PREFACE. HE critical reader will discover in this biography THE many crudities in the way of unstudied sentences and inapposite paragraphing, not to speak of words badly chosen. It is thought, however, that the reminder of the one month given in which to prepare it for the press will be sufficient to win him to the side of mercy. Dictation is undoubtedly a conveniency where one is under whip and spur, but as a method its tendencies are all to slovenliness and inexactitude. Here it was an only resort. Apropos of the prefatory, the political world is served with special notice that while General Harrison was very kind in furnishing the writer with information. when it was requested of him, he is in no degree responsible for anything in the work, except it appears in the form of a copy or extract from his own reported utterances. He neither read nor heard read one line of the text; neither was he consulted as to the topics treated nor the arrangement adopted; in short, his sole |