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 PREFACE

iv •

&nd men of action ; while last, but not least, as soldiers on the field of battle, which tradition regards as the field of glory, our great men have served as valiant soldiers; while the American Army and Navy have produced heroes of undying fame in the defense of their land and in the cause of humanity.

Is not so

complete a record a credit

to the

nation and to the world?

While transmitting to

posterity the

memory of

distin-

guished persons of the past and present day, it will instil in the minds of our children the important lesson that

—

honor and station are the reward of continued exertion and that compared to a good education with habits of honest industry and economy, the greatest fortune would be but a poor inheritance. The courteous co-operation and words of praise received from prominent people throughout the United confirmed the opinion that the public is sufiiciently and importance of sucii a work, nnd the lasting benefit to be derived from placing their names,

States,

alive to the value

side by side with those of our

most honored ones,

in a

work

that will be found in the great public libraries and read-

ing rooms throughout the world, and which is ultimately down to posterity as an enduring record of

destined to go

the most eminent people of the United States ; bearing in

without such a record some of the most illuslost in oblivion, and their posterity

mind

that

trious

names would be

deprived of the gratification and advantage of reference to so honorable an ancestry.

Thomas William Herkingshaw.