followed it. If a politician wants to know whether an opposing party has changed ground, he will find every authorized declaration of opinions and politics ready at hand. If he desires to know the status of parties in Congress at any given time he can find it as easily as a word in a dictionary. In short, not to multiply illustrations, the work will be found to be a perfect “hand-book” of political history, as handy as a cyclopædia, and as complete within its province.
In the production of this work, we may say, in conclusion, Professor Houghton has tried, with striking success, to condense all the facts of the political history of the country, and we are confident has accomplished a work of reference, the general diffusion of which will greatly improve the popular knowledge of an indispensable portion of general history. An intelligent and close examination will find it exhaustive in detail, concise and perspicuous in statement, crowded but never confused with facts, and so admirably methodized that its references can be found with as much facility as the contents of a cyclopædia.
Professor Houghton has visited different cities, to explore great libraries for the proper records to substantiate certain facts and events, to remove doubts, and to clear up apocryphal or erroneous statements made by less careful authors; in fact, he has dug right down to the bottom facts, in order to make it an encyclopædical work of incontestable authenticity, and neither time nor toil has been permitted to interpose to prevent this consummation. Every subject of this work has received his undivided attention, closest scrutiny, and discriminating thought. He has assumed nothing, and taken nothing for granted; and his scrupulous accuracy in the compilation of this “Historical Conspectus of the Political Parties and the Federal Government” will make it an “authority amongst authorities,” and it will be accepted as such by the American Scholar, Statistician, and Statesman.
Granger, Davis & Co.,
