American People, and other valuable general his tories of the period; the biographies of contempo raries, as Clay, Webster, Calhoun; the personal recol lections, like Quincy's and Sergeant's; the diaries, as those of Adams, Tyler, etc.; the numerous magazine and other ephemeral articles in newspapers and journals, which furnish a great mass of material unnecessary to catalogue in a work of this character. I have prefixed to the volume an extended chronology of Jackson's life, compiled from data which I have secured from many sources and with' much labor. I have come upon no such chronology — none of any sort, in fact — in my reading. The reader, and I h0pe also the student, will find it of value in assisting him to comprehend what follows. May I be forgiven a personal word in closing? Al though I am now, and for many years have been, a Democrat, I was born and reared under strong Repub lican in?uences. I began the study of Jackson with no great predisposition to admire him. He was not one of my early heroes — not politically or personally, that is. I have carefully examined his career and character from the point of view of friend and enemy. As will be seen from my chapter on Jackson's place in our history, I have become persuaded that he is one of the three great Presidents in our history; and that, although he stands below both of them, as a personality he is quite worthy of being mentioned in the same breath with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.