What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“A DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE … is now to be sold by S. Southwick, printed on one side of a large sheet.”

On July 15, 1776, three newspapers printed the Declaration of Independence for subscribers and other readers.  Although word of mouth carried the news faster than print, the Connecticut Courant and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer, the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, and the Norwich Packet and Connecticut, Massachusetts, New-Hampshire and Rhode-Island Weekly Advertiser gave readers the opportunity to examine the grievances against the king and the political philosophy that supported the Continental Congress’s decision to declare independence.

The Declaration of Independence did not appear in the Newport Mercury even though Solomon Southwick, the printer, had received a copy.  The layout and content of the July 15 edition suggest that he did not acquire it before type had been set and printing commenced for that issue.  He did have space, however, to insert his own advertisement about the founding document immediately after the news and before other advertisements.  “A DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE was published, by the Honorable CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, the 4th instant,” the printer informed the public, “and is now to be sold by S. Southwick, printed on one side of large sheet.”  He likely envisioned consumers purchasing copies to display in their homes, shops, or offices, just as John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, suggested that Patriots should do with the copy he printed as the third page of his newspaper four days earlier.

Southwick also planned to disseminate the Declaration of Independence via the Newport Mercury.  “Those of our readers who don’t chuse to buy it in this form,” the broadside already on sale, “may see it in the Newport Mercury next Monday, at the furthest.”  That last phrase suggested the possibility that Southwick would publish a supplement, postscript, or extraordinary issue sometime before the next regular issue of the weekly newspaper came out.  He did just that with a Newport Mercury Extraordinary “Containing the FRESHEST ADVICES” on July 18.  It featured the entire text of the Declaration of Independence.  Southwick gave it a few days for customers to purchase the broadside, but he then opted to provide subscribers with the momentous document without growing frustrated with the delay as they waited an entire week.  He was the only American printer to publish a supplement or extraordinary that deviated from his newspaper’s usual publication schedule upon receiving a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Unlike Holt, who fit the entire document on a single page of the New-York Journal so readers could display it, Southwick did not manage to fit the Declaration of Independence on just one page.  It filled the entire second page and a few lines and John Hancock’s signature spilled over onto the third page.  Subscribers could read the Declaration of Independence for themselves, but if they wanted a copy to display then they needed to purchase the broadside available at Southwick’s printing office.