It is the purpose of the author of this work to give to the Youth of the country, as well as general readers, a condensed History of the United States of America; embracing all important facts connected with the discovery and early occupation of the country, within their limits, by immigrants from other lands; together with the facts attending the formation of their Governments, and the establishment of those free institutions which have so marked, as well as distinguished them, among the nations of the earth. In the prosecution of this design, the first object will be, after a brief presentation of the facts attending the discovery of the continent of America, to trace, during their Colonial condition, the History of each one of the separate political Communities known as British Colonies thereon, which afterwards became united under the style of the United States of America, and then to trace the History of these States, so united under their existing Union, down to the present time. The first part of the work will be the History of the Colonies, which will treat of the discovery, the early settlement, and colonization of the country by the ancestors of the present inhabitants, and the events which led to the assumption of sovereign or absolute self-governing powers by the respective Colonies. The second part will be the History of the States, which treat of the achievement and establishment of their independence as States, and their subsequent career under their present Federal Union.