AUTHOR OF "HOPE LESLIE," "REDWOOD," &c.

Lodged in the will of man the hallowed names

Of freedom and of country.

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET,

AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE

UNITED STATES.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835,

By HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

THE title of these volumes will render their readers liable to a disappointment, from which a few prefatory words may save them. It was chosen simply to mark the period of the story, and that period was selected as one to which an American always gratefully recurs, and as affording a picturesque light for domestic features. The writer has aimed times, and to give her

to exhibit the feeling of the

younger readers a true, if a slight, impression of the condition of their country at the most-the only

* It has been suggested, that the title might be deemed ambitious; that it might indicate an expectation, that "this sixty years since in America" would take place with the "sixty years since" of the great Master. I have not yet forgotten the literature of my childhood—the fate of the ambitious frog. To those who know me, I need not plead "not guilty" to a charge of such insane vanity, and those who do not wil besieve me when I say, that the only moment when I could wish the benefactor of the universal read

ing public to be forgotten, is when my humble productions are under perusal.

suffering period of its existence, and by means of this impression to deepen their gratitude to their patriot-fathers; a sentiment that will tend to increase their fidelity to the free institutions transmitted to them. Historic events and war details have been avoided; the writer happily being aware that no effort at

"A swashing and a martial outside"

would conceal the weak and unskilled woman.

A very few of our "immortal names" have been introduced, with what propriety the reader must determine. It may be permitted to say, in extenuation of what may seem presumption, that whenever the writer has mentioned Washington, she has felt a sentiment resembling the awe of the pious Israelite when he approached the ark of the Lord.

For the rest; the author of these volumes is most happy in trusting to the indulgent disposition which our American public constantly manifest towards native literature...