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.V4.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by

WILSON, HINKLE & CO.,

35169

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

ELECTROTYPED AT
THE FRANKLIN TYPE FOUNDRY,

CINCINNATI.

n.g. M-10-21-13

PREFACE.

THE object aimed at in the preparation of this book was to produce a systematic, brief, clear, and authentic history of the United States for the use of schools.

The plan is simple. No arbitrary division into historical periods and eras is employed, but each chapter embraces associated events and forms a natural link in an unbroken chain. A strictly chronological order of arrangement is followed, whereby occurrences are shown in their true relation to one another, and to their causes. The most important dates are made prominent in the text by a peculiar type. A condensed record of general progress is placed at the end of almost every chapter, designed to interest the pupil in the civil and domestic character of the country, and in employments, institutions, and ideas not directly connected with wars, politics, or national legislation.

Brevity is secured not by shortening sentences to the last degree, but by rejecting comparatively unimportant matter. The tree has been pruned, but its outline remains unchanged.

The style of composition adopted is simple, plain, and direct, though anecdotes and rhetorical forms of expression are not entirely rejected. It has not been the author's experience that bald facts dryly stated are easily learned or long remembered by the young. A pleasing allusion, a well-chosen metaphor, or a pointed quotation often serves to fasten firmly in the memory information which, though useful, has in itself no attraction for the pupil. Even adult and disciplined minds derive great assistance from the embellishments of style. What reader could not more readily master one of the delightful works of Irving, Motley, or Prescott, than commit to memory a chronological table of its contents?

The sources from which this compilation is derived are the most trustworthy to be found, and neither time nor labor has been spared to verify the statements herein made.

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