GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1790, PRINTING PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON'S REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF THE CONVENTION OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH, UNEQUIVOCALLY ENDORSING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND "FREE INQUIRY" FOR EVERY PERSON.
New York: John Fenno, 1790. Pages 553-556, as issued. No. 35, Volume II, Whole No. 139. Folio, each page 10-1/2" x 16-1/4." Folded and disbound. Some light blank margin chips. Each page printed in three columns. Very Good.
The "Address of the Convention of the Universal Church, assembled in Philadelphia" offers fulsome praise to President George Washington: "Permit us in the name of the Society whom we represent, to concur in the numerous congratulations which have been offered to you since your accession to the government of the United States. . . The peculiar doctrine which we hold, is not less friendly to the order and happiness of society, than it is essential to the perfections of the Deity. It is a singular circumstance in the history of this doctrine, that it has been preached and defended in every age, since the first promulgation of the gospel, but we represent the first society professing the doctrine, that have formed themselves into an independent church. Posterity will hardly fail of connecting this memorable event, with the auspicious years of peace, liberty, and free inquiry in the United States, which distinguished the administration of George Washington." Signed in type "in behalf and by order of the Convention" by John Murray and W. Eugene Imlay.
Washington's response, printed here, emphasizes that freedom of religion and free inquiry are fundamental to a free society. "I thank you cordially for the congratulations which you offer on my appointment to the office I have the honor to hold in the government of the United States. It gives me the most sensible pleasure to find, that, in our nation, however different are the sentiments of citizens on religious doctrines, they generally concur in one thing: For their political professions and practices are almost universally friendly to the order and happiness of our civil institutions. I am also happy in finding this disposition particularly evinced by your Society. It is moreover my earnest desire, that all the members of every association or community, throughout the United States, may make such use of the auspicious years of peace, liberty, and free inquiry, with which they are now favored. . . I feel animated with new zeal, that my conduct may ever be worthy of your favorable opinion, as well as such as shall, in every respect, best comport with the character of an intelligent and accountable being. G. WASHINGTON."
John Murray (1741-1815), the most prominent voice of American Universalism, had been appointed by General Washington as Chaplain of the Rhode Island Brigade in 1775. Washington's reply here, and his later Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (August 21, 1790), established the foundation for American religious liberty, shifting the nation's policy from "tolerance" of minorities to full religious liberty and rebuffing the concept of a state church.
Also printed are excerpts from Discourses on Davila, Courtenay's Letter to Priestley on the French Revolution, Proceedings in Congress, Treasury Secretary Hamilton's Notice soliciting proposals "for the supply of all rations, which may be required for the use of the United States." Item #42385
Price: $1,750.00