to read out of the Shorter Catechism and the 

 Bible. It had been the faith of his fathers for 

 generations, and it was bred into him from boy- 

 hood. Nevertheless, according to the practice 

 of the Presbyterians, there had to come a time 

 when he himself openly made his choice. This 



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