History Books

INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED VOLUME II. The second volume of the American Eloquence is devoted exclusively to the Slavery controversy. The new material of the revised edition includes Rufus King and William Pinkney on the Missouri Question; John Quincy Adams on the War Power of the Constitution over Slavery; Sumner on the Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. The addition of the new material makes necessary... more...

The effect produced in the republic by the defensive and uneventful campaigning of the year 1599 had naturally been depressing. There was murmuring at the vast amount of taxation, especially at the new imposition of one-half per cent. upon all property, and two-and-a-half per cent. on all sales, which seemed to produce so few results. The successful protection of the Isle of Bommel and the judicious... more...

Introduction. The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth in London, England, in 1865. Previous to this time Mr. Booth had been a successful clergyman in the Methodist Church, and had become widely known throughout England as a revivalist. As time passed, he had become more and more interested in the condition of the un-churched masses, and as his church did not approve of his taking up work among... more...

INTRODUCTION. Again, on behalf of readers of this National Library, I have to thank a poet of our day—in this case the Oxford Professor of Poetry—for joining his voice to the voices of the past through which our better life is quickened for the duties of to-day.  Not for his own verse only, but for his fine sense also of what is truest in the poets who have gone before, the name of Francis Turner... more...

CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN. INTRODUCTION. Scene—A Library. ALDA. You will not listen to me? MEDON. I do, with all the deference which befits a gentleman when a lady holds forth on the virtues of her own sex.He is a parricide of his mother's name,And with an impious hand murders her fame,That wrongs the praise of women; that dares writeLibels on saints, or with foul ink requiteThe milk they lent... more...

CHAPTER I. THE ADVENTURES of HENRY HUDSON   HE long and narrow Island of Manhattan was a wild and beautiful spot in the year 1609. In this year a little ship sailed up the bay below the island, took the river to the west, and went on. In these days there were no tall houses with white walls glistening in the sunlight, no church-spires, no noisy hum of running trains, no smoke to blot out the blue sky.... more...

CHAPTER I—ANCIENT CHALDÆA The Creation, the Deluge, the history of the gods—The country, its cities its inhabitants, its early dynasties. "In the time when nothing which was called heaven existed above, and when nothing below had as yet received the name of earth,* Apsu, the Ocean, who first was their father, and Chaos-Tiâmat, who gave birth to them all, mingled their waters in one, reeds... more...

Philadelphia, September 10th, 1781. Sir, The undersigned, Minister Plenipotentiary of France, has the honor of communicating to Congress the commission of M. Holker, as Consul General of France, in the States of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. He requests Congress to pass an act, or four different acts, in order to procure for this Consul the exequatur in each of the States, to which... more...

Letter from Peñalosa to Felipe II Royal Catholic Majesty: There has now returned one of the ships by which I wrote in the year 80. Until now no word has been received of the other ship to Nueva España, in which I sent a duplicate report. Therefore in this letter I shall refer to some of the most essential points which I had written, and will give a report also of what is presented for the first time.... more...

The object of a census is scientific.  A census is a sociological investigation.  And the object of the science of sociology is the happiness of the people.  This science and its methods differ sharply from all other sciences. Its peculiarity lies in this, that sociological investigations are not conducted by learned men in their cabinets, observatories and laboratories, but by two thousand people... more...