Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by

HENRY SHERMAN,

In the office of the clerk of the District Court of the United States for the

District of Connecticut.

CASE, LOCKWOOD AND CO.,

PRINTERS.

TO

THE MEMORY OF

JOSIAH SHERMAN,

(LATE OF ALBANY, N. Y., DEC'D,)

FOR THE RICH LEGACY OF A GOOD EXAMPLE IN HIS OWN LIFE AND CHARACTER:

MRS. JOSIAH SHERMAN,

TO HER WHOSE AFFECTION NURSED MY INFANCY WITH SO MUCH TENDERNESS; DISCI-
PLINED MY BOYHOOD WITH SO MUCII PRUDENCE; EDUCATED MY YOUTH WITH SO
MUCH DISCRETION; WHO, IN HER WIDOWHOOD, GUIDED MY ADVANCING
YEARS WITH SO MUCH WISDOM; AND WHO STILL LIVES, IN THE
VIGOR OF A SOUND JUDGMENT, AND WITH THE RIPENED
EXPERIENCE AND PIETY OF MORE THAN FOUR-

SCORE YEARS, TO COUNSEL MY MATURER LIFE:

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, AS A GRATEFUL, AFFECTIONATE, AND ENDURING EXPRESSION OF FILIAL OBLIGATION, BY

THEIR SON,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE proud position which the Republic of the United States of America now holds in the scale of nations, and the powerful influences which are emanating from them, make the history of our government and institutions a subject of great interest and importance to mankind in general, but more especially to those who may in any wise be entrusted with their direction and control. In preparing this work for the press, my design has been to place within the reach of every citizen and inhabitant of this country, whether native or foreign-born, a plain and simple history of their origin, together with the causes which have given to them their peculiar and characteristic qualities of freedom, sovereignty, and independence.

It is impossible for the mind of man to fix a limit to the further extension of our national domain, or to the advancement of this great and still growing people, in all the enterprises and arts which contribute to the improvement of society; the sciences which expand and liberalize the human mind; or in the further development of those fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which are destined, in their ultimate maturity, to harmonize and happify the world.

It is essential that those who are hereafter to possess so magnificent a heritage of birthright or of citizenship, should be thoroughly prepared for the momentous and interesting duties which it may devolve upon them. To be useful to his country and to his race; to preserve and conduct to a more perfect maturity, a system of government so wisely planned, and institutions of freedom so well founded, the citizen of these United States should be well acquainted with their governmental history, from their earliest origin. He should be familiar with the causes which led to the planting of the first settlements made by our forefathers in America; which transformed those settlements into municipal communities, those communities into larger political bodies, and these bodies into incorporated colonies; and which, in fine, elevated these colonies to the position of free, independent, and sovereign states. He should further understand how it was that these states became united in a permanent confederacy;. what causes dissolved this confederacy, and led again to their more perfect, perpetual, and felicitous union under the present Federal Constitution.

In looking over our libraries, I found no work calculated particularly to aid the enquirer in making these acquisitions; while those whence alone this information could be gathered, were either too voluminous or too rare, too ponderous or too expensive, to fall into the hands of the mass of readers. This volume has been prepared, during the intervals of leisure from professional avocations, with a view to supply this deficiency. In compiling it, I am aware that I have entered upon an entirely new field of historical research. Others have directed their investigations, and employed their labors, to elucidate our Civil, our Political, our Military, and our Naval histories, and made the multitude of readers and students sufficiently familiar with these departments of our national annals. But no one, that I am aware, has yet attempted to trace out distinctly to their source and origin, or through the various phases of their development, the peculiar and essential elements of freedom which have given birth to our own peculiar Federal, State, and Municipal systems and forms of government and administration. Hence the difficulties and embarrassments which have attended the completion of this work. A work so novel in its character and aim, and so necessarily comprehensive in its detail, must also of necessity be somewhat wanting in completeness. Yet I trust it is not so much so as materially to impair its value or depreciate its utility, to all classes of men. It is, as I may say, in some sort autoi-biographical. The early adventurers speak from. their own records, and tell their own story of the experience and growth of their plantations, and in their own way. The people, in their primary gatherings and their occasional conventions; the colonies, by their charters and their proclamations, by the resolutions of their legislative assemblies and by their legal enactments, make their own record. The colonial congress, by its manifestoes, associations, resolutions, petitions, and addresses; the revolutionary congress, by its state papers, its confederacies, and its ordinances; and, finally, the Federated States, by their own free and independent assumptions of power, and by their proclamations and edicts; all have contributed their own records to eke out this their governmental history. While, on the other hand, the crown, the cabinet, the parliament, and the people of Great Britain, are also allowed to speak to their own side of the controversy which resulted in our severance from that kingdom.