The Colonial IdiomDavid Potter, Gordon L. Thomas In The Colonial Idiom, David Potter and Gordon L. Thomas have selected representative and important speeches and exhortations delivered by famous Americans from the beginning of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To a much greater extent than realized, public speaking and dispuĀtation were important features of daily life in Colonial America, because with the printing presses turning out only limited materials speeches were the major vehicles of expression. Thus the reader not only confronts the ideas and ideals that nurtured the founding of this nation but experiences the impact of freedom to express them, the sense of individual worth pointing the direction of a people "unfolding into sovereignty." The selections are arranged in five categories--those dealing with academic, legal, occasional, political, and religious matters. They are drawn from every stratum of colonial activity--from the classrooms, clerical studies, town meetings, provincial assemblies, and the bar. Great names abound in these pages, but, frequently, expounders of great ideas found here are unremembered figures whose works cannot be found easily elsewhere. The editors have carried out careful research on each speech to assure the authenticity of the text. They have added, for each selection, a note on the speaker and on the place where he delivered his address. This collection, made especially for students of rhetoric and public address, will engage the interest of all students of intellectual movements. The speeches here presented are indispensable sources of information to those readers wishing to follow the political and social ideas that made the history of this fateful century. |
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... taken against them , and shall know what Law is , when they are Prosecuted for Trans- gressing the same . So that by such Methods as have been lately taken , would make a Man think , as if it were purposed that the Countrey should not ...
... taken the Oaths of Allegiance to King James deemed themselves at Liberty to take , and accordingly did take the Oaths to King William and Queen Mary . And that may mention other Act of Parliament that the illustrious House of Hanover ...
... taken from us also . Changes and War have been against us . We had our Peace for many years together , but now the sound of the Trumpet and the Alarum of War , and how long shall we hear it ! A long War has afflicted us now for eight ...
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References to this book
Delightful Conviction: Jonathan Edwards and the Rhetoric of Conversion Stephen R. Yarbrough,John C. Adams No preview available - 1993 |