Philadelphia: Printed by William and Thomas Bradford, 1774.
Price:
$15,000.00
About the item
Early Philadelphia edition. [4],23,[1],36pp. Half title. 8vo. Restitched, some staining to half title. Uncut. Howes E247; Evans 13715; Sabin 15528; Reese, Revolutionary Hundred 25; Adams, American Controversy 74-83a.
Item #376862
One of the most significant documents of the American Revolution, condensing the most important proceedings of the First Continental Congress between Sept. 5 and Oct. 26, 1774. The work publishes the Declaration of Rights, passed Oct. 14, by which Congress asserts the colonists' rights as Englishmen and claims they were violated by the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Acts. It further asserts their right to peaceably assemble and have their own legislatures. The Declaration is followed by the Association, by which the colonies bound themselves to an agreement regarding non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption of British goods, and resolved to reassemble the following May if wrongs had not been redressed. This is followed by two addresses, one to the people of Great Britain and the other to the inhabitants of the colonies, justifying the conduct of the Congress. These actions laid the basis for American resistance and organized rebellion which escalated into open warfare in the spring of 1775.
Needless to say, the actions of the Continental Congress were of the greatest interest in the colonies, and these Extracts were published first in Philadelphia while Congress was still sitting. The Bradfords printed multiple editions in October, the first with the date of October 24th in the imprint line, and two others with "October 27th" in the same spot. The copy in hand is one of the latter issues. Printings followed in Albany, Annapolis, Boston, Hartford, Lancaster, New London, New York, Newport, Norwich, and Providence, all in 1774.
