ABSALOM'S CONSPIRACY: A SERMON, PREACHED AT THE GENERAL ELECTION, AT HARTFORD IN THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, MAY 10TH, 1798

Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1798. 54pp, with the half title as issued. Disbound. Half title loosened and moderately spotted. Good+. Ownership signature "John Williams" with clipped date "May 179".

This is the first of four 1798 printings. The sermon is an attack on Jefferson, and a Federalist's warning against utopian theories of government.
"When the caprice of innovation, and the indeffinite love of political novelty, gets abroad, it always ends in blood." Backus hated Jefferson: "Invited to preach the election sermon in 1798, with Absalom as an example he portrayed the character of the demagogue in such a way as to leave no doubt as to what living politician he had in mind" [DAB].
FIRST EDITION. Evans 33348. ESTC W36511. Trumbull 290.