“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.