Excerpt from Annals of the American Unitarian Pulpit: Or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished Clergymen of the Unitarian Denomination in the United States To each of the many individuals who have furnished letters for this volume, or material out of which the sketches have been framed, I beg to offer my grateful acknowledge ments. I cannot forbear to say that I am under very spe cial obligations to Dr. Peabody, Professor in Harvard Col lege, not only for numerous letters of personal recollections, but for a multitude of facts and dates pertaining to the history of many of my subjects; to the Rev. John Langdon Sibley, Librarian of the College, for his obliging attentions, in giving me free access to the College Library, as well as in prosecuting many laborious researches in it for my benefit; to the Rev. Nathaniel Thitman and the Rev. Ephraim Abbot, for communications concerning several individuals, of whom few besides themselves are now able to testify; to Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman, who has, in vari ous ways, rendered me most substantial service; and to Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody and Miss Margaret T. Emery, whose graceful pens have refused nothing that I have asked of them. Of those who have departed, to whose memory I owe a large debt of gratitude in connection with this work, are Dr. Abiel Abbot, my early and revered instructor; Dr. John Pierce, whose memory was a vast depository of biographical material, and who was never more happy than when he was dispensing it for the gratification of others; Dr. Charles Lowell, from whom my numerous applications for aid always met a cordial and satisfactory response; Dr. Samuel Gilman, whose considerate kindness I found it just as easy to bring into exercise in respect to other denomina tions as his own; and, finally, the Hon. Josiah Quincy, lately deceased, whom the lapse of ninety years left with a mind as bright, and a spirit as kindly and genial, as ever. It will be observed that there is one sketch in this vol ume - that of the Rev. Abiel Abbot, of Coventry, Conn., that does not come legitimately within my limits, his death having taken place since the close of the year 1855. My reason for making this exception is, that his ministry, espe cially its close, was more immediately identified with the progress of Unitarianism than that of almost any of his contemporaries; and it would have been impossible to exclude him without forming a perceptible chasm in the history of the denomination. In addition to this, I will not dissemble the fact that my cherished recollections of his amiable and generous qualities, reaching back to the period of my very childhood, have predisposed me to avail myself of this opportunity for paying a tribute to his memory. 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.