GOVERNMENT CORRUPTED BY VICE, AND RECOVERED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE HONORABLE CONGRESS OF THE COLONY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY IN NEW ENGLAND.

Langdon, Samuel:

Published by Watertown: Printed and Sold by Benjamin Edes, 1775.

About this Item

An important Revolutionary election sermon by Dr. Samuel Langdon, Congregational minister and president of Harvard College. This sermon was preached before the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts on May 31, 1775, little more than a month following the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, when the first shots of the Revolution were fired. At the time the sermon had been given, the Provincial Congress had relocated from Concord to Watertown, just outside Boston, where they headquartered from April to July of that year. Langdon was an ardent patriot and his sermon is filled with fiery rhetoric against British tyranny and taxation. He mentions Lexington and Concord - noting that the British fired first and describes the atrocities committed by them against unarmed civilians. He likewise mentions the occupation of Boston and addresses the dissolution of the previous form of civil government under the Massachusetts colonial charter and the British Parliament, praising the means by which the American people have preserved order in the midst of chaos: ".they have so universally adopted the method of managing the important matters necessary to preserve among them a free government, by corresponding committees and congresses, consisting of the wisest and most disinterested patriots of America, chosen by the unbiased suffrages of the people assembled for that purpose.So general agreement, thro' so many provinces of so large a country, in one mode of self preservation, is unexampled in any history: and the effect has exceeded our most sanguine expectations." An important and uncommon Revolutionary sermon, with much significant political content and context. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 178. HOWES L75, "aa." EVANS 14145. ESTC W23151. SABIN 38872. Modern three-quarter calf and marbled boards, gilt leather label. Quite clean internally. Very good.

Seller Inventory # 63047

Bibliographic Details

• Title: GOVERNMENT CORRUPTED BY VICE, AND RECOVERED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE HONORABLE CONGRESS OF THE COLONY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY IN NEW ENGLAND.
• Publisher: Watertown: Printed and Sold by Benjamin Edes, 1775.