Documents Illustrative of American History, 1606-1863. With Introductions and References
by Howard W. Preston. (Putnam and -Sons, New York and London.)—This is a collection of documents which the student of American history, as Mr.- Preston calls the history of the United States, will find of great use. There are among them some of the great beams which support, or have supported, the fabric, and beside these there are also the documents which enclose the germs of the huge conflict waged by the Free against the Slave States. First and foremost come the State Charters, beginning with that of Virginia in 1606, and the " Mayflower' compact," often printed, yet ever welcome. Then we have such papers as Penn's and Franklin's plans of Union, the latter dated as early as 1754, and both worth study. The great public writings connected with the War of Independence, are, of coarse, included ; and the Constitution, with the amendments which have been passed, together with those not approved. This is a permanently useful piece of print. The Resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, touching the Alien and Seditiou Laws, are in some respects more acceptable, became they contain the -basis of Sews- 111.013, and may be read with Calhoun's famous Nullification Ordinance, 1832, which was the father of the Ordinance of Secession and Declaration of Independence by South Carolina in 1860. Naturally and fitly, the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, climes the series. It is not often that we meet with so instraotive a set of documents, and the work of Mr. Preston as a book of reference deserves a wide cir- culation. It is carefully edited and printed, and contains a list of works consulted as well as an index.
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