CHAP. PAGE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN FISKE vii I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE COLONIES IN 1750 4 III. THE FRENCH WARS, AND THE FIRST PLAN OF UNION 26 IV. THE STAMP ACT, AND THE REVENUE LAWS 39 V. THE CRISIS 78 VI. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CENTRE 104 VII. THE FRENCH ALLIANCE 144 VIII. BIRTH OF THE NATION 182 COLLATERAL READING 195 INDEX 197 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LIST OF MAPS. _Facing page_ INVASION OF CANADA 92 WASHINGTON'S CAMPAIGNS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 120 BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN 130 THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN 172 NOTE.--These maps are used by permission of, and by arrangement with, Messrs. Ginn & Company. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. To relate, by way of leading up to this little book, all the previous achievements of its author would--without disrespect to the greater or the less--have somewhat the appearance of putting a very big cart in front of a pony. But no idea could be more mistaken than that which induces people to believe a small book the easiest to write. Easy reading is hard writing; and a thoroughly good small book stands for so much more than the mere process of putting it on paper, that its value is not at all to be judged by its bulk. The offhand word of a man full of knowledge is worth a great deal more than the carefully prepared utterance of a person who having spoken once has nothing more to say. In our introduction to this work, therefore, we propose to reverse the common process of tracing the author's development upwards, and instead, after stating the mere events of Mr. Fiske's life, to begin with "The War of Independence" and to follow his work backwards, attempting very briefly to show how each undertaking was built naturally upon something before it, and that the original basis of the structure was uncommonly broad and strong.