Nathaniel Denny: Fourth of July orations(1803–1804)

• MS 2008.16
• 2 items

The first oration is a defense of the Federalists, and in particular John Adams and George Washington against the attacks of James Thompson Callender. Denny attacks Callender and Jefferson in the oration. Denny criticizes Jefferson’s administration and the South in general. He writes of the “painful task of viewing our situation under a different administration. The affairs of our country at present day are governed & directed by men of the South …. School houses in Virginia are as rare as Brothels in New England & places of public worship as unfrequented, as horse races in Massachusetts.” The second oration looks at the divisiveness in American political culture and uses the French and English Revolutions as examples of where America may be headed if things don’t change. The final three pages of the manuscript include genealogical material on the Denny family.

Nathaniel Paine Denny was a Harvard trained lawyer from Leicester, Massachusetts where he practiced for nearly forty years. He served as a state legislator and senator. Born Thomas Denny, he changed his name to Nathaniel Paine because Leicester already had a lawyer named Thomas Denny.

Following Denny’s signature at the end of the second oration is a note reading: “Delivered July 4th, 1803.”

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