This lot consists of two books: one is titled “Declaration Of Independence Of The United States Of America, 1776; And Washington’s Farewell Address To the People Of the United States  1796” published in Boston by A. Williams & Co. Under The Directions Of The City Authorities. in 1862, and printed by J. E. Farwell & Co. at No. 37 Congress Street on the copyright page. This is a beautiful copy of the Declaration of Independence, with five raised bands, six vertical compartments with gilt borders and gilt decorations on the spine, triple-gilt fillet borders and gilt lettering on the front cover, marbled endpapers with gilt dentelles on the front paste-down, 54 pages of text, and all the edges are gilt. 

The second book is the more important book. It is George Washington’s Farewell Address. The original title was “The Valedictory Address of the Late President, to the People of the United States”, and it is found in the booklet here entitled ”A Discourse Occasioned By The Death Of General George Washington. Delivered Dec. 29, 1799. By John Thornton Kirkland, Minister Of The New South Church, Boston. To Which Is Added The Valedictory Address of the late President, to the People of the United States. Printed at Boston, By I. Thomas And E.T. Andrews, Faust’s Statue, No. 45, Newbury-Street. 1800”, and the booklet was published two weeks after Washington died, to honor the life of Washington.   

George Washington's Farewell Address basically announces George Washington’s decision not to seek a third term as President and is considered to be one of the most important documents in American history. He wrote it near the end of his second term  as President before retiring to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia. It was first published in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796, about ten weeks before the presidential election of 1796, in a letter entitled “The Address of Gen. Washington to the People of America on His Declining the Presidency of the United States”. 

In the address, Washington defends his administration's record and gives farewell  advice to the American people. He also attempts to reunite the country, which had partly turned against him following the controversial Jay Treaty in 1794, which tried to defuse tension between Britain and the United States after the Revolutionary War ended, but not everyone was in favor of the treaty.   

Washington also believed that he was never qualified to be president. Despite his confidence that the country would survive without his leadership, Washington used  

most of the address to offer advice as a "parting friend" on what he believed were the greatest threats to the nation. He begins his warnings to the American people by stressing that their independence, peace at home and abroad, safety, prosperity, and liberty all depend upon unity among the states. He warns them that the union of states created by the Constitution will come under frequent and focused attacks by foreign and domestic enemies of the country, and he warns the nation to be suspicious of anyone who seeks to abandon the Union, to secede any part of the country from the rest, or to weaken the bonds that hold together the constitutional union.  

To promote the strength of the nation, he urges the people to place their identity as Americans above their identities as members of a state, city, or region and to focus their efforts and affection on the country above all other local interests, and he offers strong warnings on the dangers of sectionalism, arguing that the true motives of a sectionalist are to create distrust or rivalries between regions and people to gain power and take control of the government. 

This rings true today.   

Washington continued his defense of the Constitution by stating that the system of checks and balances and separation of powers within it are important means of preventing a single person or group from seizing control of the country. He advises the American people that if they believe it is necessary to modify the powers of the government, it should be done through constitutional amendment instead of through force. 

During the Civil War, Philadelphia residents signed a petition asking Congress to commemorate the anniversary of Washington's birth by reading his Farewell Address  

”in one or the other of the Houses of Congress.” It was first read in the House of Representatives in February 1862, and by 1899, reading Washington's address had become a tradition in both houses. The House of Representatives abandoned the practice in 1984, but the Senate continues this tradition. 

The Discourse by Kirkland and the Valedictory Address are each 22 pages long, with  

an urn on the back of the title page which depicts Washington’s birth date and his date of death (December 14, 1799) and the last page of the Discourse shows a tombstone with the words “Finis” on it to mark the end of Washington’s life. The wrappers are the original green ones from 1800 and the string binding is original too; the wrappers measure 9 x 5 3/4 in. wide and some of the pages are slightly larger than the wrappers, with some brown spots on the front cover, light foxing near the title page, offset in the text and wear on the edges, page 14 of the Valedictory address has creases in the lower corner, and a strip is missing on the back wrapper. 

Other notes: Washington’s Farewell Address was originally printed in Philadelphia by David C. Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser in 1796, but neither the proof sheet  Claypoole made for Washington to examine nor the copy that Claypoole worked from  

in making the proof sheet have ever been found. The New York Public Library owns Washington’s final manuscript of the Farewell Address, as well as drafts made by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and a number of letters relating to the preparation of those drafts (see washingtonpapers.org), and according to WorldCat, there is only one copy of this booklet published by Thomas and Andrews in Special Collections around the world; it is held at the New York Public Library. There are numerous ebooks and microfilm copies of the booklet, but no other original booklets from 1800. The next copies of the Discourse and Valedictory Address were published 

in 1811, so this copy from 1800 is one of the earliest known printed copies of 

Washington’s Farewell Address. Only four broadsheets of Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser are currently offered for sale online - they run from 1793 to 1794 - and none mention the Farewell Address at all, so that makes this booklet rare indeed.  

The first book is 4to. and measures 11 5/8 x 9 3/8 in. wide, the book is tight with very clean pages (except for one dark spot above one word on page 44), with bright gilt lettering and decorations on the spine, and just light rubbing on the heel and crown of the spine and at the tips. The second book measures 9 1/8 x 6 in. wide, with brown spots and wear at the edges and a large strip missing on the back of wrapper.  

We could only find sixteen copies of the first book in Special Collections around the country, according to WorldCat, and two outside of the U.S., and we couldn’t find the second book listed anywhere on WorldCat. The first book is a beautiful copy which would be a great gift for a child or a relative, and the second one has great political importance.