A SERMON PREACHED AT CAMBRIDGE, BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY THOMAS HUTCHINSON, ESQ; GOVERNOR: HIS HONOR ANDREW OLIVER, ESQ; LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. THE HONORABLE HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL, AND THE HONORABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OF THE PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BA

Tucker, John:

Price: 850.00 USD

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Boston:: Richard Draper,, 1771. 63pp, with the half title. Later marbled wrappers. Some foxing, but about Very Good. Ink signature, 'Geo Leonard Jnr' on half title.  Tucker preaches a powerful assertion of Americans' natural right to govern themselves, in the presence of the increasingly loathed Hutchinson and Oliver, who came-- particularly after the Boston Massacre the previous year-- to embody all that was arbitrary and evil in British absentee rule. Tucker emphasizes that "love of liberty," which God "himself has implanted in us," must be nurtured and accommodated "with the laws and government of human societies, whose constitution is consistent with the rights of men."  Although he touches on subjects' duty to obey their rulers, the Address is an expression of the natural rights theory of government: "All men are naturally in a state of freedom, and have an equal claim to liberty. No one, by nature, nor by any special grant from the great Lord of all, has any authority over another. All right therefore in any to rule over others, must originate from those they rule over, and be granted by them." FIRST EDITION. Evans 12256. Adams, American Controversy 86.

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