THE BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNITED STATES ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO AND NEW YORK AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING CO. H. C. COOPER, JR., & CO., PROPRIETORS 1901 PREFACE. HISTORY, one of the most interesting and instructive studies of modern ages, is composed in a large part of biographies of men made great by their own heroic and noble exertions. Guided by the philosophic principle that all men are, in a great measure, architects of their own destinies, and that the laudable example of those who have honorably won their way to success will ever inspire the struggling mass of humanity to greater effort and nobler aspirations, the publishers of this volume here present some of the most prominent facts and incidents in the lives of the leading citizens. of the United States, who have, to a great extent, made the history of this wonderful country. In selecting names for the Biographical Encyclopedia of the United States, the publishers have aimed to give a life-sketch of the representatives of the various interests of our republic: the professional men, the business men, the agriculturists, and indeed all who have taken part in the intellectual, political and material progress of the people. While engaged in the preparation and publication of this volume, a constant and strong incentive has been the belief of the publishers that theirs was a praiseworthy work, the fruits of which could not but supply a pressing need and command public commendation. Had it been otherwise, and had the only motive for their risk of capital and enormous expenditure of time and labor been the hope of pecuniary profit, they certainly could not have felt themselves justified in the undertaking. Until within a comparatively recent period, recording and preserving biographies has been confined to the few, the great or noted, while the history of that vast army of workers, whose life struggles, whose defeats and whose successes have contributed so largely to our national growth, and become so intimately identified with our institutions, has been passed. over without comment, unnoticed and unsung. That such should have been the case was but natural, as the outgrowth of that spirit of hero-worship, which in times past has so universally prevailed; that spirit which could iii 2026072 |