INTRODUCTION.

In presenting this History portraying the origin, growth and development of the United States, a foreword seems necessary concerning the object and aim of the work.

Several questions naturally arise: Is there a need for such a work! Shall it be prepared for the student and scholar or for the general public! What shall be its scope? To the first question, answer may well be made in the affirmative. It is safe to say that few American homes contain a general history of the United States which tells the story in all its multitudinous ramifications. Undoubtedly the absence of such a work from the library shelf may be accounted for by the fact that up to the present time we have had no general work, covering our history from the beginning, which gives that history complete. Separate civil, political, constitutional, social, economic, industrial, religious, educational, literary and other histories have been written, as have numberless books on single colonies, States, or definite sections of the country, on certain phases of our life, or on specific events, but in no general work can all the above be found combined within comparatively small compass, suitable for the home. Our most widely known general histories cover but a short span of our country's existence and are of too profound and exhaustive a nature ever to attain wide popularity, being more suited to the student and historian. Of short narratives of necessity meagre in their information - the number is legion, but between this class and that first mentioned is

a wide gap.

For many years the need of a work to fill the gap has been plainly apparent, but historians have preferred to devote their time and energies to particular fields of research and to subjects of special or local interest, rather than to undertake the stupendous task of sifting the enormous amount of data unearthed by special investigators and preparing a general work on the United States as a whole. To bring this material together under its proper headings is a troublesome task, but it is still more difficult to state the results briefly and at the same time to give

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narrative a lively and intense human interest, without which the work would lose much of its charm and usefulness.

Many histories are at fault in that they have stressed the deed and the event and have neglected the conditions out of which those things sprang, which has resulted in a partial and ofttimes misleading representation. To be complete, history must not only include events of a general, civil, political or constitutional nature, but must show also the influence of these events upon the development of the nation; it must consider the social life of the people — their manners, customs, amusements, institutions, etc.—; their literary, intellectual and religious life; their economic life — occupations, material welfare, industrial development, labor systems, sources of wealth, etc.— as affecting the welfare of the nation, for the economic and social elements are as significant as the political, and cannot be omitted in any serious treatment of national growth and development. If we would gain a true conception and knowledge of the nation's history, we must lend a sympathetic ear to the life struggles and work of her men and women, their ambitions, achievements, discouragements and failures; their experiences and counsels; their songs, poetry, and romance; their tragedies, sorrows, consolations, and joys - all that unites to make the infinite riches of our past sacred and precious, and that combines to inspire in succeeding generations the desire to be worthy of their glorious heritage. We have therefore incorporated a large number of special topics portraying these various phases of our national life, particular emphasis being laid upon modern events and problems. These topics have been written by scholars, eminently fitted for the work by long years of research and by familiarity with historic traditions, sentiments, facts, and conditions.

A large number of special documents, seldom found in works of this character, have also been included. We read of the charters of the various colonies, of the Articles of Confederation, the Ordinance of 1787, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the Embargo, the Monroe Doctrine, the Nullification Ordinances, the Fugitive-Slave Act, the Ostend Manifesto, and similar documents, but for the text of these most important instruments we are compelled to visit the libraries and to search through scattered collections. They have never been incorporated in general histories because of their length, but we have considered that the documents themselves are of as much importance as a lengthy discussion of them, and have therefore included a number of the most noteworthy.

It has been the fault of many of our historical works that they are