First of all, it should be noted that the history of the nation during its one hundred and twenty years of existence divides itself into five more or less distinct periods. These periods are (1) the thirty odd years from 1789 to 1823, during which time the nation was settling the foundations of its political life, internal and external; (2) the thirty years from 1820 to 1850, during which the nation was moving forward, under two diametrically opposed parties (those in favor of the extension of slavery and those opposed to its extension), in the occupation of the vast tracts of land beyond the Mississippi; (3) the twenty-five or twenty-six years from 1850 to 1876, during which these two parties finally came to blows and settled the constitutional questions involved in secession; (4) the twenty odd years from 1876 to 1898, during which the nation is forced to deal with new and unaccustomed economic questions; (5) the ten years or more since the Spanish-American War, the period of present-day practical politics. Such an outline as this of the entire course of American history may seem to many teachers to be a little forehanded, yet it is our firm conviction that only that teacher who sees in the beginning the entire work of the term can deal with each lesson as it arises properly. Of this outline, even the class should not be entirely ignorant. As to the first period--the period of the establishment of our national policy--in it the class will be confronted by two more or less distinct problems: first, the questions of internal policy, the solution of which can be found in the study of the activities of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, and of his contemporaries. These problems, important as they are, space requires that we leave for the present for the teacher himself to analyze and present to his pupils. In passing, we may say, however, that both teacher and pupils will find themselves amply repaid by a careful study of the reports of Hamilton and Jefferson which are to be found in Macdonald’s “Documents.”