Great American Speeches is a collection that reflects the important issues that confronted the United States at significant moments from the Revolution to the day before yesterday. The speeches have been organized chronologically,so that the history of the American Republic unfolds decade by decade, year by year, through the personal responses of the individuals who shaped events and ideas.

The speeches are not merely patriotic or political but are representative of the entire life of the nation, of specific moments in history.Each address is prefaced by a concise introduc-tion that places the words firmly in their his-torical context and provides background information on the life and accomplishments of the speaker.

Introduction

PATRICK HENRY * Liberty or Death

JAMES MADISON * In Favor of the Federal Constitution

GEORGE WASHINGTON * First Inaugural Address

GEORGE WASHINGTON * Farewell Address

THOMAS JEFFERSON * Second Inaugural Address

RALPH WALDO EMERSON * The American Scholar

ANGELINA GRIMKE* Antislavery Convention Address

JAMES K. POLk* Inaugural Address

HENRY CLAY * The Compromise of 1850

DANIEL WEBSTER * Slavery in the Western Territories

SOJOURNER TRUTH * On Women's Rights

FREDERICK DOUGLASS * Independence Day Address

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON * Temperance and Women's

  Rights

CHIEF SEATTLE * Oration

Lucy STONE * A Disappointed Woman

ABRAHAM LINCOLN * Seventh Lincoln-Douglas Debate

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS * Seventh Lincoln-Douglas

  Debate

JOHN BROWN * Speech Before the Court

ABRAHAM LINCOLN * First Inaugural Address

JEFFERSON DAVIS * Inaugural Address as President of

  the Confederate States of America

ABRAHAM LINCOLN * Gettysburg Address

MARK TWAIN * The American Press

HENRY WARD BEECHER * The Two Revelations

JOHN LA FARGE * The Modern Museum and the

Teaching of Art

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON * Atlanta Exposition Address

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN ,* The Cross of Gold Speech

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT * The Ar't and Craft of the

Machine: Democracy and New Forms in Architecture

THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Dealing with the Big

Corporations

THEODORE ROOSEVELT * Preservation of the Forests

ROBERT E. PEARY * Arctic Exploration

WOODROW WILSON * War Message

WOODROW WILSON * The Fourteen Points

SAMUEL GOMPERS * Should a Labor Party Be Formed?

CLARENCE DARROW * Mercy for Leopold and Loeb

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT * First Inaugural

  Address

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT * The Four Freedoms

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT * Pearl Harbor Address

HARRY S. TRUMAN * Announcement of the Dropping of

  the Atomic Bomb

GEORGE MARSHALL * The Marshall Plan

ALBBRT EINSTEIN * The Menace of Mass Destruction

HUBERT HUMPHREY. In Support of Civil Rights

MARGARET CHASE SMITH * On Behalf of a Declaration

  of Conscience

HARRY S. TRUMAN * The Recall of General Douglas

  MacArthur

DOUGLAS MACARTHUR* American Policy in the Pacific

ADLAI STEVENSON . Presidential Nomination

Acceptance Speech

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER . The Korean Armistice

GEORGE MEANY * Labor Day Message

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER * Atoms for Peace

JOHN F. KENNEDY , Inaugural Address

NEWTON N. MINOW, Television and the Public

  Interest

JOHN F. KENNEDY, The Berlin Crisis

JOHN GLENN, JR. * The Flight of Friendship 7

  and the Space Program

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. * The March on

  Washington Address

EUGENE MCCARTHY * An Indefensible War

LYNDON B. JOHNSON * Leaving the Presidency

RALVH NADER * The Legal Profession and Service to

  Society

BELLA ABZUG * A New Kind of Southern Strategy

HENRY KISSINGER . Statement to the Senate Foreign

  Relations Committee

MARGARET MEAD , The Planetary Crisis and the

  Challenge to Scientists

BARBARA JORDAN * On the Impeachment of the

  President

RICHARD M. NIXON * Resignation Speech

RONALD REAGAN * First Inaugural Address

MARIO CUOMO * A Case for the Democrats: A Tale of

  Two Cities

JESSE JACKSON * Democratic Convention Speech