Whitman “Preface to ‘Leaves of Grass’”

In today's class we started reading the “Preface to ‘Leaves of Grass’” of Whitman.
After reading the first two paragraphs we noticed that Whitman used a very different style of writing than, for example, Emerson used.
He starts like this: "AMERICA does not repel the past".Then he lists a few things related to the American people (in his opinion) and ends the first paragraph by saying (the American people)..."and that he shall be fittest for his days.", which maybe means that he was a patriot.
In the second paragraph, he starts with: "The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth, have probably the fullest poetical nature."
He also names the greatest thing for the American people"the spirit of the citizen".That even confirms that he was really patriotic. But he names also issues that in his opinion is very bad, for example slavery, treatment of the Indian tribes and women's rights.