The immigrant to America found “no royal family,” “no established church,” and “no aristocracy” to keep him down.52 Furthermore, Americans were not just politically free; their minds had been “freed from superstitious reverence for old customs.”53 America emanated an intangible vitality, energy, and creativity that young Carnegie attributed to its youth. “Everything around us is in motion,” he wrote his cousin in wonder. “Old England” was epitomized by “the lassitude of old age,” while “young America showed the vigor of manhood.”
