PREFACE. 5

in regard to the facility of such casual references as a work of this
kind is chiefly intended to supply, by breaking up the, mass of its
materials into several distinct sections, as indicated by a natural prin¬
ciple of distribution and arrangement. The general descriptions of the
states and territories; the grand physical features of the country; the
great body of its inhabited places, whether denominated cities, boroughs,
towns, or villages; its chief localities of fashionable resort, and of curious
interest to the traveller; the smaller post villages, which are only of
consequence as such; the population, colleges, banks, and various sta¬
tistical tables, are severally placed by themselves, under distinct and
appropriate titles, instead of being all embodied, as has been more
commonly the case, in one promiscuous and undistinguishable series.
Thus the person consulting this Gazetteer will be saved much of the
perplexity and hinderance of running his eye over pages of a long and
crowded alphabet, to find the subject of his inquiry; while, at the
same time, important portions of the work are thus presented, in a
much more interesting and instructive form, to the general reader.

The failure of Congress, hitherto, to provide for the publication of
the seventh national census, has necessarily occasioned a postponement
in the issuing of this work, from the time contemplated in the original
prospectus, and has required a laborious and expensive resort to other
methods of obtaining the information which that public document was
expected to supply. This delay, however, has been diligently improved
in more carefully elaborating and perfecting important portions of the
work, and in bringing the whole down to a much later date than was
at first intended.

In all the toil of this arduous and protracted undertaking, the author
has been much. sustained and animated by the hope of offering an
acceptable and useful service to his countrymen, and of contributing, in
no small degree, to illustrate the prosperity and glory of a people,
whose advancement, in all the elements of a free, Christian civilization,
is becoming, more and more, the admiration of the world. In the con¬
fidence that neither of these good ends will be entirely lost, the labor
of years is now submitted to a liberal and enlightened public, to meet
with such approval only as its merits may deserve.

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