Table of Contents

In Chronological Order.

FIRST PERIOD ... 1579-1750.

Page
John Smith, 1579-1631[33]
Rescue of Captain Smith by Pocahontas[35]
Our Right to Those Countries[38]
Ascent of the River James, 1607[42]
William Strachey, in America 1609-12[45]
A Storm Off the Bermudas[45]
John Lawson, in America 1700-08[48]
North Carolina in 1700-08[49]
Harvest Home of the Indians[53]
William Byrd, 1674-1744[54]
Selecting the Site of Richmond and Petersburg, 1733[58]
A Visit to Ex-Governor Spotswood, 1732[58]
Dismal Swamp, 1728[61]
The Tuscarora Indians and Their Legend of a Christ, 1729[65]

SECOND PERIOD ... 1750-1800.

Henry Laurens, 1724-1792[67]
A Patriot in the Tower[68]
George Washington, 1732-1799[71]
An Honest Man[73]
How to Answer Calumny[74]
Conscience[74]
On his Appointment as Commander-in-Chief, 1775[74]
A Military Dinner-Party[76]
Advice to a Favorite Nephew[76]
Farewell Address to the People of the United States, 1796[77]
Union and Liberty[77]
Party Spirit[79]
Religion and Morality[81]
Patrick Henry, 1736-1799[82]
Remark on Slavery, 1788[84]
Not Bound by State Lines[84]
If This Be Treason, 1765[84]
The Famous Revolution Speech, 1775[84]
William Henry Drayton, 1742-1779[87]
George III.’s Abdication of Power in America[89]
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826[91]
Political Maxims[94]
Religious Opinions at the Age of Twenty[94]
Scenery at Harper’s Ferry, and at the Natural Bridge[95]
On Freedom of Religious Opinion[98]
On the Discourses of Christ[98]
Religious Freedom (the Act of 1786)[98]
Letter to his Daughter[100]
Jefferson’s Last Letter, 1826[101]
David Ramsay, 1749-1815[103]
British Treaty with the Cherokees, 1755[105]
Sergeant Jasper at Fort Moultrie, 28 June, 1776[106]
Sumpter and Marion[107]
James Madison, 1751-1836[109]
Opinion of Lafayette[110]
Plea for a Republic[111]
Character of Washington[112]
St. George Tucker, 1752-1828[113]
Resignation, or Days of My Youth[115]
John Marshall, 1755-1835[116]
Power of the Supreme Court[117]
The Duties of a Judge[118]
Henry Lee, 1756-1818[119]
Capture of Fort Motte by Lee and Marion, 1780[120]
The Father of His Country[124]
Mason Locke Weems, 1760-1825[126]
The Hatchet Story[126]
John Drayton, 1766-1822[127]
A Revolutionary Object Lesson in the Cause of Patriotism 1775[128]
The Battle of Noewee, 1776[129]
William Wirt, 1772-1834[131]
The Blind Preacher (James Waddell)[132]
Mr. Henry against John Hook[135]
John Randolph, 1773-1833[137]
Revision of the State Constitution, 1829[138]
George Tucker, 1775-1861[140]
Jefferson’s Preference for Country Life[142]
Establishment of the University of Virginia[143]

THIRD PERIOD ... 1800-1850.

Henry Clay, 1777-1852[147]
To Be Right above All[148]
No Geographical Lines in Patriotism[148]
Military Insubordination[148]
Francis Scott Key, 1780-1843[151]
The Star-Spangled Banner[151]
John James Audubon, 1780-1851[153]
The Mocking-Bird[155]
The Humming-Bird[157]
Thomas Hart Benton, 1782-1858[158]
The Duel Between Randolph and Clay, 1826[159]
John Caldwell Calhoun, 1782-1850[161]
War and Peace[164]
System of Our Government[164]
Defence of Nullification[164]
The Wise Choice[166]
Official Patronage[167]
Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, 1784-1851[167]
The Partisan Leader[168]
David Crockett, 1786-1836[173]
Spelling and Grammar: Prologue To His Autobiography[173]
On a Bear-hunt[175]
Motto: Be Sure You Are Right[178]
Richard Henry Wilde, 1789-1847[178]
My Life Is Like the Summer Rose[179]
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, 1790-1870[180]
Ned Brace at Church[180]
A Sage Conversation[182]
Robert Young Hayne, 1791-1839[185]
State Sovereignty and Liberty[185]
Sam Houston, 1793-1863[189]
Cause of the Texan War of Independence[190]
Battle of San Jacinto, 1836[193]
How To Deal With the Indians[196]
William Campbell Preston, 1794-1860[199]
Literary Society in Columbia, S. C., 1825[201]
John Pendleton Kennedy, 1795-1870[204]
A Country Gentleman in Virginia[205]
His Wife[207]
How Horse-Shoe and Andrew Captured Five Men[210]
Hugh Swinton Legaré, 1797-1843[217]
Commerce and Wealth vs. War[217]
Demosthenes’ Courage[219]
A Duke’s Opinions of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, in 1825[221]
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, 1798-1859[223]
The Daughter of Mendoza[223]
Francis Lister Hawks, 1798-1866[224]
The First Indian Baptism in America[225]
Virginia Dare, the First English Child Born in America[226]
The Lost Colony of Roanoke[226]
George Denison Prentice, 1802-1870[228]
The Closing Year[228]
Paragraphs[231]
Edward Coate Pinkney, 1802-1828[231]
A Health[232]
Song: We Break the Glass[233]
Charles Étienne Arthur Gayarré, 1805-1895[235]
Louisiana in 1750-1770[236]
The Tree of the Dead[240]
Matthew Fontaine Maury, 1806-1873[243]
The Gulf Stream[246]
Deep-Sea Soundings[247]
Heroic Death of Lieutenant Herndon[249]
William Gilmore Simms, 1806-1870[252]
Sonnet—The Poet’s Vision[255]
The Doom of Occonestoga[255]
Marion, the “Swamp-Fox”[262]
Robert Edward Lee, 1807-1870[265]
Duty—To His Son[266]
Human Virtue—At the Surrender[266]
His Last Order, 1865[266]
Letter Accepting the Presidency of Washington College[268]
Jefferson Davis, 1808-1889[269]
Trip To Kentucky at Seven Years of Age, and Visit to General Jackson[271]
Life of the President of the United States[272]
Farewell to the Senate, 1861[274]
Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849[276]
To Helen[279]
Israfel[279]
Happiness[281]
The Raven[281]
Robert Toombs, 1810-1885[284]
Farewell to the Senate, 1861[286]
Octavia Walton Le Vert, 1810-1877[288]
To Cadiz from Havanna, 1855[289]
Louisa Susannah M’Cord, 1810-1880[291]
Woman’s Duty[292]
Joseph G. Baldwin, 1811-1864[294]
Virginians in a New Country[294]
Alexander Hamilton Stephens, 1812-1883[296]
Laws of Government[297]
Sketch in the Senate, 1850[298]
True Courage[301]
Alexander Beaufort Meek, 1814-1865[301]
Red Eagle, or Weatherford[302]
Philip Pendleton Cooke, 1816-1850[305]
Florence Vane[305]
Theodore O’Hara, 1820-1867[308]
Bivouac of the Dead[308]