Excerpt from Papers of the American Historical Association, Vol. 3 The only publication Of an historic nature during this period from Hutchinson to the new era, which, on the whole, we may find the least fault with, is the Annals of Abiel Holmes - not, indeed, that it rises to the highest import of historical writing, but for fidelity, research, and good judg ment, a model then and a model now, for the writing of his tory in a simple, chronological sequence. I have taken this hasty survey Of the writing of American history during this formative period preceding the coming Of Sparks and his compeers, in order to see what effect it all had on the historic spirit, as affecting the care of manuscripts. Without multiplying instances, the fates Of the Hutchinson and Trumbull papers are at once suggested. The papers of Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut, were, in the main, such as accrued on his hands as the executive Of that State, and they are some of the most important of such papers elucidating the history of the Revolution; for Connecticut stood in close relations to the army on the Hudson, on the one hand, and was contiguous to the posts held by the British at New York, and to Newport, the suc cessive post Of the English and the French auxiliaries, on the other hand. There seems to have been no doubt in the mind Of Trumbull that the papers were his to dispose Of as he thought best, and it appears to have been his intention to deposit them in some public library. Trumbull died with out carrying out this purpose, and his heirs, in 1794, deter mined to proceed in accordance with such intention. The Massachusetts Historical Society, the earliest of all such as sociations among us, had just been formed for the express purpose Of collecting, preserving, and publishing our bistori cal records; and to the heirs of the Connecticut governor. 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.