Political Pamphlet

April 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (April 4, 1776).

“Will be PUBLISHED … in BOSTON, A New Edition of COMMON SENSE.”

It did not take long after the siege of Boston ended with the evacuation of British troops on March 17, 1776, for printers in that town to set about publishing a local edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  An advertisement in the April 4 edition of the New-England Chronicle, published in Cambridge, announced that “Next week will be PUBLISHED, and to be SOLD, by T. and J. FLEET, and EDES and GILL, in BOSTON, A New Edition of COMMON SENSE.”  This edition would include “several additions in the body of the work: To which is added an Appendix, and an address to the representatives of the people called Quakers.”  That the printers described it as a “New Edition” suggested that they followed the second edition that Paine collaborated with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford in publishing rather than unauthorized editions that Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition, marketed after having a falling out with the author.  The Bradfords described their edition as the “NEW EDITION” in their advertisements.  They also inserted a nota bene that declared, “This Edition contains upwards of one-third more than any former one.”  The Fleets and Edes and Gill replicated that nota bene in their own advertisement.

It likely came as no surprise to local readers that Benjamin Edes and John Gill got involved in publishing an edition of Common Sense.  For many years, they printed the Boston-Gazette, a newspaper known for its strident advocacy for the American cause.  After publishing the April 17, 1775, edition of the Boston-Gazette, they suspended the newspapers and dissolved their partnership following the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19.  Edes removed to Watertown, where the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met, and resumed publication in early June 1775.  The Boston-Gazette remained there until the end of October 1776 and then returned to port city.  Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, the former printers of the Boston Evening-Post, had previously collaborated with Edes and Gill and other local printers on other projects, especially almanacs.  They published the final issue of the Boston Evening-Post on April 24, 1775, announcing that they “shall desist publishing their Papers … till Matters are in a more settled State.”  They never resumed publishing their newspaper, but they joined with Edes and Gill in publishing a Boston edition of Common Sense shortly after the British left the city.  Samuel Hall, the printer of the New-England Chronicle, may have attempted to give the enterprise a boost.  The news updates in the column to the left of the advertisement for the popular political pamphlet reported that a “favourite toast, in the best companies, is, ‘May the INDEPENDENT principles of COMMON SENSE be confirmed throughout the United Colonies.’”  The publication and dissemination of a Boston edition of Common Sense helped in spreading those “INDEPENDENT principles in New England.

March 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (March 28, 1776).

“THE 2d Salem Edition of the celebrated Pamphlet, intitled COMMON SENSE.”

A brief advertisement in the March 28, 1776, edition of the New-England Chronicle alerted readers that “THE 2d Salem Edition of the celebrated Pamphlet, intitled, COMMON SENSE, is just published, and to be sold by EZEKIEL RUSSELL of that place.”  It was the fourth advertisement for Thomas Paine’s influential political pamphlet that appeared in a newspaper published in Massachusetts and perhaps the first one that promoted an edition of Common Sense printed in that colony.

On March 4, the Boston-Gazette, printed in Watertown during the siege of Boston, carried a notice offering “A few of those celebrated Pamphlets … to be Sold (if applied for soon) at Mr. Samuel Wait’s … in Cambridge; and at the Printing Office in Watertown.”  Benjamin Edes, the printer of the Boston-Gazette, did not indicate which edition he stocked.  The copies he had on hand may have come from the press of Judah P. Spooner in Norwich, Connecticut, or from the press of John Carter in Providence, Rhode Island.  Alternately, Edes may have acquired copies published in New York or Philadelphia.  Perhaps Russell had published a local edition in Salem by early March, doing so without fanfare in the public prints.  Edes ran the same advertisement again three weeks later.

In the time between the appearances of those advertisements in the Boston-Gazette, Samuel Hall offered for sale at his printing office in Cambridge “A few copies of that valuable pamphlet, intitled COMMON SENSE” in an advertisement in the March 14, 1776, edition of the New-England Chronicle.  Which edition did he sell?  Could it have been the first edition printed in Salem by Russell?  If so, why did the advertisement published on March 28 indicate that Russell sold the “2d Salem Edition” in that town but Edes did not have copies in Cambridge?

Whatever the answer to that question, this reference to a “2d Salem Edition” seems to suggest an edition published there but not listed in Richard Gimbel’s Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense.  Gimbel identifies only one edition published in Salem in 1776.[1]  Its title page identified it as the “Third Edition,” though that did not necessarily mean that Russell printed three editions.  Instead, it likely indicated that he knew of two previous editions.  When John Carter published local editions in Providence, he identified them as the “Sixth Edition” and the “Tenth Edition,” presumably taking into account editions printed in Philadelphia, New York, and other towns that came to his attention via newspaper advertisements, correspondence, and exchanges with fellow printers.[2]  That being the case, Russell almost certainly knew that any Salem edition he published was not the third edition printed in the colonies, but perhaps the disruptions caused by the war had an impact on his networks for collecting information at the time he first took a Salem edition to press.  That the advertisement in the New-England Chronicle cites a “2d Salem Edition” yet Gimbel lists only one edition of Common Sense printed there might indicate that yet another edition circulated in 1776 even though no known copies have survived in historical societies, research libraries, and private collections.  Paine’s pamphlet went through more editions than any other published during the era of American Revolution.  Perhaps it had one more edition than scholars previously realized.

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 91.

[2] Gimbel, Thomas Paine, 90-91.

March 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , , ,

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

Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (March 15, 1776).

“Gesunde Bernunft.”

An advertisement partially in English and partially in German informed readers of the March 15, 1776, edition of Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote that the printer stocked and sold several political journals, including “The WEEKLY VOTES Of the HONOURABLE HOUSE of ASSEMBLY, of the present Sitting,” “All the VOTES of the last Year’s Session,” and “The Fourth and Fifth VOLUMES of [the] Collection of the VOTES from the Year 1744.”  Miller offered his readers opportunities to learn more about current events as well as the political history of Pennsylvania over the past three decades.  “Gleichfalls” or likewise, he sold “Gesunde Bernunft,” a German translation of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  Among the many printers who had advertised the popular political pamphlet in the two months since Robert Bell published the first edition in Philadelphia on January 9, Miller was the first to list it as an item also available for purchase rather than making it the focal point of his advertisement.

That had not always been the case in the pages of Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote.  On January 16, Bell inserted an advertisement (in English) that announced the publication and sale of Common Sense at his shop on Third Street.  A week later, Bell’s advertisement ran once again, this time competing with an advertisement (in German) that announced that Gesunde Bernunft “Es ist jebt under der Presse” or “is in the press” and soon to be published by Melchior Steiner and Carl Cist.  Although Steiner and Cist did not collaborate with Bell on their German edition, they replicated much of his advertisement.  That included giving readers an overview of the contents by listing the headings for the four sections of pamphlet and publishing an epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.  A month later, Steiner and Cist ran another advertisement (in German) announcing publication of Gesunde Bernunft.  They charged one shilling for a single copy or nine shillings for a dozen.  Like other printers, they offered a discount for those who purchased in volume for retail sales or to distribute to family and friends.

The Adverts 250 Project continues to track the proliferation of local editions of Common Sense and newspaper advertisements intended to disseminate the pamphlet widely, yet a complete accounting cannot overlook the German translation, Gesunde Bernunft, published and advertised by Steiner and Cist.  Very shortly after the pamphlet grabbed the attention of English-speaking colonizers, Steiner and Cist set about making Paine’s radical ideas accessible to German-speaking colonizers in Philadelphia and the backcountry.

March 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (March 14, 1776).

“A few copies of the valuable pamphlet, intitled, COMMON SENSE, to be sold by the Printer hereof.”

Just three days before the British evacuated Boston, ending the siege that began nearly a year earlier following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the first advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in the New-England Chronicle.  Samuel Hall published that newspaper, according to the masthead, “at his Printing-Office in Stoughton-Hall, HARVARD-COLLEGE,” in Cambridge.  Most of the newspapers published in Boston before the fighting commenced ceased or suspended publication or relocated beyond the city.  Amid such disruption, Hall moved the Essex Gazette, formerly published in Salem, to Cambridge and renamed it the New-England Chronicle.  During the first year of the Revolutionary War, it served the towns outside of Boston and the American encampment where General George Washington oversaw the siege.

That first advertisement for Paine’s influential political pamphlet in the New-England Chronicle contained little fanfare.  Unlike the advertisements that ran in most other newspapers, it did not provide an overview by listing the several sections within the pamphlet.  Instead, two brief lines advised, “A few copies of that valuable pamphlet, intitled COMMON SENSE, to be sold by the Printer hereof.”  Perhaps Hall felt that Common Sense did not need much introduction, especially if prospective customers had already heard about it and discussed the radical ideas that Paine espoused.  After all, Robert Bell published the first edition in Philadelphia two months earlier.  That was plenty of time for word to spread to Cambridge.  In addition, the pamphlet was so popular that Bell quickly took a second (unauthorized) edition to press, Paine worked with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford to publish a new edition in Philadelphia, and printers in several towns in New York and New England published, advertised, and sold local editions.  Which edition did Hall have on hand to sell at his printing office?  He may have acquired copies of the edition jointly published by Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette in New London, and Judah P. Spooner, a printer in Norwich, or the edition published by John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette.  Alternately, he may have received copies of other editions sent to him from as far away as New York or Philadelphia … or perhaps even a local edition published in Salem by Ezekiel Russell not previously advertised in any newspaper.  Even if readers of the New-England Chronicle already knew about the ideas that Paine presented in Common Sense, few had likely read the pamphlet for themselves.  Hall provided an opportunity for them to do so, aiding in the dissemination of the pamphlet in the months before the Continental Congress declared independence.

March 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Journal (March 13, 1776).

“That much esteemed Pamphlet, intitled, COMMON SENSE.”

Two months after Robert Bell published the first edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in Philadelphia, printers in other cities and towns in New York and New England published local editions that increased the circulation of the popular political pamphlet.  Advertisements for Common Sense proliferated as those printers marketed their editions and other printers and booksellers acquired copies that they sold in their communities.  On March 13, 1776, an advertisement for Common Sense appeared in the Connecticut Journal, published in New Haven, for the first time.

“Just published & to be sold by the Printers hereof,” Thomas Green and Samuel Green announced, “That much esteemed Pamphlet, intitled, COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED To the INHABITANTS of AMERICA.”  The Greens, however, had not published their own local edition.  As was the case with so many other advertisements for books and pamphlets, eighteenth-century readers knew to separate the phrases “Just published” and “sold by the Printers hereof.”  The latter did not mean that the printers had published the pamphlet themselves; instead, it meant that the pamphlet was “now available” rather than “forthcoming” or “in the press.”

The Greens stocked an edition that included “an APPENDIX to Common Sense, and an Address to the Representatives of the People called Quakers.”  Paine included that additional material in his approved new edition published by William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, after he parted ways with Bell.  It did not take long for Bell to pirate those items and incorporate them into a supplementary pamphlet of essays he marketed as related to Common Sense.  On the same day that the Greens first advertised Common Sense in the Connecticut Journal, the Bradfords once again cautioned the public that the “Pamphlet advertised by Robert Bell, entitled Additions to Common Sense … consists of pieces taken out of the News-papers, and not written by the author of Common Sense.”  That the Greens did not mention any additional material except the “APPENDIX, and an Address to the Representatives of the People called QUAKERS” suggests that they stocked copies published by the Bradfords rather than by Bell.  The advertisement does not definitively demonstrate that was the case, but it does show that more and more printers made some version of the political pamphlet available to readers.  The Greens simultaneously advertised “EXTRACTS from the VOTES and PROCEEDINGS of the American CONTINENTAL CONGRESS,” supplying customers with other products to keep informed beyond what they read in the newspaper.

March 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (March 11, 1776).

“A few Copies of a Pamphlet, ENTITLED, COMMON SENSE, May be had of the Printers hereof.”

Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and John Trumbull, the printers of the Norwich Packet, ran out of space for all the content intended for the March 11, 1776, edition of their newspaper.  They inserted a brief notice advising, “Advertisements omitted in this Paper will be in our next.”  They did have just enough space to insert a revised advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense immediately above that notice: “A few Copies of a Pamphlet, ENTITLED, COMMON SENSE, May be had of the Printers hereof.”

Norwich Packet (March 11, 1776).

The printers first ran a variation of that advertisement on February 26, but that was not the extent of the notice that Common Sense received in that issue.  Nathanel Patten, a bookbinder and stationer, inserted a separate advertisement that provided an overview of the contents by listing the section headings.  That replicated advertisements for Common Sensethat previously appeared in other newspapers.  In addition, the Robertsons and Trumbull published “EXTRACTS from aPamphlet entitled COMMON SENSE; addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA” on the third page.  In making their selection, they passed over the first section of the pamphlet, “Of the Origin and Design of Government in general, with concise Remarks on the English Constitution,” and went directly to the second section, “Of MONARCHY and hereditary succession.”  The printers devoted half a column to the “EXTRACTS” and promised, “[To be continued.]” They were more generous the following week, allowing nearly two columns for “EXTRACTS FROM A PAMPHLET, ENTITLED, COMMON SENSE.”  In the issue that “omitted” advertisements and promised publication “in our next,” the printers designated two columns for further “EXTRACTS.”  They sacrificed valuable advertising revenue as they disseminated a portion of the popular political pamphlet to readers, though they may have recouped some of that lost revenue by enticing readers to purchase the pamphlet.  The Robertsons and Trumbull continued publishing “EXTRACTS” in another two columns on March 18 and just over two columns on March 25.  On April 1, they gave over the entire first page and another two columns on the last page to continuing the “EXTRACTS.”  On April 8, they concluded the extracted portion of Common Sense, once again featuring it on the first page along with nearly two columns on the last page.  They also promised more material related to the pamphlet, “Additions to the above,” in the next issue.  The Robertsons and Trumbull made it possible for colonizers to engage with Common Sense along multiple trajectories. They could purchase the entire pamphlet and read it for themselves, peruse the extracts in the Norwich Packet, and discuss what they read with others who debated the merits of declaring independence.

March 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 9, 1776).

“Just PUBLISHED … An APPENDIX to Common Sense.”

Advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense continued to proliferate in the March 9, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette.  Three weeks earlier, John Carter, the printer, announced that he had a local edition of the pamphlet “Now in the PRESS” and expected that copies would be ready for sale within a week.  To stoke anticipation, he trumpeted, “This Pamphlet is in such very great Demand, that in the Course of a few Weeks three Editions of it have been printed in Philadelphia, and to in New-York, besides a German Edition.”  The following week, he updated the advertisement to alert the public that he “JUST PUBLISHED” the pamphlet and sold it for “One Shilling single, or Eight Shillings per Dozen.”

Rather than continuing to run that advertisement, he once again revised it for the March 1 edition of the Providence Gazette.  This version eliminated the comment about the “very great Demand” for the pamphlet.  Carter also described his edition as “A NEW EDITION OF Common Sense,” replicating how William Bradford and Thomas Bradford described the edition they produced in collaboration with Thomas Paine after the author parted ways with Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition of Common Sense.  Given that the Bradfords did not announce publication of that edition until February 14, the edition that Carter had “Now in the PRESS” on February 17 must have drawn from one of Bell’s editions or from John Anderson’s New York edition (drawn from one of Bell’s editions) published on February 8.  Why did Carter consider it necessary to revise his advertisement to describe his edition as “A NEW EDITION”?

He may have seen the dispute, first between Bell and Paine and later between Bell and the Bradfords, play out in advertisements in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers published in Philadelphia.  After all, printers exchanged newspapers so they could reprint news, letters, editorials, and other content.  During that dispute, the Bradfords emphasized that their edition included new material written by Paine, “An APPENDIX, and an Address to the People called QUAKERS.”  It did not take long for Bell to pirate those items and add them to “Large ADDITIONS to COMMON SENSE,” a collection of essays from newspapers, none of the written by Paine.

Carter acquired one of those pamphlets.  On March 9, he once again ran his advertisement promoting the “NEW EDITION.”  In a second advertisement, he announced publication of “An APPENDIX to Common Sense,” a separate item that sold for “Ninepence single, or Six Shillings per Dozen.”  Richard Gimbel indicates that this pamphlet included the “Address to the People called Quakers.”[1]  Perhaps Carter updated his advertisement in solidarity with the Bradfords.  He did not, after all, publish a local edition of “Large Additions.”  Carter did not explicitly wade into that controversy that gained so much attention in Philadelphia.  Instead, he kept the focus on distributing Common Sense and Paine’s supplementary materials.

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 90.

March 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (March 7, 1776).

“THE NEW EDITION OF COMMON SENSE.”

“LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE.”

The March 7, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal included competing advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and “LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE.”  Although John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette, recently published a New York edition of Paine’s pamphlet, neither of these advertisements promoted pamphlets printed in that city.  Instead, both advertisements hawked pamphlets printed in Philadelphia and sent to New York.

New-York Journal (March 7, 1776).

Garrat Noel and Ebenezer Hazard stocked the “NEW EDITION OF COMMON SENSE; With Additions and Improvements in the Body of the WORK” published by William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, printers of the Pennsylvania Journal.  When Paine and Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition of Common Sense, had a falling out, the author collaborated with the Bradfords on a “NEW EDITION” that featured new material, including “AN APPENDIX, And an ADDRESS to the People, called, QUAKERS.”  As the Bradfords prepared that edition for press, Bell published an unauthorized second edition and then supplemented it with yet another pamphlet of “LARGE ADDITIONS” that included “The American Patriot’s Prayer” and “American Independency defended, by Candidus.”  In their advertisements, the Bradfords warned that the pamphlet “consists of pieces taken out of News-Papers, and NOT written by the AUTHOR of Common Sense.”  To spite Paine and the Bradfords, Bell then pirated “An Appendix to Common Sense; together with an Address to the People called Quakers, on their Testimony concerning Kings and Government, and the present Commotions in America” and packaged it with the “LARGE ADDITIONS.”

The advertisements in the New-York Journal reveal that Noel and Hazard stocked the Bradfords’ edition of Common Sense at the Constitutional Post Office and that William Green, a bookseller and bookbinder in Maiden Lane, carried Bell’s “LARGE ADDITIONS.”  Noel and Hazard’s advertisement included the warning about items from newspapers passed off as Paine’s work.  Green previously placed the first advertisement for Common Sense that appeared in any newspaper beyond Philadelphia, identifying himself as Bell’s local agent for distributing the pamphlet.  That he now advertised the “LARGE ADDITIONS” demonstrated that Bell continued supplying him with pamphlets to peddle in New York.  Even as printers in New York and other towns produced local editions of Common Sense, printers in Philadelphia tried to expand their share of the market for the popular pamphlet by sending copies to local agents to advertise and sell.

February 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (February 26, 1776).

“A few Copies of a Pamphlet ENTITLED, Common Sense.”

As February 1776 came to a close, more printers and booksellers made copies of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense available to local readers.  Two advertisements for the popular political pamphlet appeared in the February 26 edition of the Norwich Packet.  In one, the very first advertisement that appeared in that issue, Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and John Trumbull announced that “A few Copies of a Pamphlet ENTITLED, Common Sense; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF NORTH AMERICA, May be had of the Printers hereof.”  They did not provide any other details.  In contract, Nathaniel Patten, a bookbinder and stationer, inserted a notice that resembled many others that appeared in newspapers in other towns, including the advertisements for the first edition published by Robert Bell in Philadelphia.  It gave the title, previewed the contents with a list of the section headings, and concluded with an epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.

Norwich Packet (February 26, 1776).

Which editions of Common Sense did the printers and Patten sell?  Three days earlier, Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette in New London, announced the imminent publication of a local edition jointly undertaken with Judah P. Spooner in Norwich.  Curiously, Spooner did not place his own advertisement in the Norwich Packet.  The “few Copies” that the Robertsons and Trumbull stocked may have been sent to them by the industrious Bell who had previously supplied William Green, a bookbinder in New York, with copies of the first edition and an unauthorized second edition.  The printers could have also received copies of a New York edition published by John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette, or a Providence edition, published by John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, that went to press even more recently.  By the time the Robertsons and Trumbull ran their advertisement, the paths of circulation for the various editions crisscrossed each other.  Similarly, Patten could have sold any of those editions.  His advertisement declared, “Just published and sold by Nathaneil Patten,” yet eighteenth-century readers knew to separate the phrases “Just published” and “sold by.”  The latter referred to Patten, but not necessarily the former. Instead, “Just published” meant “Now available.”  Patten very well have promoted the local edition produced by Spooner.  According to Richard Gimbel, Spooner and Green produced the only editions of Common Sense published in Norwich in 1776.[1]  Whatever the origins of the copies advertised in the Norwich Packet, the printers and Patten participated in the widespread dissemination of the most influential political pamphlet published during the era of the American Revolution.

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 90.

February 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (February 22, 1775).

“Self-defence against unjust attacks needs no apology.”

It was the final volley in the battle over competing editions of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that took place in newspapers advertisements in Philadelphia over a course of a month in late January and most of February 1776.  The author and Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition, had a parting of the ways over Bell’s bookkeeping for the first edition.  Paine claimed that he wished to donate his share of the proceeds to purchase mittens for American soldiers participating in the invasion of Canada, but Bell somehow had not turned a profit.  That prompted Paine to work with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, on an expanded edition.  Bell published an unauthorized second edition.  Paine, who remained anonymous at that point, and Bell attacked each other in newspaper advertisements.  The author walked away, but Bell continued and the Bradfords joined the fray.  When Aitken learned that the Bradfords’ edition would feature new material, he published his own “ADDITIONS to Common Sense.”  The Bradfords warned that Bell’s new pamphlet “consists of Pieces taken out of News Papers, and not written by the Author of COMMON SENSE.”  Several newspapers carried some of these advertisements; the Pennsylvania Evening Post carried all of them.  Printed three times a week instead of just once (in contrast to the other newspapers published in Philadelphia at t the time), the Pennsylvania Evening Post allowed the feuding printers to publish speedy responses to the latest accusations leveled against them.

Bell inserted the last of those responses in the February 22 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post and the February 26 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  In Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication, Richard Gimbel notes that Bell “thought so much of this address that he had it separately printed as a two-page leaflet and added it, as an integral part, to his ‘complete’ edition of Common Sense.”[1]  In this advertisement, Bell presented himself as a performing his civic dry as a “Bookseller, to the Public.”  He entitled this new address, “Self-defence against unjust attacks needs no apology.”  He then disparaged Paine, the “envious Mr. ANONYMOUS,” for wanting to have all the attention for writing Common Sense when other authors, “worthy and respectables citizens of Philadelphia,” also penned “excellent pieces.”  Furthermore, “in the opinion of some gentlemen, who are good judges of literary merit,” those essays were “worthy of preservation, in such manner as to bind with other pamphlets in an octavo volume.”  Why should readers limit themselves to Common Sense alone when they considered current events when they could instead consult an entire compendium of essays that supported the American cause?  Paine, his intermediaries who negotiated with Bell, and the printers who worked with him attempted to “insinuate,” according to Bell, that there is no WRITERS in America but the would-be-author of Common Sense.”  Yet Paine had been influenced by others, so any acclaim he received amounted to nothing more than “stolen applause.”  In addition, the publisher framed the production and, especially, the dissemination of Common Sense as his work.  After all, Paine did not attach his name to the pamphlet and most printers initially did not want to be associated with such a revolutionary tract, but Bell “printed his name on the title of the flaming production, to sound the depths of the multitude for a virtuous and glorious independency.”  “Mr. ANONYMOUS” wrote the pamphlet, but it was Bell who deserved credit for presenting it to the world.  He concluded by proclaiming that he “continueth to sell to all who are capable of making proper distinctions, the large edition of Common Sense with ALL the additions and improvements.”  That volume included “the appendix, and address to the Quakers COMPLETE,” pieces written by Bell for the Bradfords’ expanded edition and pirated by Bell.  Gimbel contends that this “acrimonious quarrel” in newspaper advertisements “doubtless helped to make Paine’s Common Sense the most discussed and most widely circulated pamphlet in America.”[2]  Then, as now, everyone loved a controversy.  The dispute gave readers all the more reason to check out the pamphlet.

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 47.

[2] Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense, 49.