FOR more than forty years, the author has been accustomed to invite and receive, from friends in all parts of the Union, instruction on the branches of American history to which they had specially given attention; and, during the same period, new and more complete materials have become accessible from the most various
sources. Of manuscripts that have fallen within his reach, it has been his habit to take copies or extracts, where they served to settle a question of importance, so that the means of testing any controverted statement might always be at hand.
The notes and papers which have thus been accumulated form the groundwork of the present revision, to which a solid year of close and undivided application has been devoted. Every noteworthy criticism that has come under observation has been carefully weighed, accepted for what it was worth, and never rejected, except after examination. The main object has been the attainment of exact accuracy; so that, if possible, not even a partial error may escape correction. A very few statements disappear before the severer application of the rules of historical criticism; some