“ONE OF THE GREAT SEMINAL PAPERS IN AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY”: EXCEEDINGLY RARE BROADSIDE PUBLISHED WITHIN DAYS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON’S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1801

JEFFERSON, Thomas. The Inaugural Speech of Thomas Jefferson. Washington-City. March 4th, 1801. [Salem, Massachusetts: Impartial Register], March 14, 1801. Broadside, single folio leaf of laid paper (measuring 12 by 19 inches), printed in three columns on the recto, untrimmed.

Exceedingly rare broadside of “one of the immortal inaugural speeches,” Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address, a ringing reaffirmation of American political and philosophical principles, an exceptional printing, one of the very first broadsides published (one of the first four),issued by the editor of the Salem Register, an ardent Jeffersonian and fierce anti-Federalist.

Following the divisive election of 1800— which Jefferson deemed “as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form” (Smith III:298)— the new president needed, in his first official address, to strike a tone both conciliatory and authoritative. On March 4, 1801, shortly before noon, Jefferson began walking to the Capitol. “He shunned the splendor of Washington’s and Adams’ inaugural parades in ceremonial carriages… The first president to be inaugurated in the capital city he had made his brainchild… Jefferson hiked up Capitol Hill, where he had insisted the Capitol be built on higher ground than the President’s House to symbolize the preeminence of the people… Arriving at the unfinished Capitol, Jefferson strode confidently between ranks of Alexandria riflemen who presented arms as he entered the only finished room, the Senate Chamber” (Randall, 548). “When he spoke his voice carried to only the first few rows of the crowded Chamber; most of those who strained to hear his address had to read it in the Washington papers the next day… [And yet] his address, one of the great seminal papers in American political history, was to have an almost biblical impact” (Brodie, 336). Filled with memorable and moving language— including the coining of the phrase “entangling alliances” (Ellis, Founding Brothers, 128)— Jefferson’s First Inaugural remains best known for this statement of American ideals: “But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans: we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” “One of the immortal inaugural speeches” (Randall).

Jefferson’s speech was “the first inaugural address to take its place among the great such addresses in American history. After 200 years it still remains high among them…. As the first president to be inaugurated following an election that transferred power in both the executive and the legislative branches from one political party to another, Jefferson faced an unusual challenge… Although he had been planning what to say in his inaugural address for some time, it was not until February 17, 1801 that he finally knew he would be inaugurated on March 4… When satisfied with the text of his address, Jefferson made a copy from which to read at the inauguration ceremony. That manuscript contained numerous abbreviations, enabling him to fit the text on two sheets of paper, written on both sides. Early in the morning on inauguration day, the president-elect gave a fully transcribed text of his speech to newspaper editor Samuel Harrison Smith for publication in the Washington National Intelligencer.” Although the priority of broadside printings— which were considerably less common than newspaper printings— is not fully determined, this March 14 broadside precedes printings on silk and is possibly one of the first four broadsides issued: preceded by a Washington, D.C. broadside, a New York broadside “From the Office of the Mercantile Advertiser” published Monday March 9, and issued the same week as Mathew Carey’s Philadelphia broadside, which appeared “a week after the inauguration” and was advertised in Philadelphia’s Gazette of the United States on March 12 and the Aurora on March 14, the same day this Salem broadside was published (Cunningham, Inaugural Addresses, 1-20). The Salem Impartial Register, established in 1800 and located on Essex Street, was a semi-weekly publishing on Mondays and Thursday. It issued this broadside in a special printing on March 14. Its publisher William Carlton established the Register in May 1800 in strong “opposition to the Federal party and, during the violent political struggles which ensued, was an able supporter of the Republican cause” that celebrated a victory with Jefferson’s election to the presidency (Hurd, History of Essex County, 121). Shaw & Shoemaker 726. See Shaw & Shoemaker 717. OCLC lists only two copies.

Text fresh and clean, only a bit of faint dampstaining, a few tiny pinholes at foldlines. An exceptional untrimmed example of this very rare and important document.