Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/37

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No. 3]
Classification
9

William Eddis (No. 107) ; Adair (No. 113) ; John Filson (No. 134); Joseph Doddridge (No. 136).

The newspapers have furnished several pieces for this volume. Though the colonial newspaper was usually dull, and there was no system of circulating accurate news, yet nothing better reflects the spirit of the age than such extracts as are found on the runaway advertisements (No. 105) ; on privateers (No. 121) ; on mobs (No. 161) ; on the Tories (No. 168) ; on Lexington and Concord (No. 191) ; on the Confederation (No. 209).

In the eighteenth century there was already a school of formal historians (see list below, No. 7) . Out of these, extracts have been made from the following : Daniel Neal (No. 20) ; Robert Proud (No. 31) ; Robert Beverly (No. 33) ; Edmund Burke (Nos. 44, 52) ; Sir William Keith (No. 49) ; William Douglass (No. 50) ; William Gordon (No. 219) ; David Ramsay (No. 220).

Among colonial authors many were ministers of the gospel, of various denominations. Such were Lawson (No. 16) ; Burnaby (No. 32) ; Maury (No. 37) ; Bolzius (No. 40) ; Clap (No. 90) ; Byles (No. 91) ; Cotton and Increase Mather (Nos. 92, 93) ; John Wesley (No. 99) ; Doddridge (No. 136) ; Chauncy (No. 147) ; Williams (No. 160) : Dwight (No. 164); Odell (No. 167); and Gordon (No. 219). Physicians wrote much less ; yet several important pieces are taken from the writings of Dr. Douglass (No. 50) ; Dr. Thacher (No. 175) ; Dr. Waldo (No. 198) ; and Dr. Ramsay (No. 220).

Some of the most highly educated, brilliant, and witty writers of the eighteenth century were women ; and quotations appear from Eliza Lucas (Nos. 35, 83) ; Sarah Kemble Knight, one of the best observers of her time (No. 80) ; Mrs. Reed (No. 165) ; Mrs. Adams, perhaps the most distinguished woman in the Revolution (No. 192) ; and the courageous Baroness Riedesel (No. 197).

Verse writers were few, and only a few pieces have proved to be so illustrative of historical incident as to come into this volume. These are Byles's eulogy of George I (No. 91) ; verses in an almanac (No. 94); "Ballad of Pigwacket" (No. 119) ; Paine's "Liberty Tree " (No. 159) ; Dwight's "Columbia" (No. 164) ; "Nathan Hale" (No. 171) ; Stansbury's "Lords of the Main" (No. 182) ; Francis Hopkinson's "Battle of the Kegs" (No. 196).