Excerpt from History of the American Civil War, Vol. 1 of 3 In the course of American National Life three distinct Periods may be perceived. The first was characterized by an earnest acceptance of the Idea of Political Unity; the second manifested itself by the Decomposition of the Nation that had arisen from that Idea into two geographical and Opposing Political Powers - the North and the South, or the Free and the Slave; the third exhibits the Conflict of those Powers for Supremacy. Since the production of Geographical Parties is due to Climate, the possibility of avoiding such Influences is considered, and the necessity of their Study by the Statesman insisted on. Statement of the Topics treated of in the six Sections of this Volume. 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.