industriously explored, and its contents. carefully examined and summarized, and has been made tributary to these pages. While there have been many pens to carry on the continued story of our country's history, it has been left to the author of this work to glean from the massive volumes of the past, and from other available and reliable sources, the momentous events around which the history of the United States as a nation centers, and to present them in descriptive portraiture, that each event in all its reality may be photographed, as it were, on the mind, and thus be individually impressed in the memory

of the reader.

To the American citizen there can hardly be a more inviting and instructive. topic in the whole field of historical research than the study of the Great Events which have been the key to that unexampled success which has made the American name the synonym for tireless energy and matchless industry, and which stand. out like landmarks in the first century of our national existence.

For those advanced in years, and who may have been identified with many of the scenes here portrayed, this memoriam will be invaluable. It will bring freshly to their minds, those occurrences with which they were familiar in their younger days, and give them a pleasant reality which it is pleasant to enjoy.

For those who are just coming into the active duties of life it will be a reminder of the past, gr. phically painting in words the deeds and heroic acts of men whose lives were most prominent in the building up of this Western Empire, and whose examples stand as a perpetual encouragement and incentive to morality, patriotism and industry.

To those whose means or time is limited, this book will indeed be valuable, as it is a library in itself, comprising every feature in the development of our country's history, each having its proper place, -Political, Military, Mechanical, Social, Scientific and Commercial. Here are skillfully grouped the triumphs of peace

and of war, the triumphs of legislation and oratory; of invention and discovery; of justice and industry; of science and of religion. It will show what has been done, what has been suffered, what has been seen, and what has been felt in this youngest and most vigorous of the nations of the earth. It, in fact, records the most wonderful events of the most wonderful century.

While it is true that many of the subjects selected for this work are mentioned in one or other of the histories of the country, still from necessity they must be but brief and unsatisfactory sketches, as no single volume written after the usual form could be expected to give more than a passing glance, if mentioned at all, of a large portion of the subiects found in the present collection.

The Author has borne in mind the varied tastes of all classes and ages, and has labored to present a work which shall have an honored place in every family circle. The business man, with but a few minutes to spend, may find the subject that most interests him, and in that short time read and nish it. The professional man and public speaker will also find in it the best features of a History and Cyclopedia combined. To those who have but little taste for reading it will be specially beneficial; for while it carries the reader along with the fascination of a novel, it is still the very truth of history. Not being filled with dry discussions, or documentary array, it is not tedious, but restful and refreshing. To make it still more valuable, the Publishers have expended many thousands of dollars in illustrating the subjects, presenting views and portraits of each event. and their chief actors, by the best artists in the land, such as Granville Perkins, W. L. Sheppard, Thomas Moran and others, whose names stand at the head of their profession, thus giving specimens of those different schools of art. Numerous copies have also been taken from the masterpieces of Trumbull, Copley and Healy.