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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 Mr. Adams's Oration.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06255 Author/Creator: Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Pamphlet Date: 1806 Pagination: 28 p. : Height: 21.2 cm, Width: 13.1 cm Order a Copy

Elongated title on title page: "An Inaugural Oration, Delivered at the Author's Installation, as Boylston Professor of Rhetorick and Oratory, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On Thursday, 12 June, 1806." Adams explains "the immeasurable superiority of ancient over modern oratory...The assemblies of the people, of the select councils, or of the senate in Athens Rome were held for the purpose of real deliberation. The fate of measures was not decided before they were proposed. Eloquence produced a powerful effect, only upon the minds of the hearers, but upon the issue of the deliberation." Printed by Munroe & Francis.

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