PREFACE.

The most which the author claims for the collection which forms this volume is, that it may be taken as evidence that, according to his humble ability, he has endeavored to do what he believed to be his duty, as a citizen of the republic, as a member of the profession, and of the service to which he belongs.

A sufficient motive for making the publication may be found in the natural desire, to gather up, at least a part of the dispersed, and, in some instances, unnamed members of his literary family. He has felt encouraged to do so by the fact that such of the essays and lectures as have been published have met with a friendly reception; and as the questions to which they relate are still in progress, he hopes that their usefulness, if they have any, may be continued.

The medical address was originally written for the pages of the Buffalo Medical Journal, and at the solicitation of eminent professional brethren was published in pamphlet form. It was issued under the auspices of the Faculty of the Buffalo Medical College, and owing to the recommendation of these gentlemen and of the medical press, it was called for in all sections of the Union. For more than thirteen years the author has been a writer upon

the subject of naval reform, and at times under great discouragements. Public and naval opinion seems now settled upon the necessity for such reform. It is advocated by the press at large, and by some of the most able and efficient writers in the country. But, still, it is not yet effected. The essay upon "The Naval Institutions of a Republic" is the last of five pamphlets which its author has produced upon this subject, all of which have had the favorable notice of the newspaper and periodical press generally. Two editions of this essay have been published, and it has been read from with approbation upon the floor of Congress.

The lecture upon the "Obligations of Young Men to the Republic," and the Historical View of Erie County, Pa., have never before been published.

PARTY PRESIDENTS.

[As the following article had the honor of being attributed by the Philadelphia U. S. Gazette, to the Hon. Daniel Webster when Secretary of State in the administration of President Tyler, I hope that I may now be permitted to claim its responsibility.

I am as fully aware, as any of my readers will be, of the hasty judgment which led to the error; but still the fact is worth mentioning, if only as an instance of the mistakes which may be made even by a paper of so much character as the Gazette-then under the editorial charge of the Hon. JOSEPH R. CHANDLER.]