Documentary source book of American history, 1606-1913

Front matter

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Preface

The present volume has been prepared in response to a request, frequently made by teachers who have used my " Select Charters," " Select Documents," and " Select Statutes," for a briefer collection of documents particularly designed for courses of instruction of an elementary or comprehensive character, or which cover both the colonial and the constitutional periods of American history in a single year. In making the selection, accordingly, I have aimed to include such documents only as experience has shown to be most necessary or useful in comprehensive courses, bearing in mind the time available for the average student. The texts are the same as those in the three volumes named above, except the treaties, which here follow the better text in the United States Statutes at Large. Many of the documents, however, have been further condensed by the omission of formal, technical, or relatively unimportant - provisions ; a few errors in the earlier volumes have been corrected ; and some changes have been made in the notes. I shall be glad if the volume serves to facilitate the study, especially in elementary courses, of the documentary sources of American

history.

WILLIAM MacDONALD.

Providence, Rhode Island, July, 1908.

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