ordon; "The New South," by Henry W. Grady; and "The Hollander as an
American," by Theodore Roosevelt.

To A. C. Butters for the address on "Washington," by John W. Daniel,
from _Modern Eloquence_ published by George L. Schuman and Company.

To Henry Watterson, Louisville, Kentucky, for the extracts from his
lecture on Abraham Lincoln.

To E. Benjamin Andrews and to his publishers, Fords, Howard and Hulbert,
for the extracts from his lecture on Robert E. Lee.

To J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, for the poem by Thomas
Buchanan Read, "The Rising in 1776."

To Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, for the poem by Henry van Dyke,
"America for Me," and also for the extract from the poem "Wanted," by J.
G. Holland.

To The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, for the poem by James
Whitcomb Riley, "The Name of Old Glory."

To Henry Holcomb Bennett for his poem entitled, "The Flag Goes By."

To Christopher Sower Company, Philadelphia, for the poem by Edward
Brooks, entitled "Be a Woman."

The selections from the poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Bayard Taylor are used by
permission of and special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company, the
authorized publishers of the works of those authors.

The thanks of the author are also extended to Nelson Warner, Katherine
M. Cook, Mrs. L. R. Caldwell, Belvia Cuzzort, W. R. Hood, and Dr.
Stephen B. Weeks of the Bureau of Education, for valuable assistance in
the compilation of this work.

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

A DRAMATIZATION

[Illustration: SIGNING THE DECLARATION]

INTRODUCTION

This dramatization of the Continental Congress portrays the spirit of
the times during the period of the American Revolution. It deals
principally with the debates for and against the Declaration of
Independence; it is a summary of the grievances, struggles, sacrifices,
and victories of the colonies from the enactment of the obnoxious Stamp
Act by the British Parliament to the resignation of George Washington as
commander-in-chief of the American army.

In the construction of a drama covering such a heroic period and
relating to events so momentous, all of which must pass in review before
us within an hour and a half's time, it is necessary to exercise a
certain dramatic license. The historical literalist, like the scriptural
literalist, makes the letter kill the spirit of the truth. After all, it
is not the dry facts