Project Gutenberg's A Short History of the United States, by Edward Channing

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Title: A Short History of the United States

Author: Edward Channing

Release Date: May 24, 2004 [EBook #12423]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keren Vergon, Charlie Kirschner and
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[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.]

"Our children shall behold his fame,
The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,
New birth of our new soil, the first American."

--LOWELL.

A SHORT HISTORY

OF

THE UNITED STATES

_FOR SCHOOL USE_

BY

EDWARD CHANNING

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR OF "A STUDENTS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC.

_WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS_

1908

PREFACE

The aim of this little book is to tell in a simple and concise form the
story of the founding and development of the United States. The study of
the history of one's own country is a serious matter, and should be
entered upon by the text-book writer, by the teacher, and by the pupil
in a serious spirit, even to a greater extent than the study of language
or of arithmetic. No effort has been made, therefore, to make out of
this text-book a story book. It is a text-book pure and simple, and
should be used as a text-book, to be studied diligently by the pupil and
expounded carefully by the teacher.

Most of the pupils who use this book will never have another opportunity
to study the history and institutions of their own country. It is highly
desirable that they should use their time in studying the real history
of the United States and not in learning by heart a mass of
anecdotes,--often of very slight importance, and more often based on
very insecure foundations. The author of this text-book, therefore, has
boldly ventured to omit most of the traditional matter which is usually
supposed to give life to a text-book and to inspire a "love of
history,"--which too often means only a love of being amused. For
instance, description