The opening of Preface
It is the object of this book to supply the means of forming an accurate idea of the American government. The author has adopted the proposition that the highest style of government is one “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” and believes that a constant progress, commencing in the earliest times, has reached its full development in the Great Republic. He therefore traces THE FOOTPRINTS OF TIME through all history; notes the gradual unfolding of institutions, the rise and fall of empires, the causes that produced and destroyed the ancient republics, and the origin of the forces that give so much more strength and stability to modern civilization. All this he considers essential to a correct appreciation of the wonderful events of our age and country.