With the State Library closed to the public, we’re changing the exhibit case virtually again this month. May’s collection spotlight is a Proclamation for a Day of Fasting, issued by President John Adams in March 1798. The proclamation called for all citizens to observe May 9 as a day of solemn humility, with fasting and prayer, and an abstention from their customary worldly occupations.
It might go without saying that proclamations like this one are religious in nature. The opening line reads, “as the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God.” Governors in Massachusetts had been issuing proclamations for a day of thanksgiving or a day of prayer and fasting for years, in fact, we have a few in our collection holdings. But they were somewhat less common in the newly formed country. During his presidency, George Washington only issued one in 1789 and one in 1795, and in addition to the proclamation featured here, Adams only issued one other, in 1799. Third president Thomas Jefferson believed strongly in the separation of church and state, and he did not issue any during his presidency.
Once I selected this item for our virtual display, I started to conduct some research on it and was surprised to come across references of both Adams’s 1798 and 1799 proclamations as being controversial! Adams did not win re-election in 1800, and in an 1812 letter to Benjamin Rush he wrote:
“The National Fast, reccommended by me turned me out of Office. It was connected with, the general Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which I had no concern in. That assembly has allarmed and alienated Quakers, Anabaptists Mennonists, Moravians, Sweedenborgians, Methodist, Catholicks, Protestant Episcopalians, Arians Socinians, Arminians & &c. Atheists and Deists might be added. A general Suspicion prevailed that the Presbyterian Church was ambitious and aimed at an Establishment as a National Church. I was represented as a Presbyterian and at the head of this political and ecclesiastical Project. The Secret Whisper ran through them all the Sects “Let Us have Jefferson Madison, Burr, any body, whether they be Philosophers, Deist or even Atheists, rather than a Presbyterian President. This Principle is at the Bottom of the Unpopularity of national Fasts and Thanksgivings, Nothing is more dreaded than the National Government meddling with Religion. This wild Letter I very much fear, contains Seeds of an Ecclesiastical History of the U.S. for a Century to come.”
A transcription of the full letter is available on the National Archives website. For an in-depth analysis of the two proclamations issued during Adams’s presidency, be sure to check out the article by J.L. Bell on Boston 1775.
I often include a note on preservation in my posts, usually focusing on physical repair, re-housing, or the general condition of the exhibited item. But working from home has emphasized the need to highlight another important component of preservation - digitization. State Library staff members work hard to digitize our collection and upload the information to our digital repository DSpace, which also maintains our born-digital electronic resources. There are many benefits to a digitized collection - from a conservation standpoint, having a digital copy of an item reduces the frequency that the item is handled, thus lessening its risk of damage. Digitization also makes our collection accessible to wider audiences who can only visit us remotely. While I work from home, our digitization program makes it possible for me to easily access materials in our Special Collections holdings. Though we can’t currently display items in our library, we’re happy for the opportunity to highlight collection pieces and share them virtually. To take a closer look at this proclamation, click on the image above or check it out on DSpace.
Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian
