138

FRANKLIN IMPRINT

Thomas Barton (1730-1780)

[Unanimity and Public Spirit. A Sermon Preached at Carlisle . . . Soon after General Braddock's Defeat.]

[Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1755]
iii-xx, 16 pages. 8vo, 7½ x 4¾ inches, disbound; lacking title page, unevenly trimmed, contemporary inked notes throughout (some cropped).

  • Notes: Thomas Barton was a newly ordained missionary sent to the western Pennsylvania frontier. After the rout of Braddock Expedition in the early part of the French and Indian War, Barton delivered this sermon as part of his efforts to rally the disheartened settlers. 

    Barton's text plagiarized a popular 1745 sermon by Samuel Roberts, "Love to Our Country and Zeal for its Interests." That explains the manuscript note on page iii. Where Barton wrote "I composed the following plain discourse," the pamphlet's original owner inserted "Mr. Roberts composed [the following plain discourse]." Other notes to the text of the sermon attempt to trace the plagiarized portions. 

    Begins with a long introductory letter by William Smith (1727-1803), founding provost of the College of Philadelphia, who denounces the Quaker legislators who withheld military aid to the frontier. Smith was later quite embarrassed to find that he had endorsed a plagiarized sermon. Controversy aside, the sermon was actually delivered by Barton during a perilous moment on the frontier, and Smith's commentary is also historically significant.

    See James P. Myers, " Thomas Barton's Unanimity and Public Spirit," in  Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography , 119:3 (July 1995), pages 225-248. Evans 7354; Miller 603; Sabin 3849. None traced at auction since 1954. 
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