John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[385] debris of its broken-down platforms out of its path; adopt measures consonant with its liberal principles; bow its old-fogy leaders to the rear; summon its vigorous manhood to the front; inscribe progress, retrenchment, and reform upon its banner, and move onward to win victories for the masses in the future as its fathers won triumphs for them in the past. So it may restore its tarnished prestige and regain its lost power.

Looking back upon the time of this noble utterance, and the series of political mistakes which for years thereafter paralyzed the efforts of the Democratic party, who can find fault with Dana's broad and statesman-like views, or fail to regret that the party to which they were addressed proved to be utterly incapable of accepting or carrying them into effect? They would certainly have made the party national instead of sectional, and might have materially changed the history of the country. It was in March of this year, 1868, that Dana entered into a contract with Gurdon Bill & Co., of Springfield, Massachusetts, for a Life of General Grant, to be prepared mainly by me, edited by Dana, and published over our joint names.¹ The work was limited to one volume, octavo, and was written and printed within three months. It was issued in ample time to assist in the election of General Grant to his first term as president. Indeed, that was its principal purpose, and while Dana wrote only three chapters — the thirty-sixth, thirty-eighth, and thirty-ninth--he read, approved, and passed all the rest, rarely ever changing the text in the slightest degree. It is also worthy of note that he never afterwards withdrew any part of his