In the present historical series, the reader has a whole library of such original sources, each document dealing with an outstanding event in the development of America. So far as possible the events are described by the principal persons who participated. They are men who should know, if anyone does, what happened. In many cases they made it happen ! And where they write from one side of a controversy, the reader will find the other side given by a spokesman equally authoritative. For example in Volume VI you will find Jefferson Davis's reasoned farewell to the Senate of the United States, delivered shortly before he became President of the Southern Confederacy, and matching it and illuminating its points is the rugged utterance of Abraham Lincoln in his first great inaugural address.

Supplementing these original documents there are occasional chapters or passages from the best historical authorities, and each of the selections is accompanied by an explanatory marginal note, telling how and why and where that particular document happened to be written.

IN the selection of documents, their human interest has been one of the principal considerations. So the entire collection, arranged in chronological order, makes a living, breathing story of our country. Not a dry-as-dust history, but a collection of the best comment on the great crises in our country's development from those who took a leading part in them. It is not an oft-told tale, faultily remembered, but a vivid, exciting contemporary narrative !

It has been necessary to translate many documents from Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, Dutch and other European languages to assemble this work. In reprinting old English documents the spelling has been modernized, and the abbreviations which make such formidable reading have been filled out. This is done in the interests of clarity and comfort. All in all, the reader has here a body of absolutely authentic data, ablaze with human interest, chosen not only from the archives of our Republic, but from those of Europe and many other parts of the world, as well. Here these precious documents are put before the reader for the first time in large, clear, readable type for his benefit and instruction, to give "light and delight."

The editorial aim has been to make history real and intimate and human as well as true. No one can peruse these documents without realizing that plain, common folks rose to the great occasions of our national history. They were people whose genius for statecraft and leadership in war and peace was brought out by the circumstances of the time and place. If history teaches anything it is that human nature is everywhere at bottom approximately the same. What the great ones of the past have done, we too may have to do, differently to be sure, in our own modern fashion. So the reading of history is an encouragement, a preparation to decisive and enlightened action, a preparation we all ought to undergo.

No one can be a competent judge of the course which his country is steering, unless he knows at what ports it has called in the past, and what storms the Ship of State- has weathered in holding its course, what mutinies have arisen, and what measures have been taken to protect the entire ship's company against the repetition of insurrections and the danger of contagious social diseases such as the socialism and the Bolshevism that lead to anarchy.

THE study of history has often been spoiled for people who might have profited greatly by it, spoiled because they found it had been turned into selfish moralizing purposes, with events distorted to reinforce party discipline, or to bully independent thinkers into docility. And in many cases personalities have been clothed with fantastic virtues to sell them to the public during a heated political campaign.

But, by the source method, the reader gets the basic realities of history and the actual personalities as revealed by their words, or as portrayed by their contemporaries.

Another thing to be gathered from the reading of original sources is toleration. The study of the past of nations as of individuals, shows us that good men can do stupid things, and that bad men sometimes do wise things which redound to the advantage of their country. Much that is strange has happened. Much that is wicked and outrageous accompanies sublime heroism and saintly conduct. But, whatever it is we want the facts.

Until quite recently our people have held to the belief that the idea of secession originated in the South, which is not a fact. One who has read the speeches, documents and papers in connection with the various State conventions that adopted the Constitution, knows that the idea of secession was launched at Poughkeepsie, when the State of New York accepted the Constitution conditionally, reserving the right to secede at some later date, if that great commonwealth found it to its advantage to do so.

Alexander Hamilton was able subsequently, with the assistance of James Madison of Virginia, to persuade New York State to adopt the Constitution unconditionally.

Again, during the war of 1812, when England had succeeded in blockading the seaports of New England, there was a cry from New England for peace at any price, accompanied by murmurings, if not actual threats, of secession. The question was finally settled by the Civil War, but the idea of secession did not originate in the South. Thus the reader, having gathered these facts from the reading of original sources, cannot fail to take a more enlightened view of the Southern Confederacy and its leaders.

THE delightful thing about history is the thrill of sharing imaginatively in great exploits. In the dull routine of life there is so little that is dramatic and worthy of record for us actually to take part in from day to day. But we can share vicariously in the epoch-making past, through the reading of such a story as these twelve volumes unfold. Thus history makes life more full, more complete and enjoyable. To explode the pompous fictions and find the human facts. To understand the crimes and pardon the foibles and follies of mankind. To destroy frauds and idols and empty shibboleths. In this way we make our own actions intelligent, our planning sane, and in each of us ambition is stirred, the ambition to emulate the courage and daring and endurance of those who have gone before.

The publication of such a set of books as this gives the reader an opportunity to penetrate into the mystery of our amazing growth from a wilderness to a dominating world power in a few generations. It is an opportunity also to realize our obligations to our well-beloved country, and to rise to the full responsibilities that devolve upon us in handing on the torch to our descendants. It is an opportunity to Americanize our native born selves along with the great mass of recent arrivals who clamor to be taught. The chemistry of time and change has been at work on successive migrations of Europeans. They are being welded together into an amalgam that bids fair to surpass anything the world has ever seen for elasticity and strength, for ambition and energy, for inventive genius and artistic skill. But the process of Americanization is not yet complete. In furtherance of this work these twelve volumes of first-hand records of the making of America are dedicated to the national welfare.

It is scarcely necessary to point out that this set of books is not issued in competition with any other historical work. One may have a whole library full of histories and still lack the original documents. The fact that a complete source history of America has never before been published, is the all-sufficient reason for its now being done by the Americanization Department of VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS.