106 HALL OF FAME MEN. 



from the eighth preceding ancestor. It is probable, however, that 

 the larger period of time was accumulated in Mary's immediately 

 preceding ancestors. In whatever way we look at it, Mary Ball 

 had quite a remarkable birth ancestry, and from the theory of 

 use-inheritance should have been quite a remarkable person. That 

 she was a remarkable person history tells us, and popular opinion 

 credits 'the greatness of Washington, not to inheritance from his 

 father, but to inheritance from his mother. It is the mother of 

 Washington of whom we hear, not the father. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



The same thing is true of Lincoln. While the father, Thomas, 

 was born in class A (estimated), he appears to have been shift- 

 less and of not much practical use, though a man of considerable 

 intelligence. The mother, Nancy Hanks, was the youngest of 

 eight children, and both of her parents were the youngest of con- 

 siderable families. The distance between Nancy Hanks and her 

 grandfather places both her and her father in class B, while col- 

 lateral evidence places her mother in nearly, if not quite, as high 

 rank. We thus have three, and perhaps more, steps of high 

 rank on the mother's side, while the high rank is known not to 

 extend more than one step on the father's side, though the length 

 of the next preceding step is unknown. 



WILLIAM E. CHANNING. 



In the biography of Channing we find the same tendency to 

 give much credit to the mother, and when we examine the ancestry 

 from the birth standpoint we can see a reason for it. Channing's 

 maternal grandmother was Ann Remington, born in class A 2 , and 

 daughter of Judge Jonathan Remington, who was born in class C 



