[Revolutionary War-Era Connecticut Imprint] A Sermon, Preached Before the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 13, 1779.

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[Revolutionary War-Era Connecticut Imprint — Election Sermon of 1779]

Dana, James, D.D. A Sermon, Preached Before the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 13, 1779. Hartford: Printed by Hudson and Goodwin, 1779.

First edition. 8vo, plain contemporary waste-paper wrappers, sewn. [4], 46, [1] pp., complete with the terminal “Corrections” leaf. Early ownership inscription (“D. B. W[inslow?], 1779”) at head of half-title. Moderate toning and foxing, some edgewear and small corner loss to final leaf, else a very good, unsophisticated copy of a notable Revolutionary Connecticut imprint.

Dana, pastor of the First Church in Wallingford and a vocal Patriot, delivered this sermon before the legislature at a moment of national peril. He exhorts virtue and divine favor as the foundations of republican government, writing admiringly of Washington: “The gentleman at the head of our forces is distinguished for address in posting himself to advantage, presence of mind in unexpected emergencies, and intrepidity in the heat of action” (p. 33).

Evans 16252.

Keywords: American Revolution; George Washington; Connecticut Imprint; Election Sermon; Hudson & Goodwin; Wallingford; Revolutionary War clergy; Early American religion; 18th-century Americana.