Excerpt from An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary: Containing an Account of the Lives, Characters, and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in North America From Its First Settlement, and a Summary of the History of the Several Colonies and of the United States Tm: following work presents itself to the public With no claims to attention, but such, as are founded upon the interest, which may be felt in the lives of Americans Finding himself a few years ago in a literary retirement, with no important duties, which pressed immedi ately upon him, the author conceived the plan of this Dictionary He was desirous of bringing to the citizens of the United States more information, than was generally possessed, respecting the illustrious men of former times, the benefactors and ornaments of this country, who have passed away He persuaded himself, that if he could col lect the fragments of bmgraphy, which were buried in the mass of American history, or scattered amidst a multitude of tracts of variou!' kinds, and could fashion these materials into a regular form, so as to place before the eye our great and good men, if not in their full di mensions, yet in their true shape, he should render an acceptable ser vice to his countrymen This work With no little labor he has now completed and the inexperienced artist, in his first essay, can hope only, that his design Will be commended He wishes chiefly, that as the images of departed excellence are surveyed, the spirit, which an imated them, may be caught by the beholder. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.