American Eloquence in 4 volumes presents a study in American political history and it contains a selection of great speeches of American statesmen showing the spirit and motives which have triggered these leaders throughout several phases of American history. The work divides history of United States in 9 stages: Colonialism, Constitutional Government, the Rise of Democracy, the Rise of Nationality, the Slavery struggle, Secession, Civil War and Reconstruction, Free Trade and Protection, and Civil Service Reform. Each of these is marked by important orations of nation's great leaders, from Colonialism and orations of Alexander Hamilton, through Anti-Slavery speeches of John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln to Free Trade and Reform era and lectures of Henry Clay and George William Curtis.