Excerpt from The Romance of Conquest, the Story of American Expansion, Through Arms and Diplomacy When the "Free Quakers" of Philadelphia inscribed on their new meeting-house "Erected in the year of our Lord, 1783, of the Empire 8," they were not "Jingos" or "imperialists," but believers in God and in the growth of the United States of America. Among these Friends, who had drawn sword for their country, were my ancestors and kinsmen. It is not wonderful that their descendant inherits also their view. To-day there are those who read the words "empire" and "expansion" in the same light. They see in the events of the pivotal year of 1898 the Divine hand, and they hear in the new developments fresh calls to duty. On history is based surest prophecy. Those who are most familiar with the story of our country will be best fitted to comprehend intelligently the part they are called upon to play in the future. With emphasis upon the original meaning of the word "conquest," I have in this volume told the story of our national expansion and of the triumphs of American arms and diplomacy from July 4, 1776, when we began to be a corporate nation or empire, until this first year of Greater America. 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.