Beadle's Dime National Speaker

# Beadle's Dime Speaker, No. 2 (1863)

This revised and enlarged collection of oratorical and literary pieces for American schools and home recitation comprises speeches, poems, and dramatic monologues. Featured contributors include Edward Everett (four pieces on American achievement and union), Bishop Whipple, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and others. Content spans serious patriotic and moral themes—"The Union and Its Results," "Our Country's Future," territorial expansion, and eulogies of national figures like Washington and Henry Clay—alongside lighter material including humorous pieces and narrative monologues like "The Bashful Man's Story" and "Martha Hopkins." Poetry by Tennyson, Owen Meredith, and others appears alongside anonymous selections. Subjects range from independence and nationalism to social conduct, practical philosophy ("Early Rising," "Deeds of Kindness"), and comic verse. The introduction emphasizes providing schoolchildren and speakers affordable access to quality reading material spanning serious and humorous modes.