99

PROSPECTUS.

National Character.

THE National Cyclopedia of AmericanBiography has been undertaken to provide a Biographical Record of the New World, worthy to rank with the great National Biographies of Europe. It will embrace biographical sketches of all persons prominently connected with the history of the country; all rulers, statesmen, and soldiers; all persons noteworthy in the church, at the bar, in literture or the arts, in science and invention, in exploration or discovery, in commerce or mechanics. It, in brief, will include the name of every person in every branch of human activity who has been identified with American progress and civilization.

A Complete History of the United States.

The biographies are of sufficient fulness to include all facts deserving mention, and taken together they will afford a complete history of the United States -- political, social, commercial, and industrial.

Carefulness of Preparation.

This Cyclopedia is unique. The most prominent writers of the day, have been enlisted in the work of collecting the historical biographies of the country. Prominent men everywhere have been asked to summarize their experience for the benefit of their fellow-men, and already information, which has never before been given to the world.

Character Portraits.

It is intended to make each character-sketch a likeness which the world will immediately recognize; which will give the underlying motive to individual endeavor, the secret of success, the methods and the means of progress, and the aim and aspiration of thought; and which will be as readable as a tale of ad-
venture or travel. It is aimed, moreover, to render the Cyclopedia educational, as well as entertaining, by making the lives of important men illustrate noteworthy epochs of national history.

Magnitude of the Work.

Such a work of Historical Biography has never before been attempted. Previous works have either excluded the living, or limited them to the well-known few in the centers of activity. But it is