Excerpt from William Walter Phelps: His Life and Public Services N this volume is told the story of the life of William Walter Phelps: of his surroundings of refinement and culture in his early years; his youthful training and devotion to study, fitting him for a career of renown as a lawyer, orator, and statesman; how it was his good fortune to be intimate with the most exalted men of his time and to become the compeer of the leading statesmen of the age; how on attaining the highest rank in diplo macy he conferred, with honor to himself, notable and enduring benefits upon his country; how he took the joys of life sedately and endured its sufferings silently and heroically; how, after reaping the honor of many high stations, he died in the prime of his manhood, leav ing no stain upon his private or public life. If any explanation be needed of what might seem to be more than an amplitude of detail or appear to be an irrelevant digression in these annals, it may be said that there was available much tempting material that told of Judge Phelps's life and its manifold events, his wide sur roundings and his striking personality, and that, even as it is, much had to be omitted; yet the writer was willing to incur the charge of being tiresome rather than leave the record incomplete. Also, that the career of a public man of eminence cannot be thoroughly portrayed with out flashing occasional side-lights upon travellers along the same roadway other than the main character. 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.