A biographical dictionary:

Front matter

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Introduction To The Revised Edition

Nbarly a quarter of a century has elapsed since the original publication of this work, in 1835; and, during that period two-thirds of a generation, or more tban six hundred millions, of the human family hare passed away. Death has been equally busy among the wise, the good, and the great, as among the undistinguished multitude, who, in the grave, are as little remembered by the living world as those who existed before the flood. With the view, therefore, of perpetuating the memory of those persons most worthy of remembrance, who have died during this period, it was considered advisable to publish an enlargod edition of this work, which should contain a brief account of their lives. A revision of the entire work was also deemed necessary, that it might be made to conform to the prevailing canons of taste in literature and typography. In these labors the author has been engaged nearly four years. When he commenced his task he bad a very indefinite knowledge of the amount of new material which he would find it necessary to incorporate in the work, and, therefore, did not anticipate that it would occupy hira so long, or that it would swell the volume to the dimensions since found to be indispensable. lie then supposed that the number of new sketches would not exceed one thousand, and that a single year would suffice to collect and arrange them ; but, as the reader will see, the result has been widely different. The actual number of new articles is over twbnty-four HUNDRED, which occupy about two-fifths of the entire number of pages. It is thus, in nearly every essential particular, a new production. The public, however, is fully competent to jndge of its merits, as well as of its defects ; and the favor shown the work in its original form — it having passed through twelve editions— confirms the author in his belief that ho has no cause to fear an unfavorable decision.

A comparison between the original work and the present volume, will satisfy the reader that the labors of the author have been long and tedious. In prosecuting his researches, be has consulted all modern kindred works to which he could procure access ; has availed

bimself of all the various miscellaneous sources of information, particularly those afforded

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h INTRODUCTION TO TUB REVISED EDITION.

by the periodical press ; and has also maintained an extensive correspondence with individuals in evory section of the American Union. Although he is aware that be has not accomplished everything desirable, yet he feels conscious that much, very much, has been effected; more than one-half of the most elaborate new articles being strictly original— the materials having been obtained from his correspondents, and from other reliable sources; and more than nine-tenths of the whole are either entirely original, or are compilations from larger works. In many instances, in order to secure accuracy, his original sketches have been submitted to tbe inspection of the personal friends of the deceased. Yet no one can be more fully aware than the author, of the difficulty attending an attempt to include all worthy of notice; names will occasionally be overlooked ; others may not be known to him ; and of some he may be unable to obtain the necessary statistics, without which their insertion would be utterly useless. It is, likewise, impossible always to secure perfect accuracy. In this volume there are not less than fifty thousand propor names — the orthography of a large number of them being as dissimilar as possible to everything in our own language ; and, in letters received from correspondents, the chirography is frequently so very imperfect that it is difficult to decipher correctly tho spelling of proper names. There ore also, in this work, upwards of fifty thousand dates, many of them unconnected with any known coincident facts which might assist, by association, in testing their accuracy. It should not, then, be a matter of surprise if the orthography of a proper name occasionally be wrong, or if a wrong date be given ; and the experience of all who have been engaged in labora of a similar character will sustain the author in this opinion.

After this general explanation of the circumstances under which the author again presents this volume to the public, it may not be improper for him to refer more particularly to the principles which have guided him in this labor, and to its consequent results, which are matters of fundamental importance to tho public. Tho reader will naturally inquire — and in so doing he is perfectly correct — if the work is reasonably free from sectionalism ; if it is based on a sufficiently broad foundation to embrace the whole human race, and, more especially, the States of the American Union — thus giving it, as an American work, a high character for nationality ? He will also ask whether it is free from religious sectarianism, or political bias ? In reply to these questions the author can honestly answer that, in both particulars, he has earnestly endeavored to make it so. If there be any exceptions, they will only bo found in articles from the original volume, which were transferred thither from other biographical works, and did not receive that careful revision which thoroughlytrained polemics, or political abstractionists might deem necessary. Not having been educated in that metaphysical school in which the student is taught to split hairs, the author may possibly have overlooked some passages to which an objection of this kind may be offered.

Among the twenty-four hundred new articles, thirty have reference to parties who died daring the first eight months of the year 1856 ; one hundred and two are those of

INTBODUCTION TO THE REVISED EDITION, t

persons who died in 1855; ninety-five of individuals wh> died in 1854; ninety-eight of such as died in 1853; eighty-five of persons who died in 1852; eighty of those mentioned died in 1851 ; eighty-foor in 1850 ; and the greater portion of the residue are nearly equally divided throughout the preceding fifteen years. Many others also, accidentally omitted in the first edition, are now added to the work. It is possible that some of the individuals named have received undue prominence, unless considered in connection with local circumstances ; hence they may hereafter be omitted, or receive less notice, in similar publications. This result is predicated upon a well-known principle in optics, that distance from an object renders it apparently smaller to the eye of an observer. It is then seen at a smaller angle of vision. Thus our sun to a person as remote from it as wo are from the fixed stars would appear no larger than they do to us. Much in the same way we give more attention to our cotemporaries and those living near us, than to others, equally, and perhaps more meritorious, greatly removed from us by time or distance. On this account, only a few of those esteemed great men by their cotemporaries have descended, and will descend as such to posterity. And individuals are frequently, by accident, and without the aid of any personal merit, raised to positions of distinction, and receive that deference which is due only to great excellence. This is a conventional propriety justly due. Feeble-minded and wicked men, also, occasionally attain prominent public stations, and thus become associated on the historic page with men remarkable for wisdom and virtue.

About two thousand articles — one thousand in the original work, and one thousand new ones, which have been added — relate to individuals who have lived or died in the United States ; and these will, doubtless, on that account, possess a peculiar interest for American readers. They are not, however, culled in equal proportion from all the different sections of the Union ; probably one-half the number being those of persons who existed prior to the settlement of the Western States. In view of this fact, it will appear extraordinary that so many men in the new States have risen to eminence, as is indicated by the numerous instances recorded in this work — and it is made evident that the hardy life of the western settlers has a tendency to develop the intellect, and form a high grade of character. From Ohio, which was a wilderness at the commencement of the nineteenth century, we have been furnished with the names of about fifty persons; from the still younger States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, and Missouri, wc can enumerate an average of twenty to each ; and, doubtless, more might have been given, but the requisite information was not available to the author. In all the States mentioned, as well as in those more recently organized, there will unquestionably be opened, at the close of the present century, a rich field for the biographer. Many of the pioneers thither are forced by surrounding circumstances to engage in daring adventures, encounter hardships, and practice a self-denial, which will transmit their names to posterity, covered with a romantic renown.

▼i INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED EDITION.

The older States, having been longer supplied with the means of furnishing their citiaena with a high mental culture, and having, as is the case with some of them, a larger population, have afforded the author a more ample field from which to make choice selections. Maryland, Georgia, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont, have each contributed an average of f ;rty memorials of citizens, widely known and honored throughout tho Union — the highest number from one State being fifty, and the lowest thirty-five. South Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and North Carolina, have furnished a still larger quota — the highest number being eighty, and the lowest sixty-fire from one State. The States of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, at one time claimed as citizens more than one thousand of the individuals whose biographical memoirs now enrich this publication. These memoirs also bear evidence that a majority of the older States of our Republic have progressed in intellectual attainments in a ratio proportionate to their advancement in arts, in commerce, and in social elevation ; and that the nation is rapidly approaching a position equally renowned in the world of science and literature, as it has already attained among sister nations by its physical powers.

It was the intention of the author to have made a professional classification of the individuals noticed ; but, finding it would involve a greater sacrifice of time than he deemed consistent with its real importance, he abandoned his design, after having progressed in it sufficiently far to glean the few facts presented below. Such a classification might, indeed, possess interest for curiosity-seekers, but would be of little or no utility to the general reader. The primary aim of the author having been, especially in preparing the additions to this work, to impart to it some novel features of general interest, he therefore sought every known source of information concerning wealthy individuals who had contributed a portion of their abundance to the promotion of objects of public beneficence. The exact number thns noticed, or the aggregate amount of their benefactions, he cannot state precisely ; but it is thought the latter will not fall below the sum of twelve or fifteen millions of dollars. If a perusal of these deeds of benevolence should induce others at some future period to emulate them, one great object of biographical collections will have been accomplished— teaching good by example. He has, likewise, instead of confining his researches to men in the professional walks of life — to statesmen, to naval and military heroes and commanders, to the host of professors in literary and scientific institutions— in our volume amounting in number to about five thousand — and to the innumerable list of authors— filled many of his pages with memoirs of persons who were connected with the business and producing classes of society — working and thinking men— who, though not gifted with scholastic attainments, or possessed of conventional rank, wore, in reality, the men who promoted national wealth, and gave perpetuity to public institutions.

In filling up this outline, the author has enriched his work with notices of scionlifie and enterprising farmers and planters, whose industry caused the fertile soil to yield an abun-