History of the United States of North America, from the Plantation of the British Colonies Till Their Assumption of National Independence, Vol. 1 of 2

Excerpt from The History of the United States of North America, From the Plantation of the British Colonies Till Their Assumption of National Independence, Vol. 1 of 2 In December, 1842, the undersigned was appointed by the Massachusetts Historical Society "to prepare a Memoir of Mr. Grahame, the historian of the United States," who had been one of its corresponding members. In fulfilment of that duty, he entered into a correspondence with Mr. Grahame's family and European friends, in the course of which he learned that Mr. Grahame had left, at his death, a corrected and enlarged copy of his "History of the United States of North America," and had expressed, among his last wishes, an earnest hope that it might be published in the form which it had finally assumed under his hand. This information having been communicated to Mr. Justice Story, Messrs. James Savage, Jared Sparks, and William H. Prescott, they concurred in the opinion, that it "scarcely comported with American feelings, interest, or self-respect to permit a work of so much laborious research and merit, written in a faithful and elevated spirit, and relating to our own history, to want an American edition, embracing the last additions and corrections of its deceased author." Influenced by considerations of this kind, those gentlemen, in connection with the undersigned, undertook the office of promoting and superintending the publication of the work in its enlarged and amended form. A copy, prepared from that left by the author, was accordingly placed at their disposal by his son, Robert Grahame, Esq.; who subsequently transmitted the original, also, to be deposited in the library of Harvard University. The supervision of the work, during its progress through the press, devolved on the undersigned, - a charge which he has executed with as thorough fidelity to Mr. Grahame and the public as its nature and his official engagements have permitted. A wish having been intimated by the son of Mr. Grahame, that the Memoir, prepared at the request of the Massachusetts Historical Society, should be prefixed to the American edition of the History, it has been acceded to. The principal materials for this Memoir - consisting of extracts from Mr. Grahame's diary and correspondence, accompanied by interesting 'notices of his sentiments and character - were furnished by his highly accomplished widow, his son-in-law, John Stewart, Esq., and his friend, Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., who had maintained with him from early youth an uninterrupted intimacy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.