Bishops of Other Denominations

Heads of the Government Departments at Washington

Judiciary of the United States

Presidents of Religious Organizations

Presidents of American Universities and Colleges

Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church

Succession of Bishops in the American Episcopate

Roman Catholic Hierarchy in the United States

71-72

73

74

Governors, U. S. Senators and Chief Justices of the States, arranged chronologically

75-115

117-123

125-127

128-129

129-131

132

133-138

139-142

143

144

145

147

148

151

152

153-185

186-198

INTRODUCTION.

This CONSPECTUS OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY has been compiled to record in tabulated and easily accessible form the names and terms of office of the highest Officials in every department of American History and Society - the Government, the Law, the Church, the Arts and Sciences. A student of United States history desiring to learn for instance, Who was U. S. Minister to France in 1848,

Who succeeded Jonathan Edwards as president of Princeton University,

Who were the delegates to the Second Colonial Congress,

Or to the several international monetary conferences,

Who were the contemporary authors and poets of the time of John Howard Paine, Who were the candidates for the presidency when Andrew Jackson was elected,

Who were the U. S. senators from Connecticut when Oliver Wolcott was governor,

Who were the Roman Catholic bishops of the diocese of Louisville,

Who were the presidents of the American Library Association,

Who were the commanders of the frigate Constitution,

Who is the president of the National Academy of Science,

Who are the Ten American Painters,

What Americans received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society,

Who constituted the American Company of the Revisers of the Bible,

Who were the presidents of Sorosis,

Who were the leaders of Tammany Hall or the Mayors of Boston or the editors of the "North American Review," etc., etc.

will search in as many different publications for this information, and in nearly every instance he will search in vain.

its

The idea of such a compilation grew out of the preparation of The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, when it was determined that all such official names of national standing should have a biography in a publication claiming to be national in scope, and when it was discovered how few such records of names were available to the general public, and how wofully inaccurate and unreliable even these few records proved to be. The completeness and originality of these Lists and Statistics are the excuse for issuing them in a separate volume. In this busy age of specialization and systemization, the utility of the reference book is without question, and it is expected that this Conspectus will supply a long-needed want in the bibliography of American History and Biography.

The value of any book of reference is in proportion to its accuracy, and in A Conspectus of American Biography the same policy which has been followed with the biographical sketches themselves that of submitting the final proofs to a competent authority for correction has been applied; and even though the list of names was supplied originally by the institution or the organization itself, in every instance the secretary or other executive officer has been asked to verify the compilation when in type.

In making the selection of the Miscellaneous Names, such as the Astronomers, Authors, Explorers, Inventors, Missionaries, Musicians, Philanthropists, Physicians, Sculptors, etc., the services of the most eminent authorities, in addition to the Advisory Editors, have been secured to make the Lists complete. As illustrating the carefulness with which this work has been done, the collection of prominent American economists may be cited. Prof. Richard T. Ely of the University of Wisconsin was employed to select the List. He called to his assistance the Economic Seminary of the University, and after duly considering the subject at several of its meetings, the following tests were applied to each individual selected: (1) Has he treated the general field, or what he considered the general field, of economic thought in a systematic way, bringing forth new truths or presenting in an original and helpful manner truth already established? (2) Is he generally recognized as having given, by writing or speaking, a distinct impulse to economic study, which has resulted or promised to result in definite progress? (3) Has he made a distinctly valuable and original contribution to economic theory in any branch of economic activity? (4) Has he, through the mastery and application of the highest economic philosophy of his time, aided in a significant manner in solving important public economic problem. Guided by the foregoing criteria, the within List was prepared and submitted to the Publishers. All the Lists of professional names were just as carefully compiled, and it detracts nothing from the value of this volume as a Conspectus of American Biography, that these names should constitute also, an Index of the National Cyclopedia of American Biography.

The additional compilations and tables are in the main entirely original and contribute to the completeness of the Conspectus. Some of the medal awards in the Roll of Honor in American History had never been compiled even by the Societies making the presentation, and the Publishers were obliged to search the Societies' records at their own expense for the information. The list of Americans who are mentioned in Literature, will prove a valuable contribution to the subject of American Biography, as will also the collection of Notable Sayings, and Last Words. The list of Public Statues in the United States will appeal to the Art World, giving as it does, the name of every Public Statue and Bust with its location and the name of the sculptor when known. A famous painting always carries the name of the artist in a corner, but very rarely can the sculptor's name be seen on a piece of statuary, and the guide books of our leading cities fail completely to supply that information even if they mention the statue. This list of Public Statues was made during the years of preparation of the National Cyclopedia of American Biography and represents the results of three methods of compilation,— a personal canvass of the cities by the associate editors while employed in collecting material for that publication, a second canvass of every city in the United States by mail, and a compilation from the very full biographies of the sculptors themselves.

The Anniversary Calendar was prepared in 1903 and an edition of 50,000 copies was circulated through the educational world, with an offer of a prize for the discovery of any error in its dates; so that this collection of historical dates, besides being unique in its arrangement, is unquestionably more absolutely correct in its records than any previous collection. It is intended to present, day by day, the important events in United States history that have occurred on each day in the year, the object in view being a col