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Lot 59
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The first broadside printing of Jefferson's 1805 inaugural address on silk
The first broadside printing of Jefferson's 1805 inaugural address on silk
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Jefferson Thomas 1743 - 1826 The first broadside printing of Jefferson's 1805 inaugural address, on silk.

Broadside, President Jefferson's Inaugural Speech.([Boston: True & Parks, 1805]), 12" x 22", on silk. Stitched at edges and laid down on a textile. Some fraying and losses to several words. Housed in an ornate wood frame with gilt accents.

Jefferson's landslide victory in the election of 1804 was marred by the death of his 24-year-old daughter Polly during childbirth. Instead of walking to his second inauguration, Jefferson rode in a carriage, dressed in black. Despite his electoral mandate, Jefferson chose not to dwell upon the recently-completed Louisiana Purchase, cognizant that many feared that the enlargement of the nation risked fracturing the Union (indeed a group of Massachusetts Federalists briefly conspired to break from the Union over this issue): "I know that the acquisition of Louisiana had been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers of another family? With which should we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse?"

Jefferson focused instead on the state of Native Americans within in the United States: "The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on these shores; without power to divert or habits to contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current or driven before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence and to prepare them in time for that state of society which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, and they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggressors from among ourselves."

Yet, quite paternalistically, Jefferson bemoaned their insistence on maintaining their traditional ways, casting them as enemies of reason - and by extension - civilization: "But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of circumstances have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty individuals among them who feel themselves something in the present order of things and fear to become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did must be done through all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its counsel in their physical, moral, or political condition is perilous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety and knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them also is seen the action and counteraction of good sense and of bigotry; they too have their antiphilosophists who find an interest in keeping things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendancy of habit over the duty of improving our reason and obeying its mandates."

Scarce. True & Parks, the publisher of The Democrat first printed Jefferson's inaugural on the front page of the March 16, 1805 issue of the paper and then offered a special silk broadside version to subscribers. Writing on page three of that issue, the publisher remarked that "This document cannot be raised in the estimation of our readers, by any comments within our power to advance. To pay our small tribute of respect to its author, we have directed our attention for its display in the Democrat, in some degree correspondent with its invaluable merit. Those who wish it preserved as an ornament, to adorn the parlor, while it will afford a rich treasure of instruction for their budding offspring; are respectfully informed that we have printed a number on elegant WHITE SATIN, to answer so desirable a purpose." (The Democrat, Boston, March 16, 1805, p. 3)

This was the first souvenir broadside edition of Jefferson's second Inaugural address. It is unknown how many True & Parks printed, but only a handful survive in institutional collections including the Massachusetts Historical Society, The Newberry Library and the University of Virginia. Not in Shaw & Shoemaker. (See Noble E. Cunningham, The Inaugural Addresses of Thomas Jefferson, 1801 and 1805, p. 90, figure 6-3)

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