WILLIAM MACDONALD PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE IN BOWDOIN COLLEGE Q New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1901 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped December, 1897. Reprinted October, Rec. Jan. 12 Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. Preface It is my practice, in teaching American history, to require each member of the class to read critically a considerable number of important documents. While such acquaintance with the sources is now rightly insisted upon as the basis of all sound historical knowledge, the difficulty of obtaining the documents desired, and the impracticability of making effective use, with large classes, of a text only one or two copies of which are available, is often considerable; and I have thought that others besides myself might be glad to have, in a single volume of moderate compass, an accurately printed collection of such documents as any one pretending even to an elementary acquaintance with the history of the United States may fairly be expected to know. The present volume covers the period from 1776 to 1861 — from the adoption of the Declaration of Independence to the eve of the Civil War. None of the documents given are "new" or rare," but many of them have not hitherto been very accessible, save to students fortunate enough to have at hand large libraries. I have aimed to include the important documents which a systematic course of instruction, making some pretension to thoroughness, would be likely to dwell upon, while excluding everything an acquaintance with which could be demanded only of those students devoting especial attention to the subject. Selection is, after all, largely a matter of individual judgment, and I cannot anticipate that my judgment as to what is of primary importance will entirely satisfy every one who may find the book helpful; I hope, however, that no document has been included which a serious student of the period can afford to neglect. Certain classes of documents, such as tariff acts, acts relating to the organization of the various departments of government, and platforms of political parties, have been omitted altogether, as have decisions of the Supreme Court, except the Dred Scott case, and speeches in Congress, except the Webster-Hayne debate. Some of these texts are not difficult to obtain; others do not admit of use in a work of this character; while the necessity of keeping the volume within reasonable bounds will, I think, make the propriety of many omissions sufficiently evident. Of the V |