An Oration, Pronounced at Stirling, July 4, 1811.
Boston: Watson & Bangs, Printers, [1811]. First edition thus. Unbound pamphlet (7 x 4.25 inches), stab-stitched, 24 pages. Partially unopened. Unevenly trimmed along the lower edge; paper stock uniformly toned but supple; in very good condition. Item #20889
“In government we have done well, / Republican and Federal, / In all the world the best: / May we enjoy the blessing long, / And foreigners unto it throng, / Its blessings for to taste.” A lengthy verse address on the occasion of American Independence, with an appended eight-stanza ode. American Imprints 22671; Stoddard & Whitesell 949: “First pronounced in 1804 [in Tiverton, Rhode Island] (entry 748).” The so-called Tivertown address (per its title page) was printed in Haverhill, Mass. by H. Mann; OCLC has transformed Tivertown into Tinkertown, adding to an already existing confusion around attribution: Stoddard’s certainty on the identity of Elijah Deane (1738-1830) contradicts earlier attributions to Ebenezer Deane (1741-1809)—who seems unlikely to have had sufficient energy to have appeared on the rostrum for the 1811 celebrations. With an attractive wood-engraved cameo imprint. The LC copy noted by Stoddard & Whitesell has blue wrappers (not present here).
Price: $250.00