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PREFACE.

ELABORATE histories of the United States have been ably written; compends, or school histories, and well adapted to the place they are designed to fill, are numerous. Between these compends and the works extending to six or more volumes, there is room, as well as necessity, for a history that shall be sufficiently elaborate to trace the direct influences that have had a power in moulding the character of the nation and its institutions, moral and political-a volume that should present as fully as is consistent with this design, those events which are interesting in themselves, or characteristic of the times and people. Such a volume the author of this work has endeavored to supply. It is hoped the general reader will find in it a succinct as well as a comprehensive view of the subject, which of itself is worthy the study, especially of our own countrymen.

While the author has availed himself of original authorities, he takes pleasure in acknowledging his obligations, among others, to the following works: Histories of the United States, by Bancroft, Hildreth, and Tucker; Irving's Life of Washington; C. W. Elliott's History of New England; Broadhead's History of New York; Benton's Thirty Years' View; Abridgment of Debates in Congress, by the same author; Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature; Dr. Hawks' Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States; Dr. Robert Baird's Religion in America.

NEW YORK, September, 1859.

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