THE

HISTORY

OF

THE UNITED STATES

OF

NORTH AMERICA,

FROM THE

PLANTATION OF THE BRITISH COLONIES

TILL

THEIR ASSUMPTION OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.

BY JAMES GRAHAME, LL. D.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED AND AMENDED.

PHILADELPHIA:

BLANCHARD AND LEA.

1856.

773.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1845, by

LEA AND BLANCHARD,

in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

662537

Printed by T. K &`P. G Collins

PREFACE

TO THE

AMERICAN EDITION.

IN December, 1842, the undersigned was appointed by the Massachuserts Historical Society "to prepare a Memoir of Mr. Grahame, the historian of the United States," who had been one of its corresponding members. In fulfilment of that duty, he entered into a correspondence with Mr. Grahame's family and European friends, in the course of which he learned that Mr. Grahame had left, at his death, a corrected and enlarged copy of his History of the United States of North America," and had expressed, among his last wishes, an earnest hope that it might be published in the form which it had finally assumed under his hand.

"

This information having been communicated to Mr. Justice Story, Messrs. James Savage, Jared Sparks, and William H. Prescott, they concurred in the opinion, that it "scarcely comported with American feelings, interest, or self-respect to permit a work of so much laborious research and merit, written in a faithful and elevated spirit, and relating to our own history, to want an American edition, embracing the last additions and corrections of its deceased author." Influenced by considerations of this kind, those gentlemen, in connection with the undersigned, undertook the office of promoting and superintending the publication of the work in its enlarged and amended form. A copy, prepared from that left by the author, was accordingly placed at their disposal by his son, Robert Grahame, Esq.; who subsequently transmitted the original, also, to be deposited in the library of Harvard University. The supervision of the work, during its progress through the press, devolved on the undersigned, a charge which he has executed with as thorough fidelity to Mr. Grahame and the public as its nature and his official engagements have permitted.

A wish having been intimated by the son of Mr. Grahame, that the Memoir, prepared at the request of the Massachusetts Historical Society, should be prefixed to the American edition of the History, it has been acceded to. The principal materials for this Memoir- consisting of extracts from Mr. Grahame's diary and correspondence, accompanied by interesting notices of his sentiments and character were furnished by his highly accomplished widow, his son-in-law, John Stewart, Esq., and his friend, Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., who had maintained with him from early youth an uninterrupted intimacy. Robert Walsh, Esq., the present American consul at Paris, well known and appreciated in this country and in Europe for his moral worth and literary eminence, who had enjoyed the t

VOL. I.

privilege of an intimate personal acquaintance with Mr. Grahame, also transmitted many of his letters. Like favors were received from William H. Prescott, Esq., and the Rev. George E. Ellis. In the use of these mate rials, the endeavour has been, as far as possible, to make Mr. Grahame's own language the expositor of his mind and motives.

The portrait prefixed to this work is from an excellent painting by Healy, engraved with great fidelity by Andrews, one of our most eminent artists; the cost both of the painting and the engraving having been defrayed by several American citizens, who interested themselves in the suc cess of the present undertaking.

CAMBRIDGE, September 9, 1845.

JOSIAH QUINCY