Hoooly crap Elias just... wow. Don't get me wrong, totally get it's a fictionalized setting, but... All the talk of railroads, modernization, and him being so proud of our 'manifest destiny'? MAJOR oof. Don't regret a thing.
For those outside the US: 'Manifest Destiny' was the belief in America's Godly given right to tame the West (which largely was aided by the two major railroad lines connecting) and rule coast to coast; the justification used for the wide scale genocide of the Native Americans.
Yeah, mister holier than thou can go screw himself. lol