PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

R. COLLIER considers himself fortunate indeed in securing the services of such an eminent biographer as Col. Thomas W. Knox to contribute to cotemporaneous literature what will prove one of the most valuable political works of the time. Col. Knox, who, besides his work as a biographer and historian, has won distinction as a traveler in nearly all the civilized parts of the globe, is eminently qualified to write the history of the Republican party, because his maiden vote was cast with that party in 1856, on the occasion of its first poll, shortly after its organization. He has ever been an enthusiastic believer in the principles of that party, and has steadfastly kept himself in line with it from that day to the present.

Col. Knox, whose style is a pleasing combination of Addison and Allison, uniting the elegant English of the one with the graphic characterization of the other, traces, almost in the form of a narrative, the history of the great Republican party from its birth to the present time, not boring the reader with the dry details of a political essayist, but giving sufficient data to render his work valuable for reference. While to political students it will be valuable as a compendium of the history of the party, it will be none the less interesting to the

general reader, as the information is so pleasantly imparted. The Hon. James G. Blaine, in his “Twenty Years in Congress," only gives the history of the legislation of a period; and Horace Greeley, in his work, "The American Conflict," closes with the war; while Col. Knox brings his narrative down to the close of the tenth Republican National Convention that nominated Harrison and Reid at Minneapolis. All the memorable acts and movements of the party are narrated, with biographical references to the distinguished men who were identified therewith, from Gen. Fremont to Chauncey M. Depew.

No such work in its entirety has yet been presented to the public. and Mr. Collier is confident it will find a general popular appreciation, as it is not written in any partisan spirit, but as a record which cannot fail to prove very valuable as a reference book in the present campaign. Besides the history of the Republican party and its leaders, Col. Knox gives the lives and speeches of President Harrison, who has been honored by his party with a renomination, and of the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, the candidate for Vice-President.