Excerpt from The United States of America, Vol. 1 of 5: A Pictorial History of the American Nation From the Earliest Discoveries and Settlements to the Present Time Not less wonderful is the story of the subsequent growth of the Colonies, of the many incidents attending the War of 1812, of the Mexican War, and Of the tremendous struggle to save the Union. Although strife and war have played a very conspicuous part in the growth of our country, yet we must not forget that we have enjoyed many years of peace and prosperity, and the extraordinary progress we have made during the last hundred years or more has astonished the world and even ourselves. No nation to-day is making history more rapidly than the United States. Especially true is this of the closing years of the nineteenth and the opening years Of the twentieth centuries. Our short but decisive war with Spain focussed on us the attention of the civilized world, and started us on that career of wider participation in international affairs which, for good or for evil, we must henceforth pursue. How we shall discharge the obliga tions we have assumed only time can show; but the sterling qualities of the national character will undoubtedly in the end guide the nation to lofty ends and make it the defender of the weak and the champion of justice among the peoples. In the broad domain Of humanity, in the ever widening fields of invention, discovery, science, art, education and literature, and in fact of all that tends to make the life of a nation truly great, the United States of America stands to-day in the front ranks. This wonderful national and material development of the country should at least inspire us to a more earnest and intelligent study of its wonderful history, which cannot fail to be of the most instructive and profoundly interesting character to every patriotic citizen, especially to the rising generation of our beloved country - the home of Washington and of Lincoln. 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.