Sherman Genealogy e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Of every worthy stock the most degenerate sons cherish the names of those from whom by an authentic lineage they trace their honorable descent. With zealous affection and a pious reverence they explore all sources of knowledge respect ing their lives, their characters, their motives, their acts. In a spirit neither arrogant nor envious, they are yet jealous for a just estimate of the virtue and the power which marked the founders of their line; careful that no malign or reckless influ ence shall distort the record, or obscure the remembrance, of their deeds; earnest in the determination that their latest des cendants shall lose nothing of the heritage in these great names, in the course of its descent. Nor should it be for a moment supposed that the spirit of our institutions and the structure of our society, which have discarded the hereditary transmission of rank and power, discouraged even the succession of wealth, and made ridiculous the culture of a vulgar family pride, have at all weakened or diverted the force of those natural ties which connect us alike with our ancestry and our posterity, and sus tain and protect, as a perpetual and imperishable possession, the glory and worth of our forefathers.