A SOLEMN PROTEST AGAINST THE LATE DECLARATION OF WAR, IN A DISCOURSE, DELIVERED ON THE NEXT LORD'S DAY AFTER THE TIDINGS OF IT WERE RECEIVED

Cambridge, Mass: Printed by Hilliard and Metcalf, 1812. First Edition. Pamphlet. Good. Octavo, 8" x 5." pp. 20. Removed from a book of pamphlets. Spine fragile. Edges neatly trimmed. Original stab holes present. Very light damp stains on title page and last leaf. Small closed tears around edges of last leaf. 2" paper loss to inner margin of last leaf, affecting last letters of words. Interior clean, pages lightly tanned with minimal foxing. (Sabin 57778). This political-religious sermon, preached by David Osgood, D.D., rails against the war against the British, having been declared only the day before this sermon was delivered. Osgood employs highly emotive language to remind his congregation of their recent, painful memories of the American Revolutionary War. He speaks of husbands, fathers, and sons snatched from newfound tranquility only to be thrust into disease-ridden camps and violent battlefields.

"The feelings of every man...must be shocked beyond measure by so sudden and unexpected a fall from peace and plenty, ease and comfort, security and enjoyment, into all the privations, the hardships, the burdens, the perils, the distresses, the complicated horrors of war."

Osgood was a prominent pastor of the church in Medford. This pamphlet is a valuable artifact that records an early reaction to the War of 1812.