The following work is an attempt to present the oratorical features of the American Revolution. The political history of the country has been ably written. Vivid delineations of our early martial heroes are also before the public. All the great leaders in the various departments of statesmanship, literature, science and art, have received the meed of skillful scrutiny and discriminated praise. In view of this general appreciation of our illustrious fathers, it is the more remarkable that so little attention has been paid to the particular merits of the great leaders of the American forum. True, a good deal has been said of them in biographical sketches, legislative history, and traditionary annals ; but we are not aware that any work has heretofore been devoted to a critical and comprehensive examination of our great orators as such. By Elias Lyman Magoon, a nineteenth century American clergyman.