The author explains in the Preface the significance of the volume in this way: “It cannot be denied that members of the bar have been more prominent actors in public affairs than any other class of the community.” “Fully impressed with the prominent part that members of the bar have taken in public affairs, the weight of influence they have, as a class, exerted in the community, and the dignity they have imparted to the profession, it is the purpose of this volume to place on permanent record the lives of those men who have been chiefly instrumental in making the history of the bench and bar of Wisconsin. Their history is largely the history of the state.” [my emphasis]