PREFACE. THE aim in writing this short history has been to give within a moderate compass a lively idea of the feelings and motives at work in what was perhaps the most important epoch of our national history. With this aim it seemed best to treat the main events with all that fulness of detail, which assists the imagination in realizing the past, and to omit such minor actions as seemed not essential to the understanding of the main facts. The same rule has been followed in dealing with the military history. For this, personal visits have been made to the battle-fields, and some rough sketches of the ground have been added. No constitutional question has been touched without a preliminary attempt to put the growth and forms of the Constitution before the reader in such a manner as to encourage him to form a judgment for himself. In a joint work it is difficult to define exactly the part taken by each writer, but my own share in the book may be described rather as that of editor than author; it has, in fact, been mainly confined to matters of style and arrange |