What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“COMMON SENSE … to be sold at the CONSTITUTIONAL POST OFFICE.”
In an advertisement in the May 17, 1776, edition of the Virginia Gazette, Alexander Purdie, the printer, listed a trio of books and “WRITING PAPER, in small quantities, to be sold at the CONSTITUTIONAL POST OFFICE” in Williamsburg. Those books included two military manuals, “Simes’s MILITARY GUIDE” and “Stevenson’s MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS,” as well as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a popular political pamphlet that boldly advocated for declaring independence rather than seeking redress of grievances within the imperial system. All three works, each of them related to the war, had been published in Philadelphia and transported to Williamsburg. This was a rare instance of Common Sense being advertised along with other books rather than featured exclusively.
Common Sense appeared first in the advertisement, a fitting placement considering other content in that issue of the Virginia Gazette. A report from the provincial convention informed readers of a resolution, approved unanimously on May 15, that “the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body “TO DECLARE THE UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the crown or parliament of Great Britain.” The following day, the Committee of Safety, members of the General Convention, and residents of Williamsburg gathered for a ceremony at which the resolution was “read aloud to the army,” followed by a series of toasts to “The American independent states,” “The Grand Congress of the United States, and their respective legislatures,” and “General Washington, and victory to the American arms.” A “discharge of the artillery and small-arms, and the acclamations of all present” followed each toast. In addition, the “UNION FLAG of the American states waved upon the Capitol during the whole of this ceremony.” Those present embraced Paine’s arguments for independence that had seemed too radical to many only a few months earlier.
That Purdie sold the pamphlet and the military manuals “at the CONSTITUTIONAL POST OFFICE” also resonated with readers. They knew that the Second Continental Congress established the Constitutional Post Office as an alternative to the imperial post, appointing Patriots as postmasters. In addition, Purdie introduced a new masthead for the May 17 edition of the Virginia Gazette. The previous one featured an image depicting the arms of the monarch and the motto, “En Dat Virginia Quartam” or “Behold, Virginia gives the fourth.” That referred to the colony as a dominion of the crown along with Great Britain (England and Scotland) and claims to Ireland and France. The new masthead, however, did not include an image. Instead, a border of decorative type enclosed, “THIRTEEN UNITED COLONIES” and “United, we stand—Divided, we fall,” a message that echoed the one represented by the severed snake that other printers previously incorporated into the mastheads of the Massachusetts Spy, the New-York Journal, and the Pennsylvania Journal. As Purdie advertised Common Sense, several elements of his newspaper revealed his endorsement of arguments presented in the political pamphlet.
