Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It may be here stated that, in order to present the facts, as they really happened, and with preciseness and accuracy as to dates and some other circumstances, the President himself, some members of his family and his chief advisers and many of his friends, have been consulted: thereby correcting any misstatement, that, unintentionally might have crept into the narrative.