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-
