Excerpt from The American Congress: A History of National Legislation and Political Events, 1774-1895 IN this book I have endeavored to give, in a concise and popular form, a clear, interesting, and valuable account of the legislative and political affairs of the American people from the colonial period to the present time - to describe faithfully the great historic measures, the leading statesmen, and the not able occurrences which have, one after the other, engaged the attention of the nation during the years of its development. The first chapter is somewhat like a prologue, and serves to inform the reader in a rapid manner of the English settlement of the country, and of the momentous events which led to the meeting of the First Continental Congress. Thereafter, the history goes on in consecutive style to narrate the movement for independence, the doings of the Revolution, the making of the Constitution, the establishment of the Constitutional Gov ernment, and all the important legislative proceedings from the First Congress of the United States to the close of the Fifty third Congress. The origin and growth of parties, the memo rable actions of Presidents, and innumerable other matters per taining to the broad and diversified field of American politics are also described and discussed. The work is the result of patient, long-continued study of the best historical authorities, of liberal thought, of kindly disposition, and I believe it to be accurate in its statements and just in dealing with men and measures. 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.