OUR COUNTRYMEN; OR BRIEF MEMOIRS OF EMINENT AMERICANS. BY BENSON J. LOSSING, AUTHOR OF "THE PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY ONE HUNDRED AND THREE PORTRAITS, BY LOSSING AND BARRITT. PHILADELPHIA: LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & Co. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by ENSIGN, BRIDGMAN, & FANNING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. In the note on page 196, it is erroneously stated that J. G. W. Trumbull, Esq., of Norwich, Connecticut, had been governor of that State. ELECTROTYPED BY 82 & 84 Beekman Street. PRINTED BY C. A. ALVORD, 29 & 31 Gold Street. PREFATORY REMARKS. “I have often heard," says Sallust, "that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other renowned persons of the Roman Commonwealth, used to say that, whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they felt their minds vehemently excited to virtue. It could not be the wax, nor the marble, that possessed this power; but the recollections of their great actions kindled a generous flame in their breasts, which could not be quelled till they, also, by Virtue, had acquired equal fame and glory.” With the earnest desire of producing precisely such effects upon the minds and hearts of the young people of our country, this volume has been prepared; this CENOTAPH-this honorary monument—has been erected. The Roman youth were excited to great and virtuous deeds by the sight of material objects and the voices of Orators; our youth have their aspirations for noble achievements awakened and cherished more by the silent yet potential ministrations of Books which tell of men worthy to be imitated as examples, or studied as warnings, than by merely sensuous impressions. Biography is History teaching by example. It is the basis of all historical structures. The Chronicles of the nations are composed of the sayings and doings of their men and women. the sum of History. These make up The materials for this book have been drawn from the Annals of the United States of America, as Colonies and as a Federal Republic. Such men have been selected, as examples, who seemed to illustrate by their lives, some special phase in the political, religious, and social life of our country, during its wonderful progress from its earliest settlement until the present time. I have endeavored to present such prominent points of character and deeds, in their lives, as would give the reader a general idea of their relative position to the history of their times; and have also aimed to make the brief sketches so attractive and suggestive, as to excite a desire in the young to know more of these characters and their historical relations, and thus to persuade them to enter upon the pleasant and profitable employment of studying the prominent persons and events of our Republic. If this volume shall achieve that result, the pleasure experienced by the Author in the preparation of it, will be distributed according to his desire. NEW YORK, April, 1855. |