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.
