Great American speeches edited, with introductions by Gregory R. Suriano.

Liberty or death / Patrick Henry -- In favor of the federal constitution / James Madison -- First inaugural address ; Farewell address / George Washington -- Second inaugural address / Thomas Jefferson -- The American scholar / Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Antislavery convention address / Angelina Grimke -- Inaugural address / James K. Polk -- The compromise of 1850 / Henry Clay -- Slavery in the western territories / Daniel Webster -- On women's rights / Sojourner Truth -- Independence day address / Frederick Douglass -- Temperance and women's rights / Elizabeth Cady Stanton -- Oration / Chief Seattle -- A disappointed woman / Lucy Stone -- Seventh Lincoln-Douglas debate / Stephen A. Douglas -- Speech before the court / John Brown -- First inaugural address / Abraham Lincoln -- Inaugural Address as president of the confederate states of America / Jefferson Davis -- Gettysburg address / Abraham Lincoln -- The American press / Mark Twain -- The two revelations / Henry Ward Beecher -- The modern museum and the teaching of art / John La Farge -- Atlanta exposition address / Booker T. Washington -- The cross of gold speech / William Jennings Bryan -- The art and craft of the machine : democracy and new forms in architecture / Frank Lloyd Wright -- Dealing with big corporations ; Preservation of the forests / Theodore Roosevelt -- Arctic exploration / Robert E. Peary -- War Message ; The fourteen points / Woodrow Wilson -- Should a labor party be formed? / Samuel Gompers -- Mercy for Leopold and Loeb / Clarence Darrow -- First inaugural address ; The four freedoms ; Pearl Harbor address / Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- Announcement of the dropping of the atomic bomb / Harry S. Truman -- The Marshall plan / George Marshall -- The menace of mass destruction / Albert Einstein -- In support of civil rights / Hubert Humphrey -- On behalf of a declaration of conscience / Margaret Chase Smith

The recall of General Douglas MacArthur / Harry S. Truman -- American policy in the Pacific / Douglas MacArthur -- Presidential nomination acceptance speech / Adlai Stevenson -- The Korean armistice / Dwight D. Eisenhower -- Labor day message / George Meany -- Atoms for peace / Dwight D. Eisenhower -- Inaugural address / John F. Kennedy -- Television and the public interest / Newton N. Minow -- The Berlin crisis / John F. Kennedy -- The flight of Friendship 7 and the space program / John Glenn, Jr. -- The march on Washington address / Martin Luther King, Jr. -- An indefensible war / Eugene McCarthy -- Leaving the presidency / Lyndon B. Johnson -- The legal profession and service to society / Ralph Nader -- A new kind of southern strategy / Bella Abzug -- Statement to the senate foreign relations committee / Henry Kissinger -- The planetary crisis and the challenge to scientists / Margaret Mead -- On the impeachment of the president / Barbara Jordan -- Resignation speech / Richard M. Nixon -- First Inaugural address / Ronald Reagan -- A case for the democrats : a tale of two cities / Mario Cuomo -- Democratic convention speech / Jesse Jackson

"Great American Speeches is a collection that reflects the important issues that confronted the United States at significant moments. 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. Included are speeches that are famed in themselves for the events they reflect or for the continually echoing eloquence of their words. They include: Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death speech, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor message, John F. Kennedy's First Inaugural Address, and Martin Luther King's March on Washington 'I Have a dream' address. In addition, the speeches of such great Americans as George Washington, James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Jesse Jackson combi
ne elements of personal importance, oratorical skill, topical consequence, and memorable presentation."--Publisher's description