A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The present Work is designed, not only for private reading, but as a text book for the highest classes in our Common Schools and Academies. It is also adapted to the use of those, who are more advanced, and have left school, after having passed through the common branches of education. It may also be studied with ad vantage by those, who have arrived at maturer years, but whose pursuits have not allowed them leisure to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Republican Constitution of Government, under which they live. Some of the subjects, which are here treated of, may seem remote from those topics, which ordinarily engage the attention of our youth, and some of them may seem to be of such an abstract political nature, that the full value of them can scarcely be felt, except by persons, who have had some experience of the duties and difficulties of social life. But, I think, that it will be found, upon closer examination, that an objection of this sort can properly apply to very few passages in the Work; and that even those, which fall within the scope of the objection, will furnish sources of reflection, and means of knowledge, which will essentially aid the student in his future progress, and place him, as it were, upon the vantage ground, to master the leading principles of politics, and public policy.

The present Work is designed, not only for private reading, but as a text book for the highest classes in our Common Schools and Academies. It is also adapted to the use of those, who are more advanced, and have left school, after having passed through the common branches of education. It may also be studied with ad vantage by those, who have arrived at maturer years, but whose pursuits have not allowed them leisure to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Republican Constitution of Government, under which they live. Some of the subjects, which are here treated of, may seem remote from those topics, which ordinarily engage the attention of our youth, and some of them may seem to be of such an abstract political nature, that the full value of them can scarcely be felt, except by persons, who have had some experience of the duties and difficulties of social life. But, I think, that it will be found, upon closer examination, that an objection of this sort can properly apply to very few passages in the Work; and that even those, which fall within the scope of the objection, will furnish sources of reflection, and means of knowledge, which will essentially aid the student in his future progress, and place him, as it were, upon the vantage ground, to master the leading principles of politics, and public policy.