Excerpt from The Forum of Democracy
The aim of this book is to inspire patriotism, to set forth the democratic ideals of the United States and its associates in the Great War, and at the same time to furnish classes in reading and speaking with a new, interesting, and stimulating collection of the writings and speeches of the master minds of to-day.
Not only are these selections valuable for reading and for study, they are filled with a dramatic appeal and an intensity of feeling and purpose which make them especially suited to classes in declamation.
Men feel deeply, think earnestly, and speak sincerely in times of tragic crisis. Under these conditions oratory flourishes. Such was the case in 1775, when Patrick Henry, James Otis, and others called down the wrath of the people of the new world on the tyranny of the old; such was the case in '61 and the white-hot years preceding, when Calhoun and Webster, Beecher and Lincoln set forth the conflicting views on slavery and union.
To-day, as in the past, men's truest thoughts and highest aspirations are being given to the world by her great statesmen and thinkers. Out of this furnace-heat of conflict thoughts have been given expression, ideals voiced, and convictions stated, so forceful in character and so beautiful in form that they deserve a permanent place in the literature of coming generations.
The sources have been many and varied.
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