But I did not know enough to ask questions. If I had, and
had recorded the answers, I could write a very large part
of the political and literary history of the United States.
I never kept a diary, except for a few and brief periods.
So for what I have to say, I must trust to my memory. I have
no doubt that after these volumes are published, there will
come up in my mind matter enough to make a dozen better ones.
I invoke for this book that kindly judgment of my countrymen
which had attended everything I have done in my life so far.
I have tried to guard against the dangers and the besetting
infirmities of men who write their own biography. An autobiography,
as the word implies, will be egotistical. An old man's autobiography
is pretty certain to be garrulous. If the writer set forth
therein his own ideals, he is likely to be judged by them,
even when he may fall far short of them. Men are likely to
think that he claims or pretends to have lived up to them,
however painfully conscious he may be that they are only dreams
which even if he have done his best have had little reality
for him.
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