THE

AMERICAN MANUAL,

OR

NEW ENGLISH READER:

CONSISTING OF

EXERCISES IN READING AND SPEAKING,

BOTH IN

Prose and Poetry;

SELECTED FROM THE BEST WRITERS.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
A SUCCINCT HISTORY OF THE COLONIES,

FROM THE DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA TO THE CLOSE OF

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION ;

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,

THE

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES,

AND OF

THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLŠ.

BY MOSES SEVERANCE.

CAZENOVIA, N.Y.
PUBLISHED BY HENRY, HITCHCOCK, & Co.

1841.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1830, by Moses Seven ANCE, in

nilice of the Clerk of the District Co of the Northern Dis wict of New York.

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Peruaps no book that has been introduced into the schools of this country, has been more deservedly held in high estimation, than the English Reader. It is admitted to unite the most judicious plan, with an excellent selection of matter; but as it has long been the principal reading book used in our schools, and as an occasional change is believed to have an enlivening and salutary effect upon the learner, I have ventured to offer this compilation to the consideration of those, to whose hands the instruction of youth may have been committed.

Confidence in the favorable reception of this offering arises from the circumstance, that it presents a selection of matter, a portion of which is from American authors. A just pride for the literary reputation of our own country, denies the nécessity, or even the propriety, of withholding from our youth, in the books of our primary schools, specimens of our own literature--none of which being found in the English Reader.

Of the character of the pieces best calculated for the improvement of learners in reading, a diversity of opinions may be entertained. Should a want of adaptation to juvenile taste be urged, I would reply only, that I have designed i principally for the first class of learners in our common schools, whose taste it is hoped it may have a tendency 10 mature. In making the selections, an avoidance of what is ludicrous, and a rejection of what is unchaste, immoral, or offensive to the eye or ear of the most refined taste, have been strictly observed..

With a view of adding essentially to the value of this vol ume, not only in the hands of the learner, but in the hands of the community, I have added a concise history of our country at a most interesting period,--the Declaration of Independence-a document which is justly esteemed our nation's boast,--and the Constitution of ihe United States; with all which Americans neither in youth nor mature age can be too familiar. Should the third part

this book, however, in which these are embraced, be thought not to