Heading: (Presidents)
Author: Washington, George
Title: America's Lecacy [sic]: Being the Address of G. Washington, on his declining a Re-election to the Presidency, to the People of the United States
Place Published: Hudson [NY]
Publisher:A. Stoddard
Date Published: 1797
Description:

200 pp. (12mo) 12.3x7.5 (4¾x3"), period calf, morocco lettering piece.

Very rare printing of George Washington's farewell address, considered one of the most important speeches delivered by an American president. Despite popular appeals that he remain in office, Washington declined to serve for a third term as president, establishing a precedent that has been followed ever since. In this valedictory address, which he drafted with help from James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Washington offered guidance on the most pressing issues of the day, of crucial import even today: check and balances and the separation of powers, national morality and civil religion, monetary policy and free trade, and the ideal of American neutrality in foreign affairs. Following the speech's initial publication in the American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796, regional printers rushed copies into print. Ashbel Stoddard (1763-1840) was one of these. In 1797, he published two issues of Washington's farewell address. A slim 99-page edition, presumably the earliest, was assembled in such haste that Stoddard did not have the opportunity to correct the egregious misspelling on the title page ("Lecacy" for "Legacy"). Evidently fearing that the offering was too poor, Stoddard subsequently published an expanded version plumped up to 200 pages by appending reprints of three earlier speeches dating from the revolutionary war. This is the present issue, which maintained the misprint on the title-page as on the first, abbreviated issue. OCLC/WorldCat locates four copies: at the American Antiquarian Society; the University of Minnesota; the Library Co. of Philadelphia; and the American Philosophical Society.

Signatures: a-e6, 2e6, f-p6, q4. With a half-title. The added speeches are: "A circular letter from His Excellency George Washington, commander in chief of the Armies of the United States of America, to the governors of the several states."- Page [101]-164, with separate title page. "Farewel [sic] orders of General Washington, to the Armies of the United States, Rocky Hill, near Princeton, November 2, 1787 [i.e. 1783]." - Page 165-188."The answer to His Excellency General Washington, commander in chief of the Armies of the United States of America."--Page 189-200.

A bit of scuffing and wear to covers, front joint cracked; some minor darkening and foxing within; very good.