American Statesmen
MARTIN VAN BUREN
BY
EDWARD M. SHEPARD
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1899
Copyright, 1888 and 1899,
By EDWARD M. SHEPARD.
Copyright, 1899,
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
All rights reserved.
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION
Since 1888, when this Life was originally published, the history of American Politics has been greatly enriched. The painstaking and candid labors of Mr. Fiske, Mr. Adams, Mr. Rhodes, and others have gone far to render unnecessary the caveat I then entered against the unfairness, or at least the narrowness, of the temper with which Van Buren, or the school to which he belonged, had thus far been treated in American literature, and which had prejudicially misled me before I began my work. Such a caveat is no longer necessary. Even now, when the political creed of which Jefferson, Van Buren, and Tilden have been chief apostles in our land, seems to suffer some degree of eclipse,—only temporary, it may well be believed, but nevertheless real,—those who, like myself, have undertaken to present the careers of great Americans who held this faith need not fear injustice or prejudice in the field of American literature.
In this revised edition I have made a few corrections and added a few notes; but the generous treatment which has been given to the book has confirmed my belief that historic truth requires no material change.