A Discourse, Delivered At Dedham, May 14, 1841, The Day Of The National Fast, On The Occasion Of The Death Of William Henry Harrison, Late President Of The United States Lamson, Alvan, D.D. Americana

The death of President William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), who succumbed to illness just 31 days after his inauguration, was a shock to the nation, which had yet to have a Chief Executive die in office. However, as Howard H. Peckham observed in his article "Tears for Old Tippecanoe: Religious Interpretations of President Harrison's Death" (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1959), "it was a further shock because by many people this event, while it might be attributed directly to pneumonia bacteria, was actually an instance of Divine intervention. To astonishment, therefore, was added foreboding and dread. The Almighty had deliberately struck down the Chief Executive. Therefore He must have a purpose. What did it mean? For an answer they looked to their clergymen." Lamson (1792-1864), a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and liberal minister at First Church and Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, was among the few ministers "who assumed that Harrison's death was due to the orderly working of natural law, for which God was ultimately responsible but with which He did not interfere [.] The Reverand Alvan Lamson of Dedham, Massachusetts, said that in His government of His creatures and of His universe, God proceeds by fixed laws founded on an immutable morality" (Peckham). Notably, it was Lamson who was at the center of Baker v. Fales, a major case on the road to the separation of church and state which led to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts formally destablishing the Congregational Church in 1833. Octavo: 23 p. Original printed green paper wrappers. This copy appears to bear the signature of John Baker II (1780-1843), sheriff of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, on the title page. Some scattered light foxing, with two faint stains to the top edge. The wrappers are a little edgeworn; else very good.