His administration of the government while President of the United States, cannot be well understood without a full knowledge of the political measures of the day, and of the motives by which his own conduct was regulated.

'These considerations appeared to require that his biography should present a general historical view of the transactions of the time, as well as a particular narrative of the part performed by himself.

Our ideas of America, of the character of our revolution, of those who engaged in it, and of the struggles by which it was accomplished, would be imperfect without some knowledge of our colonial history. No work had been published when this was undertaken, from which that knowledge could be collected. To have taken up the history of the United States when the command of the army was conferred on General Washington, would have been to introduce the reader abruptly into the midst of scenes and transactions, with the causes of which, and with the actors in them, he would naturally wish to be intimately acquainted. This was the apology of the author for the introductory volume to the Life of General Washing

HISTORY

OF THE

AMERICAN COLONIES.

District of Virginia, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventh day of July, in the forty-nint the independence of the United States of America, John Marshall District, hath deposited in this office the Title of a book, the rig he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit:

[SEAL.]

"A History of the Colonies planted by the English on the Continent of North America, from their settlement, to the commencement of that war which terminated in their independence. By John Marshall."

In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intituled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned.”

RD. JEFFRIES. Clerk of the District of Virginia.

ton. Had the essays since written towards a general history of the English colonies been then in possession of the public, this volume would not have appeared. But, although they might have prevented its appearance, they ought not to prevent its being corrected and offered to the public in a form less exceptionable than that which it originally bore. From the extreme, I may add unpardonable, precipitation with which it was hurried to the press, many errors were overlooked which, on a perusal of the book, were as apparent to the author as to others. He was desirous of correcting these errors, and of making the work more worthy of the public to which it was offered, as well as more satisfactory to himself. For this purpose he has given it, since the impressions under which it was compiled have worn off, more than one attentive reading; has made several alterations in the language; and has expunged much of the less essential matter with which the narrative was burthened. He dares not flatter himself that he has succeeded completely in his attempt to entitle this work to the approbation of the literary public of America; but hopes that its claims to that approbation are stronger than in its original form.

Believing that motives no longer exist for connecting the History of the English Colonies in North America with the Life of Washington, the author has obtained the permission of the proprietor of the copy-right to separate the Introduction from the other volumes, and to publish it as a distinct work.