PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON PAVES THE WAY FOR BROAD RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE FLEDGLING UNITED STATES

Gazette of the United States. No.35, Vol. II. Whole No. 139. New York, [New York]: John Fenno, No.41, Broad Street, Near the Exchange, 11 August 1790. 10 1/4 x 16 1/2 in., 4pp, bifolium. Contains the address of the convention of the Universal Church assembled in Philadelphia in 1790 and George Washington's reply, page 4, column 1. Additional content includes a sampling of newly enacted "Laws of the United States," Congressional proceedings, Presidential appointments, advertisements, and more.

The "Address of the Convention of the Universal Church, assembled in Philadelphia" states, in part: "Permit us in the name of the Society whom we represent, to concur in the numerous congratulations which have been offered to you [George Washington] since your accession to the government of the United States...the peculiar doctrine which we hold, is not less friendly to the order and happiness of society, than it is essential to the perfections of the Deity. It is a singular circumstance in the history of this doctrine, that it has been preached and defended in every age, since the first promulgation of the gospel, but we represent the first society professing the doctrine, that have formed themselves into an independent church. Posterity will hardly fail of connecting this memorable event, with the auspicious years of peace, liberty, and free inquiry in the United States, which distinguished the administration of George Washington." Signed in type "in behalf and by order of the Convention" by John Murray and W. Eugene Imlay.

Washington responds to the Convention, in part: "I thank you cordially for the congratulations which you offer on my appointment to the office I have the honor to hold in the government of the United States. It gives me the most sensible pleasure to find, that, in our nation, however different are the sentiments of citizens on religious doctrines, they generally concur in one thing: For their political professions and practices are almost universally friendly to the order and happiness of our civil institutions. I am also happy in finding this disposition particularly evinced by your Society. It is moreover my earnest desire, that all the members of every association or community, throughout the United States, may make such use of the auspicious years of peace, liberty, and free inquiry, with which they are now favored...I feel animated with new zeal, that my conduct may ever be worthy of your favorable opinion...."

The Gazette of the United States was the leading Federalist newspaper of the late eighteenth century. Begun by John Fenno as a semiweekly publication, the first edition in 1789 and subsequent editions were published in New York - then the nation's capital - until the capital moved to Philadelphia at which time the newspaper followed. The paper printed news, letters, and political essays, and staunchly supported the Washington and Adams administrations. At the time of this printing, Washington had been in office as the first President of the United States for just over a year, and was acutely conscious that his conduct was setting a precedent for future presidents and the wider American public.

John Murray (1741-1815) became the most widely known voice of American Universalism during the last three decades of the eighteenth century, and worked to unite various independent American Universalist movements into a single denomination. Murray was friendly with Washington, having been appointed by General Washington as chaplain of the Rhode Island Brigade in 1775. Washington's support at that time, and his later support as evidenced by this 1790 printed reply, were no doubt significant to Murray and the Universalists who at times faced animosity from leaders of other Christian denominations. Significantly, Washington's reply here, and his later Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (August 21, 1790), established the foundation for American religious liberty, shifting the nation's policy from "tolerance" of minorities to full religious liberty and rebuffing the concept of a state church.

A scarce newspaper with important connections to the establishment of American religious liberty.

[Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] [American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Religion]

Disbound, toned throughout with areas of dampstaining, some minor chipping and loss along edge line.