An Address Delivered Before The New England Historic Genealogical Society At The Annual Meeting Held In Boston Mass January 2 1867 PDF Download

Excerpt from An Address Delivered Before the New England Historic-Genealogical Society: At the Annual Meeting Held in Boston, Mass., Jan. 4, 1865 I cannot discuss this subject with anything of the fulness it demands on the present occasion, but must briefly sum up the views that I enter tain, and which I would respectfully and most earnestly urge you, the members of this Society, to propagate and disseminate by every means ln your power, by your voice, by your pen, and through the organ of our Society, The Historical and Genealogical Register. I neither claim to be a statesman nor a politician, nor yet a profound historical scholar but I have thought long and deeply on this subject, and Ido most earnestly believe, that if we can promote a right study of history throughout our country, we shall confer a great, an inestimable bless ing upon her, and we shall be erecting one of the strongest bulwarks for the defence of her free Constitution, and one of the most effective barriers against anarchy on the one hand, or tyranny on the other. Let the study of history, then, ever be based upon, and accompanied by, a solemn recognition of God's moral government of the universe. Secondly, let it be divested of national and personal prejudice and bias: for, the object being to Obtain a true and correct knowledge of facts, every hindrance adverse to truth and fair judgment must of course be set aside. In all disputed matters of History, especially where such a bias is likely to influence us, and to cloud our judgment, let us, as a matter of absolute duty, calmly investigate both sides of the question, hear the arguments on both sides, and, as sworn jury men, abide by the evidence. Again, let us not imagine that History consists merely in the romantic and stirring narrative of battles, sieges, and those great and startling events, the pomp and circumstance of war, which many so-called historians seem to have regarded as the only things worthy of notice. All these things belong to the exter nal life of a nation, and they are not to be neglected; nor is there much fear that they will be, because this external life of nations, as of individuals, is the most attractive, the most easily known, and, to most minds, the most interesting. 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.