Signed booklet: An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport, at Their Request, on the Sixty-first Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1837. First edition. Newburyport: Morss and Brewster, 1837. Printed paper wraps (retaining front wrap only) housed in a 20th-century custom binding, 5.25 x 8.5, 68 pages. Signed and inscribed in ink on the front wrap “Revd. Peter Whitney from John Quincy Adams.” In the lengthy oration, Adams touches specifically on the history and interpretation of the Declaration, incorporating a number of religious and biblical allusions throughout. Of special interest are numerous references to the evils of slavery, including this extract from the final paragraphs: “Say with me, that thousands of years have passed away since [the Scriptures] were composed, and have been believed by the most enlightened of mankind as the oracles of truth; say, that they contain the high and cheering promise, as from the voice of God himself, of that specific human improvement in the condition of man, which consists in the extirpation of slavery and war from the face of the earth. Sweep from the pages of history all the testimonies of the Scriptures, and believe no more in the prophesies of Isaiah, than in those of the Cumaean sybil; but acknowledge that in both there is shadowed forth a future improvement in the condition of our race…. Turn to yourselves, and, in the Declaration of Independence of your fathers, read the command to you, by the unremitting exercise of your highest energies, to hasten, yourselves, its consummation!” The inscribee, Peter Whitney (1770–1843), was minister of the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts 1800–1843 and served in the state legislature in 1835. The front pastedown bears the bookplate of noted presidential collector John Maxwell Taylor. In very good to fine condition, with light vertical fold (through the “n” of “John”) and a few creases, and some light scattered foxing and staining (heavier to the unsigned pages). An unusual and historic Adams format! JSA/John Reznikoff Auction LOA and RRAuction COA.
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