Commager, Henry Steele

The background of Abraham Lincoln's writing of the Emancipation Proclamation: his boyhood feelings about slavery, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the great dilemmas facing the President in the midst of Civil War. Told partly in Lincoln's own words or in the words of contemporary documents.

Quoting numerous contemporary sources, this description of the Constitution tells of the work and ideals of George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the others who were a part of its creation. It describes the many difficulties of preparing a document that would provide a better government than the Articles of Confederation had, and indicates the attitudes of the states toward the new Constitution.

"Designed to illustrate the course of American history from the Age of Discovery to the present.".