DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION, BEING THE FIFTH VOLUME OF THE WORKS OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD. EDITED BY GEORGE E. BAKER. NOTE TO THE READER The paper in this volume is brittle or the We have bound or rebound the volume PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE GENERAL BOOKBINDING CO., CHESTERLAND, OHIO BOSTON: HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street. The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1890. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1890. I Copyright, 1883, BY GEORGE E. BAKER All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. PREFACE TO VOLUME V. HISTORIES of the late war, springing from various sources, viewed from different standpoints, and written in varied interests, already abound. The present volume, in its own way, gives what may be called the diplomatic view of the conflict. Without such a record the student of history would miss an important element. This volume, we need not say, covers a period of our country's history not second in importance to that which gave us the Consti tution. And it may be added that Washington and Hamilton were not more necessary to the formation of the Union than were Lincoln and Seward to its preservation. In the preparation of this volume we have been encouraged in the belief that material of history was being gathered which would otherwise be inaccessible to the public. The contents of the volume require but few prefatory remarks. The MEMOIR makes but slight pretensions to a Biography. It aims simply to recite, in a brief way, the great events of the period of which Mr. Seward was so large a part. Their narration mayseem a biography. THE DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE WAR, as published by Congress, filled more than twenty large volumes. Large editions of the later volumes were printed. It also reappeared in newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and books, and was eagerly read by millions of patriotic people. The effect was not unlike that produced on the public mind, at another crisis in our country's history, by the publication of Hamilton's letters in the "Federalist." Congress, it is hoped, following illustrious precedent, will at some |
