HUMPHREYS, David (1752-1818). A Poem on Industry. Addressed to the Citizens of the United States of America. Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1794.

Patriotic and abolitionist poem by George Washington's aide-de-camp. True first edition. Colonel David Humphreys served as George Washington's aide-de-camp and later his biographer. At this time he authored this poem, he was serving in Washington's administration as Minister Resident to Portugal. "[Humphrey's] poem 'On the Industry of the United States' is noteworthy for both its soaring praise of the new nation ... and its blistering condemnation of slavery. While Humphreys was friends with numerous slaveholders, including Washington, and stayed at plantations during his travels in the South, in the poem he describes slavery as a 'Fell Scourge of mortals, reason’s foulest shame!' and pondering “Still must men, like beasts, be bought and sold, / the charities of life exchanged for gold! / Husbands from wives, from parents children torn, / In quivering fear, with grief exquisite, mourn!" Vierick, "David Humphreys" In The Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 2012. The sheets of this work were later remaindered and included in an anthology, but those remaindered sheets lack C4. Copies without C4 cannot be assumed to be the first edition. Evans 27145; Sabin 33813; Stoddard & Whitesell 476; Wegelin 225.

Octavo (204 x 123mm). Publisher's advertisement leaf present at end (C4). (Some very pale foxing at ends.) Disbound. Custom silk folding case.