Excerpt from Sketches of America and Americans There is no country whose story is more interesting than that of our own United States. To the student of history, America offers a most fertile field. Our annals ought to appeal deeply to all of our citizens. From a wider popular acquaintance with our past will come a better understanding of our institutions, a clearer idea of the rights and privileges of Americans and their foundation, a wider appreciation of the cost of the citizenship we enjoy, and a deeper conception of our duties in cherishing and preserving our inheritance. In the American narratives, thousands of men and women appear who were leaders in great accomplishments. Some were partly or wholly appreciated by their contemporaries; many were not generally known or understood. Among all of these are multitudes of heroes. In a country's heroes can be found the measure of that country's ideals. More than this, by a knowledge of heroes ideals can be created and stimulated. To arouse, though only in small measure, an interest in the heroic and vital of America, these short essays are written. Their fields are very small. None is complete, either as biography or history. All relate to subjects and events that are widely known. 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.