Excerpt from Barnes Popular History, of the United States of America, Vol. 1

Part II., embracing the Revolutionary War, begins the book proper. Here will be found a narrative of those years of waiting and sacrifice during which the nation achieved its independence. The battles are described with unusual fulness, as becomes these centennial times and the interest every locality will naturally possess in the events of its own neighborhood. Anecdotes and inci dents illustrative of the feelings of the day are freely interspersed. Accurate maps and diagrams enable the reader to trace easily every campaign, while a calendar indicates the important events of every day throughout the eventful struggle.

Part III. Covers the Constitutional History of the country, embracing the formation of the Constitution and the gradual development of the nation down to 1860. This is detailed in four chapters of two decades each, indi cating as many different stages of growth and characteristic ideas. It has two great episodes the war of 1812 - 14, which secured for the young Repub lic the respect of foreign nations and the war with Mexico, which gave to it New Mexico and California, and let the tides of emigration pour into the El Dorado of the West.

Part IV. Treats of the Civil War, which resulted in the abolition of slavery and the centralization of the governing power.

Part V. Narrates the important events which have occurred since the close of the civil war.

In preparing this story of our past, no pains have been spared to gather the best material from every source. The most reliable authorities have been consulted, recent investigations have been examined, and the ripest fruits of historical research have been carefully gathered.

It has seemed that a narrative so full of picturesque incident and roman tic adventure, should sweep the reader along as by a charm and a fascination that a history so pregnant with pure thought and high endeavor, should awaken the sympathy and arouse the ambition of the most sluggish and that a freedom which has cost so much sweat of brain and blood, so much treasure of money and life, should grow inexpressibly precious. Thus may the outcome of this fresh attempt to tell the story of our Independence be a truer reverence for the past, a purer patriotism for the present, and a more hopeful outlook for the future.

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