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INTRODUCTION. 'There is no country whatever its condition, whose history may not be instructive. If its government has been equitable, its laws just and its achievements praise-worthy, its history will be valuable as furnishing models, and establishing precedents that may be safely followed by succeeding generations. If, on the contrary, its government has sacrificed the interests of the many for the benefit of the few, if it has been the theatre of unhallowed ambition, of insatiate avarice, or of cruel oppression, its history will still be valuable, as illustrating the evils of national tyranny, ignorance and debasement. Most richly does New England merit the attention and study of the historian on account of the causes that led to its settlement, its small beginnings, its early poverty, trials and exposures, its rapid growth and its present character, resources, power and influence. The impartial historian will find the causes of this wonderful development not in the severity of its climate or the barrenness of its soil, not mainly in the presence or absence of any external conditions, but in the private virtues, untiring industry and unshaken fortitude of its first colonists, sustained and fostered by wise and good laws, faithfully and impartially executed. We may well be proud of our early history and use all means in our power carefully
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