To the Ernployes of the Postal Service and of the Life Saving Service this biography of their champion is respectfully inscribed, Samuel Sullivan Cos occupies an unique place in American history. Yrecisely his parallel has not been Bnomn. As mas well said by Dr. Tal mage, at his obsequies It mill be useless to try to describe to another generation who or what he was like. He was the first and the last of that kind of man. His distinguishing chctractcristic was his ersatility-his manysidedness. He had a marvelous faculty of ildaptation. It is difficult to conceive of an ernergcncg to which he voulcl not haw r o v eiqln l, o r a situation in which he lj-ould not h a m e a de himself quite at ho ne. He -as unquestionably a genius but, unlike most men thus gifted, he m is an indefatigable worlrer. I e had in unquenchable thirst for knoq-ledge, ancl mouId hesitate at no exploration in search of it. 31en marreled not only at the extent and diversrij9 of hisI no vledgc, but cvenmore ttitsthorougl ncss and profundity. Ee confounded the savants them selves, who could not understand when hc had hntl the time or where he had found the opportunity to d l so dee ep into the mysteries of the sciences or pliilosophy. His public life covered half his -ears and yet if we eliminate from the cnIculation th t entire public career, we shall still have, in chnmiing b001is of travel and other literary ventures, enough left to establish his title to an envi able riiche in tllc history of his country. His service in Congress, aggregating close upon three decades, covers a memorable period, or rather three memorable periods, in the nations his tory thc first, the period immediately before the war. of tlterebellion the second, the period of the war itself and the third, the period of reconstruction. In all three he as a C O S C U O f U ig S u re. The st a lg e e n r t cring for the first time tCe gal lery of the Iloilse of Representatives, and asking to be pointed out the men of note on the floor be l o w a, s sure, any time in those thirty years, to inquire, among the first, which is Sunset Cox El is speeches, always breezy and brilliant, were sure to fill the vacant seats in the Hall, from the adjoining cloak-rooms and lobbies. It was, how erer, in the heat of debate that he shone the most vividly. In repartee he had no superior, if equal, in his day. Rlr. Coxs energies as a legislator were rather on humanitarian than strictly political lines. One of his eulogists, of s race which had been the i c - tim of prejudice and oppression in many lands and for many centuries, charactePizcd him as a strong and wise defender of the oppressed of all climes and of all faiths. His humanity was broad and deep. Wherever was persecution, the firat to spring to the front in the American Congress to do an-ay with it, was Samuel Sullirstn Cox. Of none of the achievements of his public career was he prouder than of those which justified his title of Father of the Life-Saving Service, or the Friend of the Letter Carriers. And yet, in his elaborate volume, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, he modestly refrains from making even passing allusion to those crowning triumphs of his legislative life. Those, however, whom he so ably xcrved mill ever keep his deeds in grateful remcm brance. In the limits set to this volume it was not pos sible to go beyond a mere outline of Rir. Coxs memorable legislativeexperience. His many no tnbIc speeches in Congress and public addresses outside of tbat body would make a r-aluable o l - ume, pa klin in g thought and expression, and eviucing ripe scholarship and profound study...