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vi Preface. by them in return. The United States seldom came into close political contact even with Great Britain during the greater part of the nineteenth century, and still more rarely with other Powers. It is only during the last generation that an extraordinary industrial and com- mercial development has brought the United States into immediate contact and rivalry with European nations ; and it is still more recently that, through the acquisition of transmarine dependencies and the recognition of far-reaching interests abroad, its people have practically abandoned the policy of isolation, and have definitely, because inevitably, taken their place among the Great Powers of the world. This, we feel justified in assuming, was the principal reason which induced Lord Acton to decide on treating the history of the United States as a single whole, and to bring it down continuously to the present time. In this respect, then, the scheme drawn up by Lord Acton has been exactly followed ; but in regard to details certain divergences from it have appeared desirable. In order to prevent misapprehensions which may exist, and to which, indeed, publicity has recently been given, it may be well to state, with more particularity than at first appeared necessary, what is the nature and extent of our editorial responsibility. The idea and general conception of this work, it is hardly necessary to repeat, were Lord Acton's own. He also distributed the vast subject- matter among the twelve volumes, and subdivided these into chapters, giving to each its appropriate title, and thus indicating in general terms its scope. For the writing of a large number of these chapters, but by no means of all, he had, before he resigned the editorship, enlisted the services of various authors, and had, in correspondence with them, defined more or less clearly the method of treatment and the limits of the matter which they were respectively to handle. But when the present editors took over the charge, they found that, owing to the efflux of time since these arrangements were made, to the deaths of some of the authors engaged and the withdrawal of others, and to other causes, a large part of the task had to be performed again. Moreover, when the plan and arrangement of chapters came to be more closely examined, considerable modifications appeared, in some cases, to be necessary. Connecting links had to be supplied, and gaps to be filled up; and it seemed desirable that, in view of the proportions of the whole, certain sections should be expanded or curtailed. In making these alterations, the editors believe that they have done no more and