An Oration Delivered April 2d, 1771, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March.

"Our fathers... came that they might here enjoy themselves, and leave to their posterity the best of earthly potions, full English Liberty": First edition of James Lovell's Oration Delivered April 2d, 1771 at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March

An Oration Delivered April 2d, 1771, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March.

LOVELL, James.

Item Number: 125360

Boston: Printed by Edes and Gill, by the Order of the Town of Boston, 1771.

First edition of the first Boston Massacre oration; a classic of the Revolutionary period. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco, morocco spine label lettered in gilt. In near fine condition. American Antiquarian Society stamp to the half-title page. Rare.

On March 5, 1770, British Captain Preston and eight British soldiers brought to trial on the charge of murdering five Bostonians that evening were defended by young lawyer, John Adams (later Vice-President and President of the United States), assisted by Josiah Quincy, Jr. This unpopular defense Adams rightly regarded as "one of the most gallant, generous, manly, and disinterested actions of [his] whole life." In observance of the first anniversary of the tragedy (though not until April 2, 1771) was delivered the first of a series of annual patriotic speeches known as "the Boston Massacre Orations." These speeches were contemporaneously printed. John Adams later wrote: "These orations were read, I had almost said, by everybody that could read, and scarcely ever with dry eyes. They have now been continued for forty-five years. [Adams counted in the annual Fourth of July Orations, which began in Boston in 1783.] Will you read them all? They were not long continued in their original design; but other gentlemen, with other views, had influence enough to obtain a change from 'standing armies' to 'feelings which produced the Revolution'. Of these forty-five orations, I have read as many as I have seen. They have varied with all the changes of our politics. They have been made the engine of bringing forward to public notice young gentlemen of promising genius, whose connections and sentiments were tolerable to the prevailing opinions of the moment." Lovell, a Boston schoolmaster, was one of the staunchest of the local patriots. After the Battle of Bunker Hill he was arrested by the British for spying and was sent a prisoner to Halifax. Following his exchange he became a member of the Continental Congress (1777), where he was a supporter of Gates and one of the harshest critics of Washington. How active a part he played in the Conway Cabal against Washington is not known, but he certainly approved it.

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