ORATION ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GILBERT MOTIER DE LAFAYETTE. DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, BEFORE THEM, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AT WASHINGTON, ON THE 31ST DECEMBER, 1834.
Adams, John Quincy:
Washington: Printed by Gales and Seaton, 1835. 94pp. Contemporary red straight-grained morocco, ruled in gilt, neatly rebacked in matching style. Black leather ownership label on front board. Some rubbing and wear to boards, offsetting on four pages of text, else rather clean internally. Very good. This copy is in a presentation binding of red straight- grained morocco, of the sort favored by the Adams family for decades, and is printed on thick paper, but does not have an actual manuscript presentation. John Quincy Adams devoted his entire career to government service. The son of President John Adams, he himself served as the sixth President, as a U.S. Senator from 1803-8, as Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825, and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in the U.S. Capitol in 1848. This copy has the black leather nameplate of "Agnes M. Mason". Adams provides a review of Lafayette's contributions to American independence and his activities in the decades after the Revolutionary War, particularly his involvement in the French Revolution and various French governments which followed. In this brief biography, Adams reflects "upon the life and character of a man whose life was, for nearly threescore years, the history of the civilized world - of a man, of whose character, to say that it is indissolubly identified with the Revolution of our Independence, is little more than to mark the features of his childhood - of a man, the personified image of self- circumscribed liberty." An eight-page appendix records Congressional actions related to the death of Lafayette. A copy in presentation binding of Adams' oration. SABIN 295. JACKSON, p.208.
(Item ID: WRCAM45669A) $750.00