I have not, in the following pages, undertaken to treat _all_ of the events of our experience from 1816 to 1860. The space allowed me would not admit of that. And even if it had, I still would have selected only those events which, in my opinion, are significant of our progress in civilization, and, as I am writing a political history, only those which are significant of our progress in political civilization. The truthful record, connection, and interpretation of such events is what I call history in the highest sense, as distinguished from chronology, narrative, and romance. Both necessity and philosophy have confined me to these.
I cannot close these prefatory sentences without a word of grateful acknowledgment to my friend and colleague, Dr. Harry A. Cushing, for the important services which he has rendered me in the preparation of this work.
323 WEST FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
PAGE CHAPTER I. THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE OLD REPUBLICAN PARTY, . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER II. THE ACQUISITION OF FLORIDA, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
CHAPTER III. SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE 1820, . . . . . . . . . . 39
CHAPTER IV. THE CREATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MISSOURI, . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNING OF THE PARTICULARISTIC REACTION, . . . . . . . . 108
CHAPTER VI. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
CHAPTER VII. THE DIVISION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
CHAPTER VIII. DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION TO INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND PROTECTION, 166
CHAPTER IX. THE UNITED STATES BANK AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST OF 1832, . 190
CHAPTER X. NULLIFICATION, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
CHAPTER XI. ABOLITION, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
CHAPTER XII. THE BANK, THE SUB-TREASURY, AND PARTY DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN 1832 AND 1842, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
CHAPTER XIII. TEXAS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
CHAPTER XIV. OREGON, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
CHAPTER XV. THE "RE-ANNEXATION OF TEXAS AND THE RE-OCCUPATION OF OREGON," 318
CHAPTER XVI. THE WAR WITH MEXICO, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327