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 member of the Supreme Court; ever signer of the Declaration
the
and Territories; all the Authors, Poets and Composers; all the eminent Clergymen, Judges, Lawyers; all the Admirals and distinguished naval officers; all the Generals and distinguished army officers; v^hile no name eminent in of Independence; the Governors of the States
Literature, Art, Music, Science or Invention has been
omitted.
As
the failure to consider the lives of
as of historical
importance
is
men
of affairs
a defective feature of all
biographical works heretofore published, a special feature of this work has been to include the lives of the great pioneers, merchants, manufacturers,
other practical
railroad builders, and
men who have developed
the mines, forests
and farms, built the railroads, steamboat lines and canals, set afloat and managed the shipping, organized the corporations, 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 are built and maintained; and it surely is befitting that their records should be pre;
served for
all
time in
this national
work
of representative
Americans.
That
the achievements of such persons should
their public record
edge of
is
men whose
have
peculiarly proper, because a knowl-
substantial fame rests upon their at-
