Excerpt from Our Country, in Its Relations to the Past, Present and Future: A National Book, Consisting of Original Articles in Prose and Verse; Contributed by American Writers Every article from a living writer which appears in this volume has been presented by its Author, and, in almost every instance, prepared expressly for this Book. The Editor would return grateful thanks to the many distinguished writers and kind friends, who have aided and encouraged her in the arduous enterprise, which, by their help and God's blessing, is, after much anxiety brought to a successful termination in the finishing of this volume, now ready to'go forth on its mission of love. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.