The raison d'être of a biography of Nathaniel Macon is to be found in the unique and also important role he played in our national life and in the great sectional contest which filled the first half of the nineteenth century. No comprehensive life of Macon has ever been attempted. A half dozen news paper articles, and of recent years a few semi-scientific sketches of his career, have been published; and some letters of Macon with introductions and notes have appeared since the writer began his searches for materials. But none of these have given more than a glimpse of the able leader and astute politician who so long held the first place in the political affairs of North Carolina.
In the midst of the duties of a teacher of history, the author has tried to get together the scanty materials bearing on Macon's life, and to draw from these a picture of his rise to prominence in North Carolina during and just after the Revolution, of his activity as an ardent Jefferson republican, which brought him to the Speakership of Congress, of his long and determined opposition to Clay's American system, and finally of his share in the Jackson campaigns. How well this self-imposed task has been done, how accurately the picture of the real Macon has been drawn, is for the reader to determine. But one thing at least may be said of the work: it has been attempted, and with the attempt some of the materials of North Carolina's history have been collected and put within the reach of the public.
