A SERMON, PREACHED BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, ESQ. L.L.D. GOVERNOR, AND THE HONORABLE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, CONVENED AT HARTFORD, ON THE DAY OF THE ANNIVERSARY ELECTION. MAY 9TH, 1793.
Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1793. 38, [2 blanks] pp, but lacking thehalf title. Stitched as issued, untrimmed and lightly foxed. Good plus.
The sermon's purpose is to "shew the importance of christian virtue to the civil ruler."
Backus's message is from Galatians VI. 10: "As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." He insists on the "close connection between rational liberty, the spirit of laws and moral and religious truths." This connection has provided the peculiar ability of Americans to govern themselves, "besides the habits which the first settlers brought from the other side of the Atlantic, the smallness of their number, their poverty, hardships, and common danger . . . Frequent emigrations from our older settlements, have also tended to prevent the rise of faction, and check the virulence of party spirit."
This is a serious attempt to analyze the foundations of the fledgling American Republic.
Evans 25130. Trumbull 294. ESTC W29306. Item #42166
Price: $250.00