A Collection of the Speeches of the President of the United States.

Rare First Edition of A Collection of the Speeches of the President of the United States

A Collection of the Speeches of the President of the United States.

WASHINGTON, George.

Item Number: 126002

New York: Printed by Manning & Loring for Solomon Cotton, 1796.

Rare first edition of this compendium of Washington’s official communications as President including famous address to the Jewish congregation at Newport. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles to the spine. Very rare, and of interest as an item of American Judaica since it contains the correspondence exchanged between President Washington and the Jewish community of Newport and the communities of Philadelphia, Charleston, New York and Richmond, as well correspondence with Moses Seixas of a Rhode Island Jewish congregation, including a famous quotation from Washington: “For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving on all occasions their effectual support… May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants.” The letters continued to be cited by Jews and their advocates throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a demonstration of Washington’s commitment to the rights and religious freedoms of American Jews. In near fine condition.

Upon Washington’s inauguration, Jewish congregations in Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, Richmond, and Savannah sent letters of congratulations; the community in Newport, however, declined to join any of those letters. On a visit to Newport in 1790, Washington and their warden, Moses Seixas, had a famous exchange which is recorded here. In response to an address from Seixas, Washington remarked that: "For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution 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." Singerman 102.

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