Preface

Preface

     Every one admits the benefit of history. But of what advantage is history without truth; and yet how common is the expression that the time has not come for writing the history of such a one, or of such a war; implying that during the life of persons implicated in a wrong it will not do to detail that wrong. Then when will it do? If those who live at the time of a transaction dare not write a history of it, how will those who live afterward know of it? How can a man write a history of that which took place before he was born, if no account of it has been handed down to his time.
     The practice now is, and public opinion seems to sustain the practice, to send every man who dies directly to the regions of eternal bliss, leaving none but the living as fit subjects of his Satanic Majesty. When a man dies by the halter, he, with a priest at his elbow to keep up his courage and his confidence, rejoices in the certain prospect of going immediately to the arms of Jesus, who stands ready to receive his guilty soul; and every man who dies a natural death, however great a rascal he may have been, is represented as having been a paragon of virtue. All his virtues, if he had any, are paraded in the newspapers, or, if he had none, virtues in abundance are attributed to him; and all his vices are ignored. And should any man object to this course?, he would be told we "should never speak evil of the dead."
     Had this been the doctrine of the authors of the Scriptures, we would to this day have remained ignorant of the important fact that Mr. Samson was an old libertine, and that Miss Delilah was any thing but a modest maiden. Nor would we now be aware of the more important fact that the man who, at one time, was 'a man after God's own heart', was at another time peeping into the garden at a beautiful woman, whose raiment, all told, was less than that of the woman Maj. Powell saw on the Colorado, to wit, a string of beads. Nor of the much more important fact that the old rascal had the husband of that woman killed, 'that he might possess the ewe-lamb without annoyance. Nor would the still greater fact have come down to this generation that, even in that day, there was one who had dared, with reference to the doer of this great iniquity, to say unto David "Thou art the man."
     All history should be true. But little good can be derived from that which is not. He who portrays a man's virtues and suppresses his vices is morally guilty of falsehood; for he who believes the narrative believes that the subject of it was a good man, whereas his vices, if brought to view, would much modify his virtues, or, perhaps, entirely obscure them. Yet something is due to public opinion and a man's comfort. Public opinion would hardly, at this age, bear with a man's telling the whole truth with regard to the actors in earth's busy scenes; and I might essentially impair my comfort, when business brings me in contact with the descendants of our early settlers, should I remember to have said something derogatory of their ancestors.
     I, therefore, have taken a medium course; and, while I have been careful to say nothing of any one that is not true, I have refrained from saying many things that were true, lest I might offend the descendants of those persons. It is exceeding difficult to pursue a proper course in this matter; and I think it likely that my course will be censured, and probably justly censured. If a little censure is all, I will submit to it as patiently as Hume submitted to a world of clamor raised against him for having exposed a few of the villainies of two of the worst potentates that ever ruled on this terrestrial ball—Henry the Eighth, and his daughter Queen Elizabeth.
     This little book has been written in the most inclement season of the year, at a time when the state of my health made it hazardous to be much exposed to the weather, and I found but few who seemed inclined to aid me in my statistics; and, although I have taken pains to be correct, I have no doubt many errors may be found in the work. To the candid inquirer after truth I would say, note any errors you meet with, and send me a list, and if another edition be called for, I will cheerfully correct them. If any one shall think I have said any thing untrue about himself or ancestor, and will make it appear, I will correct it in the next edition, or, should there not be another edition, I will correct it in a public newspaper. But should any one, without resorting to this manly course, abuse me for saying things that are true, I pledge myself to show to the world that the half has not been told. There are some characters referred to in these pages about whom I would have said a good deal more, but for the regard I had for their descendants.
- C. BALLANCE. Peoria, February 7th, 1870.

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