ry from its feeble
childhood to its grand maturity it is the purpose of this work to set
forth. Three hundred years is a brief interval in the long epoch of
human history, yet within that short period the United States has
developed from a handful of hardy men and women, thinly scattered along
our Atlantic coast, into a vast and mighty country, peopled by not less
than seventy-five millions of human beings, the freest, richest, most
industrious, and most enterprising of any people upon the face of the
earth. It began as a dwarf; it has grown into a giant. It was despised
by the proud nations of Europe; it has become feared and respected by
the proudest of these nations. For a long time they have claimed the
right to settle among themselves the affairs of the world; they have now
to deal with the United States in this self-imposed duty. And it is
significant of the high moral attitude occupied by this country, that
one of the first enterprises in which it is asked to join these ancient
nations has for its end to do away with the horrors of war, and
substitute for the drawn sword in the settlement of national disputes a
great Supreme Court of arbitration.

This is but one of the lessons to be drawn from the history of the great
republic of the West. It has long been claimed that this history lacks
interest, that it is devoid of the romance which we find in that of the
Eastern world, has nothing in it of the striking and dramatic, and is
too young and new to be worth men's attention when compared with that of
the ancient nations, which has come down from the mists of prehistoric
time. Yet we think that those who read the following pages will not be
ready to admit this claim. They will find in the history of the United
States an abundance of the elements of romance. It has, besides, the
merit of being a complete and fully rounded history. We can trace it
from its birth, and put upon record the entire story of the evolution of
a nation, a fact which it would be difficult to affirm of any of the
older nations of the world.

If we go back to the origin of our country, it is to find it made up of
a singular mixture of the best people of Europe. The word best is used
here in a special sense. The settlers in this country were not the rich
and titled. They came not from that proud nobility which claims to
possess bluer blood than the common herd, but from the plain people of
Europe, from the workers, not the idlers, and this rare