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HICHBORN, Benjamin. An Oration, delivered March 5th 1777, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to Commmemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the 5th of March 1770. Boston: Edes and Gill, 1777.
4o (243 x 192mm.). Half-title, titlepage with black borders (pale
contemporary notes on half-title and title margins.) Top edges trimmed, others uncut. Modern three-quarter red morocco gilt.
Each year, on the anniversary of the so-called Boston Massacre, in which a small squad of British soldiers fired upon a rowdy group of Americans in the streets of Boston, the event was officially commemorated by the town of Boston. Eminent radicals were chosen to deliver an oration on the occasion; in 1774 the orator was John Hancock; in other years speakers included Benjamin Church and Joseph Warren. Hichborn's oration proclaims a striking definition of civil liberty, not a "government of laws," but "a power in the people at large, at any time, for any cause, or for no cause, but their own sovereign pleasure, to alter or annihilate both the mode and the essence of any former government, and adopt a new one in its stead." Hichborn concludes with five-stanzas of verse extolling General Washington: "'Twas thus the synod of our land, The reasoining power of state, Gave Washington supreme command And made his orders fate."
4
contemporary notes on half-title and title margins.) Top edges trimmed, others uncut. Modern three-quarter red morocco gilt.
Each year, on the anniversary of the so-called Boston Massacre, in which a small squad of British soldiers fired upon a rowdy group of Americans in the streets of Boston, the event was officially commemorated by the town of Boston. Eminent radicals were chosen to deliver an oration on the occasion; in 1774 the orator was John Hancock; in other years speakers included Benjamin Church and Joseph Warren. Hichborn's oration proclaims a striking definition of civil liberty, not a "government of laws," but "a power in the people at large, at any time, for any cause, or for no cause, but their own sovereign pleasure, to alter or annihilate both the mode and the essence of any former government, and adopt a new one in its stead." Hichborn concludes with five-stanzas of verse extolling General Washington: "'Twas thus the synod of our land, The reasoining power of state, Gave Washington supreme command And made his orders fate."