“Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth, in order, a
declaration” of such things as pertain to our national history, even as
they testify to us who were contemporary with the events narrated, it
seems good for me also to write, not because what may be here recorded
will be new to the readers, but rather to call to remembrance things that
were known, but are partially forgotten; and possibly to put them in such
form that the tenure by which they are held may hereafter be more secure.
If greatly interested in the annals of other nations, whether ancient or
modern, and ready to gather instruction alike from their excellencies
and defects, their failures and successes, the American citizen should
certainly find special interest in the history of his own country.
Whatever else fails to interest him, a freeman, worthy of his heritage,
will carefully study the elements of strength or weakness, security or
danger of our institutions. Knowing, as he must, that the events that
pass in succession before him are not causeless, or without meaning, he
both inquires for their source, and hears their prophecy of the future.
When others see but happenings and accidents, the more thoughtful
recognize a guiding, controlling hand, and confess
“There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them as we will.”
American, or United States history is luminous from its earliest dawn.
Unlike other histories in the prescribed course, as the Greek and Roman,
reaching back to such remote antiquity as to become quite lost in the
shadowy past, ours has none of that “mythological period;” no age in
which nymphs and dryads, fauns and satyrs, gods and demi-gods are
introduced as actors. The annals of the earliest American civilization
record not legends and fables, but facts, things of actual occurrence and
thoroughly attested by those who knew well whereof they affirmed. Those
introduced as sages and heroes, challenging our admiration for the wisdom
of their counsels and valor of their deeds were not myths, of whose very
existence there is doubt. Great men, indeed, they were, and worthy of all
the honors received; yet, but men, and subject to the limitations and
liabilities of our common manhood.
We do not deify those to whom we are most indebted, or surround honored
names with the flowers of rhetoric. The praise that is merited is
bestowed as it is due to the truth.
The pioneers in the settlement of the continent, by laying the
foundations of our free institutions, and starting their communities
toward the advanced civilization now enjoyed, conferred on us lasting
obligations; but in regard to many of them “they builded better than they
knew.” Often they were rude, narrow, superstitious and mistaken, though
earnest, manly and sincere; their best eulogy is to tell the story as it
was.
The sources of reliable information on which we may draw are so
abundant there can be no want of material. The only embarrassment is
from the riches in possession. To make the most judicious selection
for a succinct yet coherent, suggestive narration is a task of no
ordinary difficulty. The country itself first demands some notice,
before we speak of its inhabitants and their institutions. The domain
of the great American Union is now nearly four times as large as at
the close of the Revolutionary war. The thirty-nine sovereign states,
District of Columbia, and eight large organized territories occupy an
area of 3,280,572 square miles, with a reserve of 600,000 square miles
of unoccupied or sparsely inhabited territory, from which we know not
how many states may be made after the population has been sufficiently
increased.
The commonwealth, not including Alaska, is bounded north by the British
possessions in America, from which it is partly separated by the great
northern lakes, Superior, Huron, St. Clair, Erie and Ontario, with the
St. Clair, Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers; east by New Brunswick, the
Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico; south by the Gulf of Mexico
and the Mexican border; west by the Pacific Ocean. The greatest length,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific is 2600 miles; the greatest breadth,
from Maine to Florida, 1600 miles. The frontier line toward British
America measures 3,303 miles, and the coast line 12,909 miles. With
such possessions, stretching across the continent from ocean to ocean,
and over 25° in latitude, having exhaustless resources, a climate
sufficiently varied, a free government, and just laws, we may well say
the future of the nation is full of promise.