A remarkable collection of Washington’s presidential speeches and letters, including his inaugural address, all of his annual messages to Congress (State of the Union addresses), and his farewell to his Revolutionary War armies.
“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecu tion no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support….” (from Washington’s “to Bigotry No Sanction” response)
This volume includes addresses from and responses to more than fifty representatives or groups, including state governors and legislators, mayors and town councils, colleges, Masonic Lodges, tradesmen, colleges (the University of Pennsylvania, Washington College, Dartmouth, Harvard), and others. It contains 13 addresses from religious denominations, together with Washington’s responses, including that of the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, R.I.; the German Reformed Congregations (“I shall earnestly desire the continuation of an interest in your intercessions at the Throne of Grace.”); the German Lutheran Congregation of Philadelphia; the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Protestant Episcopal Church; the Quakers (“Government being among other purposes instituted to protect the persons and consciences of men from oppression, it certainly is the duty of rulers not only to abstain from it themselves, but according to their stations to prevent it in others.”); the First Presbytery of the Eastward (“And here, I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation respecting religion from the Magna Charta of our country.”), the Reformed Dutch Church in North America, (“I readily join with you, that ‘while just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.’”); the Roman Catholics; the Universal Church (“It gives me the most sensible pleasure to find, that, in our nation, however different are the sentiments of the citizens on religious doctrines, they generally concur in one thing: for their political professions and practices are almost universally friendly to the order and happiness of our civil institutions.”) Together, these provide a remarkable view of the relationship of diverse groups of Americans to their first president. Finally, it includes Washington’s Circular Letter to the Governors of the Several States (June 18, 1783) and his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, at the end of the Revolutionary War (Nov. 2, 1783).
On August 1, 1796, Boston bookseller Solomon Cotton, Jr. sent a copy of this volume to President Washington, inscribed: “… you are now addressed by a young man, with all that respect and veneration, due to your revered character; who intreats your acceptance of the Volume accompanying this letter.”
Ten years after publishing this book, Cotton was found dead in the harbor at Baltimore with a handkerchief tied tightly around his neck and another tied to it containing a large stone.
[GEORGE WASHINGTON.] A Collection of the Speeches of the President of the United States to Both Houses of Congress, At the Opening of every Session, with Their Answers. Also, the Addresses to the President, with His Answers, From the Time of His Election: With An Appendix, Containing The Circular Letter of General Washington to the Governors of the several States, and his Farewell Orders, to the Armies of America, and the Answer. First edition, Boston: Manning and Loring, 1796. 282 pp + terminal bookseller’s ad. 8vo., 4¼ x 7 in.
Offered by Seth Kaller
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