United States Books

THE FLAG GOES BY HATS off!Along the street there comesA blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,A flash of color beneath the sky;Hats off!The flag is passing by! Blue and crimson and white it shines,Over the steel-tipped ordered lines,Hats off!The colors before us fly!But more than the flag is passing by.Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,Fought to make and to save the State.Weary marches and... more...

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: Sixty years have elapsed since the establishment of this Government, and the Congress of the United States again assembles to legislate for an empire of freemen. The predictions of evil prophets, who formerly pretended to foretell the downfall of our institutions, are now remembered only to be derided, and the United States of America at this... more...

You who take the trouble to read these reminiscences of the Santa FeTrail may be curious to know how much of them are literally true. The writer of this preface was intimately acquainted with the author of this book, and knows that he has not yielded to temptation to draw upon his imagination for the incidents related herein, but has adhered strictly to the truth. Truth is, sometimes, "stranger... more...

CHAPTER I. THE SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES. During the past three centuries the spread of the English-speaking peoples over the world's waste spaces has been not only the most striking feature in the world's history, but also the event of all others most far-reaching in its effects and its importance. The tongue which Bacon feared to use in his writings, lest they should remain... more...

THE CONSERVATION OF RACES The American Negro has always felt an intense personal interest in discussions as to the origins and destinies of races: primarily because back of most discussions of race with which he is familiar, have lurked certain assumptions as to his natural abilities, as to his political , intellectual and moral status, which he felt were wrong. He has, consequently, been led to... more...

THE PART PLAYED BY MISSISSIPPI IN THE EARLY DAYS OF RECONSTRUCTION The year 1866 was an eventful one in the history of this country. A bitter war was in progress between Congress and President Andrew Johnson over the question of the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion against the National Government. The President had inaugurated a policy of his own that proved to be very unpopular at the... more...

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: In obedience to the command of the Constitution, it has now become my duty "to give to Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures" as I judge to be "necessary and expedient." But first and above all, our thanks are due to Almighty God for the numerous benefits which He has... more...

CHAPTER I. ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT, 1791. The Westward March of the Backwoodsman. The backwoods folk, the stark hunters and tree-fellers, and the war-worn regulars who fought beside them in the forest, pushed ever westward the frontier of the Republic. Year after year each group of rough settlers and rough soldiers wrought its part in the great epic of wilderness conquest. The people that for one or... more...

PRELIMINARY. The naval operations described in the following pages extended, on the seaboard, over the Gulf of Mexico from Key West to the mouth of the Rio Grande; and inland over the course of the Mississippi, and its affluents, from Cairo, at the southern extremity of the State of Illinois, to the mouths of the river. Key West is one of the low coral islands, or keys, which stretch out, in a... more...

PREFACE In spite of a lapse of sixty years, the historian who attempts to portray the era of Lincoln is still faced with almost impossible demands and still confronted with arbitrary points of view. It is out of the question, in a book so brief as this must necessarily be, to meet all these demands or to alter these points of view. Interests that are purely local, events that did not with certainty... more...