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JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Speech of THOMAS JEFFERSON PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES--delivered at his INAUGURATION, March 4, 1801. [Baltimore]: W. Pechin Print, [1801]. Broadside printed on silk, 370 x 310 mm., mild damp stains, some fraying and minor losses to margins not affecting text.
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Speech of THOMAS JEFFERSON PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES--delivered at his INAUGURATION, March 4, 1801. [Baltimore]: W. Pechin Print, [1801]. Broadside printed on silk, 370 x 310 mm., mild damp stains, some fraying and minor losses to margins not affecting text. “We are all Republicans -- we are all Federalists” -- an extremely rare silk broadside edition of Jefferson’s first inaugural address as President, printed by William Pechin, who the previous year published an election-year edition of Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, defending the candidate from charges that he was an “enemy of religion.” The printer of this broadside, William Pechin (1773-1849) was a noted soldier and publisher. He began his professional life in 1795, publishing the Philadelphia Minerva with partner Archibald Woodruff. In 1798, he removed to Baltimore where he printed the Baltimore Intelligencer for two years. From 1802 until his death in 1849, Pechin was one of the publishers of the Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, which was the first newspaper to print Francis Scott Key’s “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” which later became known as “The Star Spangled Banner.” Not only was Pechin the printer of the first edition of Key’s poem, he also commanded a regiment at the Battle of North Point on 12 September 1814, which successfully delayed the British land advance against Baltimore forcing the Royal Navy to abandon their sea attempt on the city. Rare: Shaw-Shoemaker 727. American Book Prices Current records no sales of this imprint in the past forty-years. OCLC (145432502) locates only one other copy at the John Carter Brown Library. Shaw-Shoemaker lists a copy at the Maryland Historical Society while further research has revealed one other example at the Earl Greg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. Jefferson’s inauguration as President marked the first peaceful transfer of power under the 1787 Constitution. His inauguration, the first one held in Washington, followed a bitterly-contested election. Mindful of the need to mend fences, Jefferson delivered an impassioned plea for unity, that in light of the recent Presidential election, is worth quoting at some length: “… though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable … the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. and let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions … 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.