Excerpt from The Political Text Book, or Encyclopedia: Containing Everything Necessary for the Reference of the Politicians and Statesmen of the United States Tan Editor of this work deems an extended preface to it unnecessary. The m'otive which induced its preparation was the necessity which he himself has often felt for a book containing, in a condensed form, a history of the public measures and other matters of political importance which are the subject of discussion at the present time, and are likely to continue to be. This necessity is apparent to every politician in the country. P The vast aggregate of political history in the shape of Congressional Debates, &c., through which the seeker for information has to look to reach the gist of a public question, endorses at once the merit of a compilation like this. It is not for the politician alone that this work is prepared. It will enable every citizen to acquaint himself readily with the true bearing of each political issue which is presented to him for his decision, and will relieve him from too great a dependence upon the partial statements of great political questions, which generally characterize the speeches and essays of the politicians of the present day. 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.