Excerpt from An Eulogy: On the Life and Character of James Monroe, Fifth President of the United States Considered in itself, the independence of our coun try was only the splitting up of one civilized nation into two - caused by usurpation; consummated by war. As such, it constituted one great element in the history of civilized man during its continuance; but that was short and transient. From the Stamp Act to the definitive Treaty of Peace, concluded at Paris, on the third of September, 1783, a term of less than twenty years intervened, - a term scarcely sufficient for the action of one of the dramas of Shakspeare. It' was not even equal to the duration of one age of man. We have already lived since the close of that momentous struggle nearly thrice the extent of time, m which it passed through all its stages, and there are yet among the living these whose birth preceded even that of the questions upon which' hinged our independent existence as a nation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.