freedom unknown under older governments. Twenty years ago the doubt was often expressed whether this great experiment had not been tried too soon;-whether mankind had yet risen high enough in the moral scale to respect the common good when it chanced to conflict with individual passion or convenience, or with sectional interests. The very existence of a government like ours must depend on the moral worth of its people; and this, it was felt, had not been sufficiently tested. Now that the strength of the Republic has been proved by storms that have shaken it to its foundations, it is regarded with increased confidence at home and respect abroad, and the new light of experience that has been thrown upon its Constitution may be used for the benefit of its future administrators. It has been a constant effort not to encumber the student's mind with a mass of details, but to sketch events with a few strokes easily remembered. Paragraph headings in heavier type will serve as topics for recitation, and the teacher is further aided by Review Questions at the end of each Part. A series of questions on the Constitution will, it is hoped, help to make clearer the most important features of that document and thus simplify the teacher's task. The Publishers have spared neither expense nor effort in promoting the beauty as well as the practical usefulness of the book. The author's thanks are due to Mr. J. T. Stewart, whose intelligent supervision of details has secured so remarkable a degree of accuracy. The maps by Mr. Russell Hinman, C. E., and the illustrations by Mr. H. F. Farny, leave nothing to be desired in perfection of finish and adaptation to their purpose. BROOKLYN, N. Y., Jan. 10, 1881. CONTENTS. PART I.-PREHISTORIC AGES; DISCOVERIES AND Settlements. Discoveries and settlements by Europeans 4. English settlements-Virginia 6. Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Dover 7. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island First and Second Administrations,-Geo. Washington, Pres. Third Administration,-John Adams, Pres. Fourth and Fifth Administrations,-Thos. Jefferson, Pres. 26. Eighth and Ninth Administrations,-James Monroe, Pres. Tenth Administration,-John Quincy Adams, Pres. 29. Thirteenth Administration,-Martin Van Buren, Pres. 32. Sixteenth Administration,-Zachary Taylor, Pres. PART V. THE WAR OF THE STATES. 35. Nineteenth Administration,-Abraham Lincoln, Pres. 36. Nineteenth Administration,-Events of 1862 37. Nineteenth Administration,-Events of 1862 (Continued) 38. Nineteenth Administration,-Events of 1863 Thirteen English Colonies English Sovereigns during First Colonial Period 2222 120 I. A Lonely Land. - Four hundred years ago the American continent was unknown to the civilized world. A few tribes of dark-skinned hunters roamed through its forests; a few villages of wigwams dotted the fertile banks of its rivers; but in the whole area east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, there were probably not more people than are gathered to-day in a single city like Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, or New Orleans. Far away to the southward, where maize grew without cultivation and where bananas and other tropical fruits were native, the villages of Mexico and Yu catan contained a larger population; but with these exceptions America might be called "an empty continent, a desert-land awaiting its inhabitants." 2. The Mound Builders.-The central part of North America had not always been so solitary. The basins of the Mississippi and the Great Lakes contain traces of a numerous and busy people who tilled the soil, worked the copper mines, and built great houses for habitation and defense. Not a word of their speech is known to us; the name we give them is derived from the huge and singular elevations of earth which they left behind them. Probably these were usually surmounted by houses, which were approachable only by ladders, and were thus secure against attack; but many were burial-mounds, and others may have |