| PAGE | ||
| Preface | 7 | |
| Note | 9 | |
| Introduction | 11 | |
| I CELEBRATION |
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| The Great American Holiday | Anonymous | 21 |
| The Nation’s Birthday | Mary E. Vandyne | 22 |
| How the Fourth of July Should Be Celebrated | Julia Ward Howe | 24 |
| II SPIRIT AND SIGNIFICANCE |
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| England and America | James Bryce | 39 |
| The Birthday of the Nation | Daniel Webster | 40 |
| The Fourth of July | Charles Leonard Moore | 42 |
| Lift Up Your Hearts | Anonymous | 42 |
| England and the Fourth of July | W. T. Stead | 46 |
| Some Early Independence Day Addresses | 47 | |
| The Fourth of July | Charles Sprague | 53 |
| Our National Anniversary | A. H. Rice | 54 |
| America’s Natal Day | James Gillespie Blaine | 55 |
| Crises of Nations | Dr. Foss | 56 |
| The Fourth of July in Westminster Abbey | Phillips Brooks | 56 |
| III BEFORE THE DAWN OF INDEPENDENCE |
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| America Resents British Dictation | Henry B. Carrington | 61 |
| Speech of James Otis | 62 | |
| Independence a Solemn Duty | 64 | |
| An Appeal for America | William Pitt | 66 |
| Conciliation or War | 69 | |
| “War is Actually Begun” | Patrick Henry | 72 |
| Emancipation from British Dependence | Philip Freneau | 76 |
| IV THE DECLARATION |
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| The Origin of the Declaration | Sydney George Fisher | 81 |
| The Declaration of Independence | John D. Long | 101 |
| The Signing of the Declaration | George Lippard | 104 |
| Supposed Speech of John Adams | Daniel Webster | 107 |
| The Liberty Bell | J. T. Headley | 111 |
| Independence Bell, Philadelphia | Anonymous | 112 |
| The Declaration of Independence | 115 | |
| Independence Explained | Samuel Adams | 121 |
| The Dignity of Our Nation’s Founders | William T. Evarts | 123 |
| The Character of the Declaration of Independence | George Bancroft | 125 |
| The Declaration of Independence | Henry T. Randall | 126 |
| The Declaration of Independence | John Quincy Adams | 127 |
| The Declaration of Independence | Tudor Jenks | 128 |
| The Declaration of Independence in the Light of Modern Criticism | Moses Coit Tyler | 132 |
| V THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE |
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| The Principles of the Revolution | 157 | |
| The Song of the Cannon | Sam Walter Foss | 158 |
| Paul Revere’s Ride | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 160 |
| Hymn | Ralph Waldo Emerson | 164 |
| A Song for Lexington | Robert Kelly Weeks | 165 |
| The Revolutionary Alarm | George Bancroft | 166 |
| The Volunteer | Elbridge Jefferson Cutler | 168 |
| Ticonderoga | V. B. Wilson | 169 |
| Warren’s Address | John Pierpont | 171 |
| “The Lonely Bugle Grieves” | Grenville Mellen | 172 |
| The Battle of Bunker Hill | 173 | |
| The Maryland Battalion | John Williamson Palmer | 175 |
| The Battle of Trenton | Anonymous | 177 |
| Columbia | Timothy Dwight | 178 |
| The Fighting Parson | Henry Ames Blood | 180 |
| The Saratoga Lesson | George William Curtis | 184 |
| The Surrender of Burgoyne | James Watts De Peyster | 187 |
| The Saratoga Monument Begun | Horatio Seymour | 187 |
| Molly Maguire at Monmouth | William Collins | 190 |
| The South in the Revolution | Robert Young Hayne | 193 |
| The Song of Marion’s Men | William Cullen Bryant | 195 |
| Our Country Saved | James Russell Lowell | 197 |
| New England and Virginia | Robert Charles Winthrop | 199 |
| VI SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY |
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| America | S. F. Smith | 203 |
| The Republic | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 205 |
| The Antiquity of Freedom | William Cullen Bryant | 206 |
| America | William Cullen Bryant | 208 |
| Ode | Ralph Waldo Emerson | 210 |
| America First | Anonymous | 212 |
| Liberty for All | William Lloyd Garrison | 213 |
| Hymn | Anonymous | 214 |
| The Dawning Future | William Preston Johnson | 216 |
| Liberty | 216 | |
| Freedom | 217 | |
| A Rhapsody | Cassius Marcellus Clay | 219 |
| Columbia | Frederick Lawrence Knowles | 221 |
| A Renaissance of Patriotism | George J. Manson | 222 |
| Centennial Poems | John Greenleaf Whittier | 230 |
| Welcome to the Nation | Oliver Wendell Holmes | 232 |
| Liberty’s Latest Daughter | Bayard Taylor | 233 |
| “Scum of the Earth” | Robert Haven Schauffler | 234 |
| Liberty and Union One and Inseparable | Daniel Webster | 238 |
| Address to Liberty | William Cowper | 240 |
| The Torch of Liberty | Thomas Moore | 241 |
| Horologe of Liberty | Anonymous | 242 |
| The American Republic | George Bancroft | 243 |
| A New National Hymn | Francis Marion Crawford | 244 |
| VII FICTION |
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| Jim’s Aunt | Frances Bent Dillingham | 249 |
| VIII THE NEW FOURTH |
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| Our Barbarous Fourth | Mrs. Isaac L. Rice | 265 |
| A Safe and Sane Fourth of July | Henry Litchfield West | 285 |
| The New Independence Day | Henry B. F. MacFarland and Richard B. Watrous | 296 |
| New Fourths for Old | Mrs. Isaac L. Rice | 299 |
| Americanizing the Fourth | Robert Haven Schauffler | 307 |