Adams, John | John Adams declares a national day of thanksgiving and prayer, 6 March 1799

Adams, John

By The President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Philadelphia: 6 March 1799

Folio broadside (338 x 209 mm), printed in two columns below a three-line headline, printed circular seal, note to verso by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering with his free frank; minor marginal losses to upper corners, slight separation at folds. Displayed in a handsome mat enclosure, hinged at top, and housed in a quarter morocco box with chemise.

President John Adams declares "the 25th of April next" as a day of thanksgiving and prayer

"As no truth is more clearly taught in the volume of inspiration … than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the governing providence of the Supreme Being … I have thought proper to recommend … that Thursday, the 25th of April next be observed, throughout the United States of America, as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer … that the citizens on that day abstain as far as may be from their secular occupations, devote the time to the sacred duties of religion in public and in private: That they call to mind our numerous offences against the most high GOD … that He would withhold us from unreasonable discontent, from disunion, faction, sedition, and insurrection."

Adams would come to attribute his bitter defeat in the election of 1800, at least in part, to his thanksgiving proclamations of 1798 and 1799. Writing to Benjamin Rush in an 1812 letter, he argued that they were seen as a tacit endorsement of the Presbyterianism as a national religion, which created an electoral backlash amongst voters of other faiths: "The National Fast, recommended by me turned me out of office. … Nothing is more dreaded than the National Government meddling with Religion." 

PROVENANCE

Charles E. Sigety (Christie's New York, 16 June 2016, Lot 1) 

REFERENCE

ESTC W21231; Evans 36497; Old Family Letters: copied from the originals for Alexander Biddle. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1892, Series A, pp. 391-396