Excerpt from Memoirs of the Life of Henry Van Schaack: Embracing Selections From His Correspondence During the American Revolution History is indebted to biography for a large share of its choicest beauties, and of its enlivening, if not its most valuable, materials. Where the memoirs of an individual exhibit the type of a class, the become history itself, and are such in all but the name. Well-meant contributions of this description, to our biographical literature - at least to the extent of their interest and value - cannot fail, therefore, to be appreciated by those who take pleasure in historical researches. Under no circumstances can the details of personal biography become more useful and important to the historian than in the elucidation of the motives, principles and conduct of the unsuccessful party in civil war. Fairly to judge of their characters and principles of action we should be made acquainted with the precise positions in which they stood; we should aim to occupy the points from which they viewed passing events; we should know their history; we should become familiar with all the details of their origin, their education, their associates, their habits and pursuits, and with the early as well as later influences to which they were subjected; and we should inquire particularly into the persecutions (or what they deemed such) experienced by them in their own persons, or in those of their connections and friends, at an early stage of the contest, as well as with the other excesses of those who, claiming to be the only true supporters of the cause of liberty, unfortunately often acted in direct contravention to its principles. 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.