Excerpt from From Jefferson to Lincoln<br><br>To tell in brief compass, but with accuracy and clearness, the history of the United States in the eventful period from 1815 to 1860, necessitates the exclusion of nearly everything that relates mainly to the development of particular States, and of some topics which concern the growth of the nation as a Whole. The present volume, accordingly, has been restricted chiefly to the exposition of three lines of development, namely, constitutional growth, the rise and progress of political parties, and slavery. Side by side with these dominating interests run the birth and expansion of a new sense of democracy; and of this, too, in the field of its political expression, I have sought to give a view.<br><br>To the long list of writers who have traversed this period, in whole or in part, every succeeding narrator is deeply beholden. To three of them, however, I gratefully acknowledge special indebtedness: to Mr. James Ford Rhodes, whose monumental History must long remain the definitive account of the period subsequent to 1850 and to Professor Theodore Clark Smith and the late Professor George P. Garrison, whose volumes in the American Nation series are works of notable insight.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>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.