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America's First President Congratulated by Fellow Virginians - and the Second Revolution of the Cent

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America's First President Congratulated by Fellow Virginians - and the Second Revolution of the Cent
Gazette of the United States, N.Y. - at this time the seat of government, May 1, 1790, 10 x 16 1/4, 4 pp. Much news evoking today's landscape. Front-page report from London on the French Revolution: "...I had frequent opportunities to see and converse with that truly great young man the Marquis de la Fayette. I did not think he could be so popular as I find he is. He is almost idolized by his countrymen...The Count De E-... began on a warm eulogium on the courage, skill, and virtue, with which, he said, from the commencement of the Revolution, the Marquis had uniformly conducted...I asked the Count if he knew how old the Marquis de la Fayette was? With that lively enthusiasm so natural to the French, he replied, 'were we to calculate his years by his works, it might be asserted that he has lived centuries; but, in fact, he is but three and thirty'...." Lengthy front-page extract of (Edmund) Burke's speech on the French Revolution: "The French have proved themselves the ablest architects of ruin that ever existed in the world. In one summer they have done their business for us, as rivals, in a way more destructive than twenty...Blenheims. In this very short space of time they have completely pulled to the ground their monarchy - their church - their nobility - their laws - their revenue - their army - their navy - their commerce - their arts - and their manufacturers. They are now lying in a sort of trance...in wild misrule, and ridiculous convulsive movements...Yet they are so very unwise as to glory in a revolution which is a shame and disgrace to them. They have made their way to the very worst constitution in the world, by the destruction of their country...They first destroyed all the balances and counterpoises which serve to fix a State...into one incongruous mass of mob and democracy...laid the axe to the root of all property, of all national prosperity, by confiscating the possessions of the Church. They next proceeded systematically to destroy every hold of authority...on the minds of the people, by making and recording a sort of institute or digest of anarchy, called the rights of man...as would disgrace the imbecility of school-boys...How would any of you gentlemen like to have your mansions pulled down and pillaged - your title deeds brought out and burnt before your faces - your persons abused, insulted and destroyed - and families driven to seek refuge in every corner of Europe ...Let us beware of being led thro(ugh) an illegitimate admiration of successful fraud and outrageous violence to an imitation of the excesses of...tyrannical democracy." Investigation of a plot to murder Lafayette and the Mayor of Paris. Inside, extensive two-column news from Congress: "...North Carolina must be confessedly a sufferer, unless the accounts of the several states within the union should be settled...Congress, being in possession of all the funds, ought in justice to pay all the debts of the individual States...As to the debt of America, it is two fold: one part was incurred for the general defense...the other...for local purposes...perhaps sometimes to lay the foundation of future grandeur and pre-eminence amongst the states, which...were separate, sovereign and independent... Must we not weaken the credit of the new government, and perhaps to such a degree as to injure the very states which suppose they will be benefited by the assumption proposed?...There is not a State in the union which, under the fostering hand of the general government, cannot pay its debts in a reasonable time...." Belated, eloquent message of congratulations to newly-elected Pres. Washington, from the General Assembly of Virginia: "...That you were a citizen, was never forgotten by you, whilst a soldier...yes, Sir, you have been called to your present high station, by the unanimous voice of a free people...." With Washington's equally florid reply to Virginia, repeating his new title as "Chief Magistracy," and somewhat obsequiously forseeing "a prayer for the temporal and eternal felicity of those, who have not only endeavored to gild the evening of my days with unclouded serenity, but extended their desires to my happiness hereafter in a brighter world." Commentary from the nation's capital - New York City: "...The debts are older than the government...The national habits which are daily forming and will be first established in Congress...The fears of the States of danger...from Congress will be more and more perceived as groundless...." Advertisement for "East-India Goods" including "Humhums." Uniform warm cream toning, edge tear affecting two words inside but with no loss of text, few nibbles at upper margin, else fine. WorldCat locates about eight copies.