James S. Pike
Published: 2015-07-06
Total Pages: 546
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Excerpt from First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in United States; From 1850 to 1860; A Contemporaneous Exposition; Progress of the Struggle Shown by Public Records and Private Correspondence While the following contemporaneous exposition does not undertake to give an exhaustive history of the subjects with which it deals, but presents rather, a compilation of historic materials, it is thought it may possess an interest and an atmosphere of its own that may commend it to public notice. It especially treats of the course of public events in this country, bearing on the questions of disunion and slavery, during the ten or eleven years immediately preceding the civil war. It offers a picture of the strenuous exertions of the slaveholders to annex Cuba and to plant slavery in the Territories, or, failing in that, to accomplish secession; and of the equally determined efforts of the people of the Free States to prevent the execution of those purposes. The leading men of the country, with their vivid hopes, fears, and designs, all pass in rapid re view before the reader. The parties engaged in that great struggle are here brought face to face, and their statements, arguments, objects, and methods are, it is believed, delineated with sufficient distinctness to show the progress of the great question involved, through the several years during which the controversy was carried on. We must observe that this record is drawn from a great mass of material, which it has been necessary to sift and greatly abridge, in order to bring the work within reasonable compass. The reader will require this explanation in order to understand some of the private correspondence, which refers to events and discussions then taking place, but not herein recorded. Many of the topics thus referred to, not being germane to our present purpose, have been set aside, and nowhere appear in the text. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.