The land we live in. Questions and answers on United States history

Front matter

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ON ITS

HISTORY * GEOGRAPHY jg - -• * CIVIL GOVERNMENT * * AND RESOURCES

Preface

The following series of questions and answers upon the history of the United States, from the colonial period down ~o the year 1888, was prepared by the late Mr. W. I. Chase, with most assiduous care, and was completed by him in August, 1888. Mr. Chase died in 1889, and his plan of continuing this work so as to include the geography, civil government, institutions and resources of the United States as well as its history, has not yet been carried out. The great favor with which these historical questions have been received in pamphlet form has led the publishers to continue their publication in more permanent shape as here given. We have no hesitation in asserting that no such clear, concise and truthful resume of our national history was ever presented before. Certain periods, that in most histories are, for political reasons, slurred over if not unfairly presented, as the period immediately preceding the civil war, and the reconstruction period, are here described frankly and fully, and at the same time with such entire freedom from partisan bias, that no honest reader can wrest the account to cause for offense. Mr. Chase had an exceptional power of singling out the well-substantiated from the doubtful statements of history, and of transcribing the former clearly, without blurring their outlines by the addition of personal or party opinions. No less noteworthy was his power of grouping facts, so as to show their relation to each other. " Facts," he said, " are mere dead timber, which in the rough is neither ornamental nor particularly vi.

PREFACE.

useful, but which, after selection and arrangement, may become an edifice possessing both beauty and utility. The object of the teaching of history is the construction of mental edifices, and not the tabulation of facts like so much cordwood according to arbitrary classification."

In review work, and in examinations, this little manual will be found of the greatest value to both pupils and teachers. It is not meant to take the place of fuller histories, but as a guide to what is of most importance in those histories it is unequalled.

Chicago, August, 1891 C.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER. PAGE,

I. The Colonial Period 9

II. The Revolution 31