TO LEOPOLD BIERWIRTH, ESQ.
In public and private life, you have, for more than forty years in this your adopted country, labored to promote the welfare of this community, and to benefit humanity at large.
It was your good fortune to assist in suggesting and initiating the reforms which are treated of in the following pages. It was your privilege to be instrumental in inaugurating the new era, signalled by the formation of the Board of the Commissioners of Emigration. Of this body you were a highly honored member during the first two years of its existence, setting as such an example worthy of emulation by your successors. Although you withdrew a long time ago from active participation in their official duties, you have continued to work with undiminished zeal and energy in furtherance of the interests of which they are the custodians.
In view of this, and as an expression of my respect and friendship, I dedicate to you this essay.
New York, February, 1870.
