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 PREFACE

ii

Vice-Presidents of the United States; every member of

all

the cabinets; every United States Senator and Speaker of the

House; every United States Congressman every memSupreme Court; ever si^^ncr of the Declaration

ber of the

of Independence; the Governors of the States and Territories; all the Authors, Poets and Composers; all the eminent Clergymen, Judges, Lawyers; all the Admirals and distinguished naval officers; ail the Generals and distinguished army officers; while no name eminent in Literature^ Art, Music, Science or Invention has been

omitted.

As

the failure to consider the lives of

as of historical

importance

is

a defective

biographical works heretofore published, of this

work has been

men

of affairs

feature of

a special

to include the lives of the great pio-

neers, merchants, manufacturers, railroad builders,

other practical

all

feature

men who have developed

and

the mines, forests

lines and canals, and managed the shippinL^, oii^anized the cor

and farms, built the railroads, steamboat set afloat

porations, and introduced the

new

processes in science and

mechanics, which have so greatly reduced the cost and

promoted the comfort of living, while contributing to the power and prestige of the nation itself. They have founded the great museums, erected statues, libraries and reading rooms; and it is by them that the colleges, schools and philanthropic institutions arc built and maintained; and it surely is befitting that their records should be preserved for

all

time in

this national

work of

representative

Americans.

That

the achievements of such persons should

their public record

is

have

peculiarly proper, because a knowl-

edge of men whose substantial fame

rests

upon

their at-