earth and the sea in the hollow of His hand.

The following pages contain a complete, accurate, and graphic history of
our country from the first visit of the Northmen, a thousand years ago,
to the opening of its new destiny, through the late struggle, resulting
in the freeing of Cuba, the wresting of the Philippines, Porto Rico, and
the Ladrones from the tyranny of the most cruel of modern nations, and
the addition of Hawaii to our domain. The Greater United States, at one
bound, assumes its place in the van of nations, and becomes the foremost
agent in civilizing and christianizing the world.

The task, long committed to England, Germany, France, Russia, and later
to Japan, must henceforth be shared with us, whose glowing future gives
promise of the crowning achievement of the ages. With a fervent trust in
a guiding Providence, and an abiding confidence in our ability, we enter
upon the new and grander career, as in obedience to the divine behest
that the Latin race must decrease and the Anglo-Saxon increase, and that
the latter, in a human sense, must be the regenerator of all who are
groping in the night of ignorance and barbarism.

It is a wonderful story that is traced in the pages that follow. A
comprehension of the present and of the promise of the future
necessitates an understanding of the past. The history of the Greater
United States, therefore, is complete, from the first glimpse, in the
early morning of October 12, 1492, of San Salvador by Columbus, through
the settlement of the colonies, their struggles for existence, the
colonial wars, the supreme contest between England and France for
mastery in the New World, the long gloom of the Revolution that brought
independence, the founding of the Republic, in 1787, the growth and
expansion of the nation, the mighty War for the Union that united the
divided house and planted it upon a rock, and the later "war for
humanity," when the perishing islands, stretching their hands to us in
helpless anguish, were gathered under the flag of freedom, there to
remain through all time to come.

There have been many leaders in this great work. Not the story of the
deeds alone, but of those who performed them is told. History,
biography, and all that is interesting and profitable to know are here
truthfully set forth, for their lesson is one whose value is beyond
measurement.

In addition to the history of that which was simply the United States, a
complete account is gi