E-text prepared by Brian Sogard, Greg Bergquist, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 24798-h.htm or 24798-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/9/24798/24798-h/24798-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/9/24798/24798-h.zip) AMERICA FIRST Patriotic Readings by JASPER L. McBRIEN, A. M. Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Nebraska and Now School Extension Specialist for the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. [Illustration: AMERICA FIRST] [Illustration] American Book Company New York Cincinnati Chicago Copyright, 1916 by Jasper L. McBrien All rights reserved AMERICA FIRST W. P. 7 FOREWORD America First was the central thought in President Wilson's address to the Daughters of the American Revolution on the twenty-fifth anniversary of their organization--their Silver Jubilee--in Washington, D. C., October 11, 1915. The president declared in this address that all citizens should make it plain whether their sympathies for foreign countries come before their love of the United States, or whether they are for America first, last, and all the time. He asserted, also, that our people need all of their patriotism in this confusion of tongues in which we find ourselves over the European war. The press throughout the country has taken up the thought of the President and, seconded by the efforts of the Bureau of Education, has done loyal work in making "America First" our national slogan. This is all good so far as it goes--especially among the adult population, many of whom must be educated, if educated at all, on the run. But the rising generation, both native-born and foreign, to get the full meaning of this slogan in its far-reaching significance, must have time for study and reflection along patriotic lines. There must be the right material on which the American youth may settle their thoughts for a definite end in patriotism if our country is to have a new birth of freedom and if "this government of the people, by the people, and for the people is not to perish from the earth." The prime and vital service of amalgamating into one homogeneous body the children alike of those who are born here and of those who come here from so many different lands must be rendered this Republic by the school teachers of America. The purpose of this book is to furnish the teachers and pupils of our country, material with which the idea of true Americanism may be developed until "America First" shall become the slogan of every man, woman, and child in the United States. CONTENTS THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS _Jasper L. McBrien_ INTRODUCTION 13 TABLEAU--THE SPIRIT OF SEVENTY-SIX 19