Excerpt from Twelve Years in America: Being Observations on the Country, the People, Institutions and Religion; With Notices of Slavery and the Late War; And Facts and Incidents Illustrative of Ministerial Life and Labor in Illinois, With Notes of Travel Through the United States and Canada Tm; leading facts of this book were delivered by the author, in a lecture in various parts of Ireland, in the winter and spring of 1866 They are now presented in a more enlarged form, at the request of several friends. The Twelve Years mentioned on the title page cover the most exciting period of American history. The narrative attempts briefly to describe one of the greatest conflicts of ancient or modern times, and the rise and progress of that great political power that emancipated four millions slaves, carried to a. Successful issue a war of unparalleled magnitude, and saved the nation from slavery and ruin. It was the privilege of the writer to reside where that power origin ated - to Observe its rise, and mark its mission. With several of the leading actors in that great national drama he was acquainted. Of them, and the cause in which they struggled and triumphed, he has recorded his honest sentiments. 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.