Reminiscences of Georgetown, D.C. A Lecture delivered in the Methodist Protestant Church, Georgetown, D.C., January 20, 1859.

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Romantic antebellum homage to Georgetown; its history told in flowery prose by local native and Presbyterian pastor Thomas Bloomer Balch (1793-1878).

Georgetown’s sibling rivalry with nearby Washington, D.C. shows within this text passage as Balch’s gently admonishes the local citizenry:

We have now become more practical and less social in our habits. Hospitality is below par, and business has become the order of the day, and even of the night; and then we have gained nothing by the change. We must try to raise the former heat of sociability from zero to at least a well-tempered fervor, or else snow will bury the settlement, and icicles may be suspended on all our dwellings. Because we cannot keep pace with the expensive fashions of Washington, there is no reason that the antique, plain, and unvarnished hospitality of our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our uncles and aunts, should not be immediately revived. But far be it from me to reflect on a people who are objects of love to the lecturer, and not of vituperation. These remarks are intended as kind to all; for a return to our old ways will be promotive both of contentment and cheerfulness. Let us resolve to be social rather than fashionable, and generous instead of extravagant….

The pastor was a “graduate of the College of New Jersey in 1813 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1817, where he was a member of the American Whig Society. Hampden-Sydney College conferred an honorary DD on him in 1860. Daniel Webster is supposed to have described him as the most learned man he had ever known.” (Wikipedia)

Balch’s lecture was following by a second lecture on March 9th, also published as a pamphlet. Both are scarce.

Price: $150.00