AN ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF NEWBURYPORT ... ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Newburyport: Morss and Brewster, (1837). First Edition. wraps. Very Good and scarce. Original printed blue wrappers; 68 pages. INSCRIBED and SIGNED on the front blue wrapper: "Deacon Samuel Savile/from/John Quincy Adams." Books inscribed by Adams are quite uncommon, and when found are usually signed on a presentation slip pasted in rather than in the actual pamphlet or book as it is here. The first child of a president to become a president, the first president to be a published poet, and the first president to be photographed, Adams was certainly one of our most intelligent presidents and one of the greatest humanitarians to hold that office. He is also the only president to serve in Congress after leaving office and is perhaps best known for two accomplishments outside his term: the authorship of the Monroe Doctrine as secretary of state and his heroic, successful argument before the Supreme Court to free the Amistad slaves. This oration is of particular interest as it was given on 4 July 1837 to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document his father was assigned to draft, though he left that task to Thomas Jefferson. Adams Sr. and Jefferson were the only presidents to sign the Declaration. In this speech Adams refers to the injustice of slavery several times connecting it to the promise of the Declaration of Independence and "a rule of right transcending all human power ... must lead to the extinction of slavery and of war from the earth." Adams and Savile were members of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church in Braintree, Massachusetts.