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U.S.2833,9

V.

HARVAR CO:

JAN 22 1889

By exchange.

DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 8th day of November, in the forty-ninth L. S. year of the independence of the United States of America, OLIVER D. COOKE & SONS, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "Annals of the American Revolution; or a record of the causes and events which produced, and terminated in the establishment and independence of the American Republic. Interspersed with numerous appropriate documents and anecdotes, to which is prefixed a summary account of the first settlement of the country, and some of the principal Indian Wars, which have at successive periods afflicted its inhabitants. To which is added, remarks on the principles and comparative advantages of the constitution of our national government: and an appendix; containing a biography of the principal military officers, who were instrumental in achieving our independence. Compiled from a mass of authentic Documents, and arranged in chronological and historical order, by Jedidiah Morse, D. D. author of the American Universal Gazetteer." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."

CHARLES A. INGERSOLL,

Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

A true copy of Record, examined, and sealed by me,

CHARLES A. INGERSOLL,
Clerk of the District of Connecticut,

ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS work, the reader will observe, is professedly a compilation. The plan of it, the number and length of its chapters, and the contents of each, were prescribed by the puplishers, to the compiler, who holds himself responsible to the public, only for his care and diligence in collecting his materials, and his judgment in arranging them. He has endeavoured to execute the laborious task assigned him with fidelity, and a strict regard to truth and facts, and in such a manner as to render it interesting and useful to all classes of his readers, especially to the generation now on the stage of action. Α peculiar interest in the events here recorded has been excited by the visit of the Friend of Washington, of our country, of liberty, and of man, the Marquis La Fayette; and they will now be recurred to with a desire and feelings never before experienced. The scenes in which this distinguished man acted, and the battles which he fought, in which he bled, will be adverted to and read with lively ardour and affectionate gratitude. The whole of our history, in such a state of feeling as now exists, will be read with deeper interest and happier and more lasting good effects than it ever was before. We cannot

but notice, with much gratification, that the occurrence to which we have alluded, has taken place just in time to render the information here given particularly desirable. Much of it that is appropriate, collected from scarce volumes of newspapers, the journals, public and private, of the Congress, and other sources inaccessible to the mass of readers, will be found collected in no other work. We shall deem ourselves happy if we can, in any way, contribute to increase the good effects of the visit of our respected and beloved friend, by rendering it subservient to the acquisition of a more extensive knowledge of the principles and military operations of our Revolution.

The official documents, which make a great part of the present volume, will inspire confidence in its authenticity, and furnish full accounts, written at the time of their occurrence, and sanctioned by the public authorities, of most of the prominent events in our history, during the period of our revolution.

The compiler of this work is pledged to complete the History of the United States, begun by the late venerable Dr. TRUMBULL. He intends, should his life and health be prolonged, to fulfil his engagement, in three or four volumes, in the course of as many years. In these volumes the documents in this will

be reduced to the usual form and style of regular history.

The Biographical Appendix to this work has been principally prepared by other hands, who are responsible, of course, for their own work. The compiler had expected to have prepared this part of it, but has been prevented by unavoidable occurrences.

NEW-HAVEN, Oct. 4, 1824.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS work, the reader will observe, is professedly a compilation. The plan of it, the number and length of its chapters, and the contents of each, were prescribed by the puplishers, to the compiler, who holds himself responsible to the public, only for his care and diligence in collecting his materials, and his judgment in arranging them. He has endeavoured to execute the laborious task assigned him with fidelity, and a strict regard to truth and facts, and in such a manner as to render it interesting and useful to all classes of his readers, especially to the generation now on the stage of action. A peculiar interest in the events here recorded has been excited by the visit of the Friend of Washington, of our country, of liberty, and of man, the Marquis La Fayette; and they will now be recurred to with a desire and feelings never before experienced. The scenes in which this distinguished man acted, and the battles which he fought, in which he bled, will be adverted to and read with lively ardour and affectionate gratitude. The whole of our history, in such a state of feeling as now exists, will be read with deeper interest and happier and more lasting good effects than it ever was before. We cannot but notice, with much gratification, that the occurrence to which we have alluded, has taken place just in time to render the information here given particularly desirable. Much of it that is appropriate, collected from scarce volumes of newspapers, the journals, public and private, of the Congress, and other sources inaccessible to the mass of readers, will be found collected in no other work. We shall deem ourselves happy if we can, in any way, contribute to increase the good effects of the visit of our respected and beloved friend, by rendering it subservient to the acquisition of a more extensive knowledge of the principles and military operations of our Revolution.

The official documents, which make a great part of the present volume, will inspire confidence in its authenticity, and furnish full accounts, written at the time of their occurrence, and sanctioned by the public authorities, of most of the prominent events in our history, during the period of our revolution.

The compiler of this work is pledged to complete the History of the United States, begun by the late venerable Dr. TRUMBULL. He intends, should his life and health be prolonged, to fulfil his engagement, in three or four volumes, in the course of as many years. In these volumes the documents in this will

be reduced to the usual form and style of regular history.

The Biographical Appendix to this work has been principally prepared by other hands, who are responsible, of course, for their own work. The compiler had expected to have prepared this part of it, but has been prevented by unavoidable occurrences.

NEW-HAVEN, Oct. 4, 1824.

by consent, found on choice and preference. How nearly do these fill up our whole idea of country! The morning that beamed on the first night of their repose, saw the Pilgrims already established in their country. There were political institutions, and civil liberty, and religious worship. Poetry has fancied nothing, in the wanderings of heroes, so distinct and characteristic. Here was man, indeed, unprotected, and unprovided for, on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness; but it was politic, intelligent, and educated man. Every thing was civilized but the physical world. Institutious containing in substance all that ages had done for human government, were established in a forest. Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature; and, more than all, a government, and a country, were to commence, with the very first foundations laid under the divine light of the Christian religion. Happy auspices of a happy futurity! Who would wish that his country's existence had otherwise begun ?-Who would desire the power of going back to the ages of fable ?-Who would wish for an origin obscured in the darkness of antiquity? Who would wish for other emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other ornaments of her genealogy, than to be able to say, that her first existence was with intelligence; her first breath the inspirations of liberty; her first principle the truth of divine religion ?"

The Editors of the Quarterly Review give the following testimony to their character

"There are few states whose origin is on the whole so respectable as the American-none whose history is sullied with so few crimes. The Puritans who had fled into Holland to avoid intolerance at home, carried with them English hearts. They could not bear to think that their little community should be absorbed and lost in a foreign nation : they had forsaken their birth place and their family graves; but they loved their country, and their mother tongue, and rather than their children should become subjects of another state, and speak another language, they exposed themselves to all the hardships and dangers of colonizing in a savage land. No people on earth may so justly pride themselves on their ancestors as the New Englanders.'

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The inhabitants of New England, educated under its wise, civil, religious and literary institutions, whose sons, in great numbers in every generation, have spread themselves in every part of the United States, have had their full share of influence in forming and establishing our national character and government. But we return to the general design of this chapter.

The fame which Columbus had acquired by his first discoveries on this western continent, spread through Europe, and inspired many others with the spirit of enterprize. As early as 1495, John Cabot, a Venetian, and his three sons, Lewis, Šebastian and Sancius, obtained a commission from Henry VII. to discover and settle unknown lands and countries westward of Europe, and to annex them to the Crown.* These adventurers ranged the Continent of North America, before Columbus discovered any part of the Continent of South America, for the Court of Spain.

*See Hazard's "Historical Collections," vol. i. page 9, where this grant is recited at large. It is dated A. D. 1495.

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