Excerpt from The Lives of the Presidents of the United States: Embracing a Brief History of the Principal Events of Their Respective Administrations
We hare prepared the following pages with the single purpose of presenting in a popular form, for the instruction of youthful Americans, the leading events in the respective lives and administrations of those who have been called to preside over the affairs of our republic. This is the first of a series of works, adapted to the tastes and wants of the young American, which we intend to prepare for the press, under the earnest impression that in this way germs of knowledge, particularly useful to the American citizen, may be from time to time implanted in the luxuriant soil of the popular mind, that will, in the future, spring up and bring forth fruit a thousand-fold.
Princes, especially those who are heirs-apparent to the throne of royalty, are instructed with the utmost care in all lessons of wisdom, and in the duties pertaining to the conduct of a reigning sovereign. Here, every boy is heir-apparent to the throne of sovereignty, and every girl may become a queen-mother. Hence it follows that general instruction upon subjects of national importance -those which relate to our history, jurisprudence, the characters of men active in our public affairs past and present, and all other topics with which an American statesman and enlightened citizen ought to be familiar - cannot be too early instilled into the mind of the young of both sexes. The limits to which we shall restrict ourselves will preclude the possibility of treating any of these subjects in minute detail; but we shall endeavor so to condense the principal points of interest, that no important omission will be found. If we shall thus succeed in depositing merely the germs of general information in the young mind, that, like nursery-tales, shall take deep root and never be forgotten; or if we shall be instrumental in developing a thirst for knowledge, and awakening earnest inquiries and investigation respecting the things we present to view, our object will be more than half accomplished, and we shall gladly perform the duty of usher at the portals of popular intelligence, pointing like a guide-post to the spacious galleries within: for we had rather be a door-keeper in the house of wisdom than to dwell in the tents of ignorance.
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