OF AMERICAN WOMEN; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE MORE PROMINENT. EDITED BY J. CLEMENT. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. Such examples should be set before them as patterns for their daily imitation. BUFFALO: GEO. H. DERBY AND CO. 1851 LOCKE. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE BEQUEST OF EVERT JANSEN WENDELL 1913 PRESERVATION MASTER Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by In the Clerk's Office of the Northern District of New York. JEWETT, THOMAS & Co., STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. BUFFALO, N. Y. 7574 70 EDITOR'S PREFACE. This work was suggested by one of a similar character, entitled "Noble Deeds of Woman," an English work, which contains but three references to American Women, two of which are of but very little importance. Only one article in the two works is alike, and that is the letter written by Mrs. Sigourney to the women of Greece, in 1828, in behalf of the ladies of Hartford. This failure to do justice to American women, may have been an oversight; be that as it may, a work of the kind here presented, seemed to be needed, and we regret that its preparation had not been assigned to an abler pen. Multitudes of works have been consulted, and such anecdotes gleaned as it is thought will have a salutary influence on the mind and heart. Should the records of female courage and virtue herein presented to the daughters of the land, encourage, even in the slightest degree, a laudable spirit of emulation, our humble labors will not have been put forth in vain. Facts are more sublime than fictions; and American women have actually performed all the good, and grand, and glorious deeds which the honest and judicious novelist dares ascribe to the female sex; hence we have found no occasion, in striving to make this work interesting, to deviate from the path of historical truth. The sources whence our materials have been derived, are largely indicated in the body of the work. Possibly, however, we may have failed, in some instances, to indicate our indebtedness to historians and biographers where such reference was justly demanded; suffice it to say, therefore, once for all, that, although something like two hundred of these pages are in our own language, we deserve but little credit for originality, and would prefer to be regarded as an unpretending compiler, rather than as an aspirant to the title of author. |