Page:The American Review Volume 06.djvu/580



The present number concludes the sixth volume of the American Review, and completes the third year of its existence. The succeeding number will begin a new series, published in a more agreeable form, and in a larger type. We take the opportunity of the time, to explain in brief our hopes and intentions for the future. If any good has been accomplished in the past, it will speak for itself.

That a great political party, sustaining the permanent institutions of the nation should be without any recognized medium for its principles, or record of its protests, has been an evil severely felt at all times, but more especially at the times of Presidential Elections, when Constitutional questions are agitated anew, and every good citizen feels that his vote is affecting the destiny and prosperity of the country for a long period in the future.

That the American Review should in some measure supply the deficiency, by becoming a medium for the exposition of principles, has been the desire and the hope of all concerned in its success.

Other interests required also to be regarded—those of literature, manners, and the arts. A merely political journal would reach none but politicians, but by the addition of historical, critical and fictitious writings, through which the primary ideas of good taste, philosophy, and social morality, might be conveyed, agreeably to all, a larger circle of readers would be attracted, and the main purpose of the work, the diffusion of sound political knowledge, more certainly accomplished.

To these views every effort has been made to conform the conduct of this journal. The experience of three years has developed much that will modify and improve it in the future. In conclusion, we have to thank our friends and correspondents generally, in all parts of the Union, for their kind assurances and encouragements in the undertaking. Our endeavor is to accomplish all that has been promised. We hope to complete arrangements, by which we shall be enabled to illustrate our succeeding numbers with sketches or perfected drawings of heads of distinguished personages, statesmen, artists, and men of letters. These will usually be accompanied by a brief memoir of the person, or a critical description of the subjects represented; so that, in a few years, the subscriber may find himself in possession of a series of representations of the most remarkable characters of past and present times. These additions, together with a decided improvement in the typography and form, it is to be hoped, will render the work acceptable to a much larger class of readers.