A sketch of the lives of some of America's early Statesmen: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Charles Sumner, Ulysses S. Grant, and James A. Garfield. Samenvatting ''With the great, one's thoughts and manners easily become great; ... what this country longs for is personalities, grand persons, to counteract its materialities, '' says Emerson. Such lives as are sketched in this book are a constant inspiration, both to young and old. They teach Garfield's oft-repeated maxim, that ''the genius of success is still the genius of labor.'' They teach patriotism--a deeper love for and devotion to America. They teach that life, with some definite and noble purpose, is worth living.