Content:
Although this manuscript is titled as a potential introduction or preface to
Democratic Vistas
or
Memoranda during the War
it never appeared in that format in either work. However, the thoughts it contains were echoed in an article that appeared in the
St. Louis Dispatch
on October 17, 1879. The article contained an interview with Whitman, in which he voiced ideas similar to those in the manuscript. A portion of the
Dispatch
piece would later be reprinted as "An Interviewer's Item" in
Specimen Days
and
Complete Prose Works
.
