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Title: Sustained honor
The Age of Liberty Established

Author: John R. Musick,

Release Date: December 2, 2003 [EBook #10370]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE REAL AMERICA IN ROMANCE

Volume X

SUSTAINED HONOR

The Age of Liberty Established

By

JOHN R. MUSICK

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

FREELAND A. CARTER

1909

PREFACE.

Written history is generally too scholastic to interest the great mass
of readers. Dignified and formal, it deals mainly with great events, and
often imperfectly with these, because, not pausing to present clear
impression by the associations of individual life, it conveys a stiff
and unnatural opinion of the past. Historians ignore the details which
go to make up the grand sum total of history, and from the very best
histories one can get but a meagre idea of the life and times of the
people of bygone ages. It is these minor details of past events which
lend to fiction its greatest charm, and attract the multitude, by
appearing more like truth. Although untrue in the particular
combinations, scenes and plots delineated, yet well written fiction is
drawn from nature and experience, and these facts in life, as with
chessmen, are only arranged in new but natural positions. History should
include everything in the nature, character, customs and incidents, both
general and individual, that contribute to originate what is peculiar
in a people, or what causes their advancement or decline. So broad is
its scope, that nothing is too mighty for its grasp--so searching,
scarce anything is too minute. Were written history a clear transcript
of valuable incidents, it would be more enticing than the most
fascinating fiction.

It is the purpose of this volume to deal with some of the remote and
direct causes of the second war with England, by endeavoring, as nearly
as our ability will permit, to transport the reader back to the scenes
of eighty or ninety years ago, and give v