JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.  Oration on the Life and Character of Gilbert Motier de Lafayette.  Delivered at the Request of Both Houses of the Congress of the United States, Before Them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 31st December, 1834.  Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1835.  First edition, 8.25 by 5.5 inches, 94 pages, and in fine condition with the boards missing and scattered staining and foxing to the title page.

FIRST EDITION OF AN ORATION ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GILBERT MOTIER DE LAFAYETTE SIGNED BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Signed at the top of the title page in bold ink by John Quincy Adams with his rare full signature.  Two identical signed copies recently sold for $7,500 at Christie’s in April 2012 and $7,499 at RR Auction in February 2020.

ADAMS DELIVERED THIS GREAT ORATION TO CONGRESS TO EULOGIZE AND COMMEMORATE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE’S CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

The former President of the United States and Harvard professor of rhetoric delivered this great oration to Congress on December 31, 1834 to eulogize Lafayette who died on May 20, 1834 and commemorate his important contribution to American independence and his activities in the years after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, especially his involvement in the French Revolution and with the governments that followed.  The Appendix prints the proceedings initiated by Adams on June 21, 1834, “to consider and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the Nation to the event of the decease of General Lafayette.”  The resolution was passed unanimously.