May 27, 2020 Founders & Patriots
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/27/2020
[Boston Massacre] Lovell, James. “An Oration Delivered April 2d, 1771, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to Commemorate the bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March, 1770.” Boston: Edes and Gill, 1771. Quarto, 19, [1] pp. Stitched tract, within later binding of half leather with marbled boards. This is the rare, printed transcript of the first of what would become an annual series of orations in remembrance of the Boston Massacre held from 1771 to 1783, commemorated on or near the date of March fifth. In it, James Lovell spoke of "The horrid bloody scene we here commemorate” and exhorted his listeners to reflect upon the event, “whatever were the causes which concurred to bring it on that dreadful night.” "The oration which he delivered placed him amongst the staunchest opponents of British measures respecting the colonies"—DAB XI, pp. 438-9. Lovell (1737 – 1814) was an American educator and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. Imprisoned by the British as a Revolutionary dissident in 1775, he was released a year later and was elected a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1782 and was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation. CONDITION: light toning, foxing, and marginal dampstaining not affecting text, notably on title page, half title and endpapers. JLK
Illustrated and discussed on pp. 54-55 of "For Liberty I Live."