Political Pamphlet

August 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (August 18, 1774).

“Sold here at 1s6 New-York money, which is little more than half the London price.”

The Adverts 250 Project previously examined an advertisement for a political tract, Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America, that appeared in a prominent place in the August 1, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette, attributing the copy to Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of that newspaper and the Boston edition of the pamphlet.  Yet Edes and Gill were not the only printers to produce an American edition of Considerations, nor were they the first to advertise it.  When they did, they borrowed advertising copy that previously appeared when John Holt marketed his edition in the New-York Journal.

Holt first announced publication of a New York edition of this “Pamphlet just arrived from London” on July 21.  When Edes and Gill advertised the same pamphlet eleven days later, they used copy identical to Holt’s advertisement, embellishing it with a quotation from Phillippe de Commines that appeared on the title page of the pamphlet.  As was often the case with advertisements for books and pamphlets, the printers did not devise any of the copy on their own, except for “THIS DAY PUBLISHED, (Price 9d.) And sold by EDES and GILL, in Queen-Street.”  Holt may have written the copy that lauded the pamphlet as a “most masterly performance” against the Coercive Acts and reported on its reception in England when he first advertised the pamphlet, though he could have borrowed that overview from someone else, just as Edes and Gill appropriated it from him.  Either way, Holt did eventually make an addition to his advertisement. After it ran twice, he added a note that the pamphlet “sells in London at 1s5 sterling” yet “is sold here at 1s6 New-York money, which is little more than half the London price.”  That suggests that the initial appeals might not have been enough to convince readers to buy the tract, no matter how much they may have been interested in the arguments it made about current events.  The printer found it necessary to add an appeal to price in hopes of selling the pamphlet.  Holt and other patriot printers sought to spread the rhetoric of the American Revolution (and generate revenues for themselves in the process), but doing so required more than merely announcing political pamphlets for sale.  Their advertisements aimed to convince colonizers, even those already sympathetic to their cause, to purchase the books and pamphlets about politics and political philosophy they printed and sold.

August 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston Evening-Post (August 8, 1774).

“THE PATRIOTIC WHISPER in the EARS of the KING.”

The imperial crisis intensified in the summer of 1774.  In response to the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, and the other Coercive Acts that Parliament enacted following the Boston Tea Party, printers, booksellers, and others marketed an array of books and pamphlets that advocated for the rights and liberties of the American colonies.  On August 8, Benjamin Edes and John Gill continued advertising Considerations on the Measures Carrying on with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America in the Boston-Gazette.  That same day, a subscription proposal for “A Small TRACT: Entitled THE PATRIOTIC WHISPER in the EARS of the KING” appeared in the Boston Evening-Post.

The lengthy secondary title of the proposed tract deployed similar rhetoric: “the grand Request of the People of AMERICA made manifest.  Intended as a CHARIOT of LIBERTY for the Sons of AMERICA, and a standing Memorial of the Rights of the American Colonies.  Being a political LIBERTY ORATION upon the Branches of the American Charters, proving them to be as sacred as the British Constitution.”  The subscription proposal delivered an impassioned plea to readers whether or not they happened to purchase copies to examine in more detail.

This “PATRIOTIC WHISPER” originated as a sermon that John Allen gave “on the last Annual Thanksgiving.”  Many colonizers in Boston were familiar with his sermons and tracts.  Allen had previously published The American Alarm, or the Bostonian Plea, for the Rights and Liberties, of the People and An Oration, Upon the Beauties of Liberty, or the Essential Rights of the Americans, though he had adopted the pen name “A British Bostonian” for both.  The extended title of the Oration, Upon the Beauties of Liberty identified it as a sermon “Delivered at the Second Baptist-Church in Boston.  Upon the Last Annual Thanksgiving.”  That made it possible for readers to deduce the identity of “A British Bostonian.”  The subscription notice described Allen as a “humble Lover of Liberty, Dedicated to the Inhabitants of America,” and further explained that the tract was “calculated to support and strengthen the Common Cause of the Rights of the Colonies against the Power of Tyranny.”  Again, the advertising copy made a powerful political statement.

That, however, does not seem to have been enough to garner the necessary number of subscribers to take the tract to press.  Yet Allen’s views on the politics of the moment found their way into print in other pamphlets in 1774.  In Salem, Ezekiel Russell printed The Watchman’s Alarm to Lord N—h; or, The British Parliamentary Boston Port-Bill Unwrap[p]ed.  The title page attributed the work to “the British Bostonian.”  In Hartford, Ebenezer Watson reprinted a “carefully corrected” fifth edition of Allen’s Oration on the Beauties of Liberty.  The widespread dissemination of tracts by Allen promoted John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark to describe him as “New England’s Tom Paine” in the twentieth century.[1]  Even though Allen’s “PATRIOTIC WHISPER” did not go to press in a crowded market, the subscription proposal that ran in the Boston Evening-Post contributed to the discourse condemning ongoing abuses by Parliament.

**********

[1] John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark, “New England’s Tom Paine: John Allen and the Spirit of Liberty,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 21, no. 4 (October 1964): 561-570.

August 1

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

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

Boston-Gazette (August 1, 1774).

“This pamphlet has had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, gave an advertisement for their American edition of Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America a prominent place in the August 1, 1774, edition of their newspaper.  It appeared as the first item in the first column on the first page, making it difficult for readers to miss.  The printers wished to call attention to the book, originally published in London, not only because they hoped to generate revenue from its sales but also as a means for colonizers to become even better informed about current events and the political challenges they faced as Parliament passed a series of laws, the Coercive Acts, following the Boston Tea Party.  As the imperial crisis intensified, patriot printers like Edes and Gill published newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, books, and other items that documented the ongoing contest with Parliament, the king, and royal officials in the colonies.

To convince prospective customers of the necessity of purchasing and perusing this pamphlet, Edes and Gill explained that it was the “most masterly performance, written since the framing of the several Acts against BOSTON and AMERICA,” including the Boston Port Act and the Massachusetts Government Act, and “the best calculated to convince the Ministry, the people of England, and all the world, of the absurdity and wickedness of the late acts.”  Colonizers used newspapers and other publications in their efforts to shape opinion in the colonies, yet they were just as concerned with the information environment on the other side of the Atlantic.  In their publications and letters, they hoped to sway both officials and the general public in London and throughout Great Britain.  They also took note of the support they received for their plight.  In their advertisement for Considerations, Edes and Gill reported that their “last accounts” indicated “this pamphlet had had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England” that Parliament had not been just in its treatment of the colonies.  Whether that was accurate or wishful thinking likely varied from person to person, but the printers wanted to believe that it was true.

Edes and Gill applauded how the pamphlet made a case about the “ruinous consequences, to England at least,” not just the colonies, “that would certainly attend” from the Coercive Acts “being carried into execution.”  Printers in Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia shared those sentiments, producing other American editions in each of those towns.  They hoped that the dissemination of the ideas expressed in Considerations would buttress the resolve of colonizers distressed by Parliament’s most recent legislation, especially upon learning how their allies in England made a case on their behalf.

July 13

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (July 13, 1774).

“OBSERVATIONS on the ACT of PARLIAMENT commonly called the BOSTON PORT-BILL … BY JOSIAH QUINCY, junior.”

In the spring of 1774, Josiah Quincy, Junior, of Boston, a prominent lawyer and noted patriot, penned Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port-Bill: With Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies.  In it, Quincy encouraged colonizers to unite in opposition to abuses perpetrated by Parliament, continuing work he had undertaken in 1773 when he visited South Carolina to strengthen ties among patriots in northern and southern colonies.  He had also published political essays in the Boston-Gazette, known for its support of the patriot cause, for several years. According to Daniel R. Coquillette and Neil Longley York, the editors of his major political and legal papers, the pamphlet “was the culmination of his thinking and writing about the problem of balancing imperial authority and colonial liberty.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill printed the tract and advertised it in their newspaper, the Boston-Gazette, a publication known for advocating the patriot cause.  Soon, advertisements appeared widely in other newspapers published in Boston as well as newspapers in other towns in New England.  In general, they were brief announcements that merely named the title and author; Quincy’s reputation as writer, orator, and political philosopher was so well established that printers and booksellers did not consider it necessary to elaborate on what he had written to convince colonizers to purchase copies of the Observations.  Quincy’s pamphlet experienced even greater dissemination when John Sparhawk, a bookseller in Philadelphia, published an edition there and advertised it in the Pennsylvania Journal.  In addition to stocking it at his “London Book-Store,” Sparhawk advised readers that they could acquire copies from local agents, most of them printers and booksellers, in New York, Annapolis, Williamsburg, and Charleston.  That distribution network certainly made Quincy’s Observations more accessible to colonizers beyond New England, helping to explain how his “attempt to define and defend American rights” became, as Coquillette and York assert, “an essential part of the debate over rights in the empire.”

February 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (February 7, 1774).

“This Pamphlet run thro’ Ten Editions in London in less than twelve Months.”

American printers and booksellers marketed and sold a variety of political pamphlets and treatises during the imperial crisis that led to thirteen colonies declaring independence from Great Britain.  In addition to hawking items printed in London and imported to the colonies, some of those printers and booksellers also published American editions, as was the case with The Judgment of Whole Kingdoms and Nations, Concerning the Rights, Privileges and Properties of the People.  Three American editions appeared in 1773 and 1774, one in Philadelphia, one in Boston, and one in Newport, Rhode Island.

Several rare book dealers, including Bauman Rare Books, offer overviews of the publication history, contents, and significance of The Judgment of Whole Kingdoms and Nations.  Originally published as Vox Populi, Vox Dei in London in 1709, the pamphlet “examines principles of limited monarchy and the right of resistance to tyranny,” drawing on “historical precedents and reiterat[ing] opposition to absolute monarchy during the time of England’s Glorious Revolution.”  Colonial printers and booksellers both answered the demand for this sort of political philosophy and helped to stoke opposition to king and Parliament by publishing and disseminating this pamphlet and other tracts and treatises.  The Judgment of Whole Kingdoms and Nations “contains the seed of what would become the American Bill of Rights – reprinting the English Bill of Rights – and was read by many of the Founding Fathers, including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who owned the Philadelphia 1773 edition.”

Adams may have acquired his copy after reading the advertisement that John Langdon placed in the February 7, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette, a newspaper that took an especially vocal stance in support of the Sons of Liberty and the rights of Americans.  Langdon, a bookseller, published the book, engaging the services of Isaiah Thomas as printer.  To incite demand, Langdon informed prospective customers that “This Pamphlet run thro’ Ten Editions in London in less than twelve Months.”  How could anyone interested in politics in the colonies miss out on what was such a popular and influential work in the capital of the empire?  Readers of the Boston-Gazette had to decide for themselves how much to trust Langdon’s assertion about the rapid sales of the pamphlet in London.

That report, however, may have contributed to colonizers overestimating how much the general public on the other side of the Atlantic supported them in their disputes with George III and Parliament.  In Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America, Jordan E. Taylor argues that American newspapers selectively published reports from London, creating narratives of recent events that matched the ideologies of the printers.  Langdon’s note at the end of his advertisement for a political pamphlet used to support the American cause may have buttressed the narrative that Benjamin Edes and John Gill advanced in the news items and editorials they published elsewhere in the Boston-Gazette.  Declaring that The Judgment of Whole Kingdoms and Nations sold so rapidly in London suggested widespread support for the principles it contained as well as applying them to the American colonies.

October 19

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

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

Essex Gazette (October 19, 1773).

“The REPRESENTATIONS of Governor Hutchinson, and others, Contained in certain LETTERS transmitted to England.”

Among the various advertisements in the October 19, 1773, edition of the Essex Gazette, Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, the printers of the newspaper, offered a pamphlet “Just published in Boston” and available at their printing office.  Many readers likely already knew about the contents of the pamphlet, “The REPRESENTATIONS of Governor Hutchinson, and others, Contained in certain LETTERS transmitted to England, and afterwards returned from thence, and laid before the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Together with the RESOLVES of the two Houses thereon.”  Acquiring the pamphlet and reading the correspondence for themselves, however, gave colonizers an opportunity to see for themselves exactly what Thomas Hutchinson and others had reported to ministers and members of Parliament in letters that had not been intended for public consumption.  Purchasing and perusing the pamphlet also presented another means of participating in politics.

As Jordan E. Taylor explains in Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth ion Revolutionary America, this was not the first instance of printers publishing private letters from colonial officials to associates in London.[1]  In the wake of the arrival of British soldiers in Boston in 1768, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, published Letters to the Ministry from Governor Bernard, General Gage, and Commodore Hood.  The Halls reprinted the pamphlet and sold it in Salem.  Taylor describes the letters as “quite benign – dull even,” yet a “few passages, nevertheless, aroused indignation,” including “Bernard’s suggestion that the Massachusetts charter be altered to weaken the council and strengthen the office of the governor.”  In addition, letters from customs commissioners recommended “two or three Regiments” to “restore and support Government” in Boston.  From the perspective of the printers and many colonizers, these letters were “hard evidence that a group of officials was conspiring to intentionally exaggerate the disorder in Massachusetts and bring troops into Boston.”

In 1773, the Representations of Governor Hutchison and Others further misrepresented the situation in Massachusetts, at least according to colonizers who advocated for the patriot cause and who recognized a pattern in how the misunderstandings between the colonies and Parliament occurred.  This pamphlet included letters from Thomas Hutchinson, Andrew Oliver, the lieutenant governor, and Charles Paxton, a customs officer.  One passage written by Hutchinson addressed “the abridgment of the colonists’ liberties,” though the governor “claimed that he was predicting, rather than prescribing, that those liberties might eventually be limited.”  Paxton requested “two or three regiments” or else “Boston will be in open rebellion.”  Taylor notes that printers “widely shared the letters in their newspapers,” making them widely accessible and perhaps even generating demand for a volume that collected them together.  The letters gained sufficient interest for the pamphlet to go through ten editions as colonizers examined what Hutchinson and others had written for themselves and constructed their own narrative that the Representations and representations of colonial officials amounted to misrepresentations that caused and exacerbated the imperial crisis.

**********

[1] For a more complete account of Letters to the Ministry and Representations of Governor Hutchinson, see Jordan E. Taylor, Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022), 52-54.

July 2

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

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

New-London Gazette (July 2, 1773).

“Also at the Printing-Office in Norwich, and by Nathan Bushnell, jun. and Joseph Knight, Post Riders.”

In early July 1773, Timothy Green, the printer of the New-London Gazette, ran an advertisement for a pamphlet that he “Just Publish’d” and sold at the printing office.  He noted that it was the “Third EDITION corrected.”  The Adverts 250 Project has traced the marketing of earlier editions of that pamphlet, John Allen’s “ORATION, Upon the BEAUTIES of LIBERTY, Or the essential Rights of the AMERICANS,” a publication that John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark have described as “one of the best-selling pamphlets of the pre-Revolutionary crisis, passing through seven editions in four cities between 1773 and 1775.”[1]

In advertisements in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter and the Massachusetts Spy on January 14, 1773, Benjamin Kneeland and Nathaniel Davis announced that the pamphlet was “Now in the press, and will be published in a few days.”  A week later, the printers announced “This Day was published” the “SECOND EDITION.”  Newspaper advertisements did not account for the first edition.  It did not take long for Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, the printers of the Essex Gazette, to advertise that they sold the pamphlet at their printing office in Salem.  Copies of the Oration circulated beyond Boston.

Green … or Joseph Knight, a post rider … apparently acquired the pamphlet and determined that the conditions were right to market a third edition in Connecticut.  The imprint on the title page stated, “Printed by T. Green, for Joseph Knight, post-rider.”  The efforts of the printer and the post rider to disseminate Allen’s Oration extended beyond the printing office in New London to include the printing office in Norwich, Knight, and another post rider, Nathan Bushnell, Jr.  Printer-booksellers frequently stocked books and pamphlets published by their fellow printer-booksellers.  They also served as local agents who collected subscriptions for proposed publications.  Newspaper advertisements, however, rarely mentioned post riders as publishers or even as local agents responsible for selling and distributing books and pamphlets.  Green and Knight devised an innovative method for marketing and disseminating this pamphlet, perhaps increasing its circulation and contributing to the popularity that led to four other editions appearing in the next two years.

**********

[1] John M. Bumstred and Charles E. Clark, “New England’s Tom Paine: John Allen and the Spirit of Liberty,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 21, no. 4 (October 1964): 562.

April 8

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

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (April 8, 1773).

“The American Alarm or the Bostonian Pleas for the Rights and Liberties of the People.”

The headline proclaimed, “THE ALARM.”  As readers of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letterexamined the advertisement more closely, they learned that David Kneeland and Nathaniel Davis published and sold a pamphlet by an author who referred to himself as the “BRITISH BOSTONIAN” and that many residents of Boston knew was John Allen.  In December 1772, Allen and the printers published a subscription notice calling on colonizers to reserve copies of “The AMERICAN ALARM, Or, a Confirmation of the Boston Plea. For the Rights and Liberties of the People.”

In the original notice, Allen stated that the pamphlet was “Humbly addressed to the King and Council, and to the Constitutional sons of Liberty in America.”  While that dedication appeared on the title page, the author and the printers updated the advertisement to include “His Most Sacred Majesty George the Third, … his Excellency the Governor of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, … the Honorable the People’s Council, … the Honorable House of Representatives, and … the worthy Sons of Freedom throughout America.”  In both instances, the promoters suggested that a broad audience would benefit from perusing the pamphlet, not just those who already agreed with the British Bostonian’s arguments and conclusions.  Still, addressing “the Constitutional sons of Liberty in America” and “the worthy Sons of Freedom throughout America” targeted the audiences that Allen and the printers considered most likely to purchase the pamphlet.

The advertisement instructed subscribers “to call or send for their Books,” suggesting that customers had indeed submitted their names to Kneeland and Adams after seeing the notice in the newspaper four months earlier.  In the time that elapsed since then, Allen disseminated another political pamphlet, that one also printed by Kneeland and Adams.  Allen’s Oration on the Beauties of Liberty or the Essential Rights of the Americans garnered greater attention in Boston and beyond than the first pamphlet he advertised.  As John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark note, the Oration “proved to be one of the best-selling pamphlets of the pre-Revolutionary crisis, passing through seven editions in four cities between 1773 and 1775.”[1]  By the time The American Alarm went to press, colonizers had access to two editions of the Oration.  Even though The American Alarm did not become as popular as the Oration, its publication likely contributed to debates underway in the colonies and, eventually, the decision to declare independence.  Allen advanced a novel argument in The American Alarm in 1773.  According to Bumsted and Clark, “The important point was not that Allen denied the applicability of English law in America, but that he did so with a simple, direct statement of fact rather than through a long rehearsal of legal arguments.  He assumed as given what others in America sought to prove.”[2]  The more moderate tone of the Oration, in contrast, may have made it more popular among readers prior to the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord since it aligned more closely with public opinion in the early 1770s.

**********

[1] John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark, “New England’s Tom Paine: John Allen and the Spirit of Liberty,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 21, no. 4 (October 1964): 561.

[2] Bumstead and Clark, “New England’s Tom Paine,” 568.

February 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (February 2, 1773).

“An ORATION on the Beauties of LIBERTY.”

For the third consecutive week, an advertisement for “An ORATION on the Beauties of LIBERTY, from Mic. vii. 3. Delivered at the Second Baptist Church in Boston, on the last Thanksgiving Day” ran in the February 2, 1773, edition of the Essex Gazette.  That notice also informed readers that the printers of the newspaper, Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, also sold “Fleeming’s REGISTER for New-England and Nova-Scotia, with an Almanack for 1773.”  Some of the contents of the almanac became obsolete with each passing day, but the principles expressed in the Oration endured long after John Allen, known as a “British Bostonian,” gave the address in December 1772.

John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark described the Oration as “one of the best-selling pamphlets of the pre-Revolutionary crisis, passing through seven editions in four cities between 1773 and 1775.”[1]  In addition to printers producing the pamphlet in Boston, Hartford and New London in Connecticut, and Wilmington in Delaware, printers and booksellers advertised the Oration in other cities and towns.  The Halls encouraged the popularity and dissemination of the pamphlet by advertising it in Salem as soon David Kneeland and Nathaniel Davis, the printers, took it to press and made it available for purchase.  On January 14, Kneeland and Davis placed notices in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter and the Massachusetts Spy to announce that the pamphlet was “Now in the press, and will be published in a few days.”  Just five days later, the Halls advertised that they sold the pamphlet.

The Halls almost certainly stocked and sold other books that they did not advertise in their newspaper.  They chose to devote space to promoting two items they considered timely, an almanac for 1773 and a pamphlet that critiqued the appointment of Commissioners of Inquiry concerning the Gaspee incident.  Advertisements in multiple newspapers published in multiple cities and distributed to even more cities and towns likely helped Allen’s Oration become such a popular pamphlet during the era of the American Revolution.

**********

[1] John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark, “New England’s Tom Paine: John Allen and the Spirit of Liberty,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 21, no. 4 (October 1964): 561.

January 21

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (January 21, 1773).

“The SECOND EDITION.”

Just a week after the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter and the Massachusetts Spy carried advertisements announcing that An Oration on the Beauties of Liberty or the Essential Rights of the Americans was “Now in the press, and will be published in a few days” on January 14, 1773, both newspapers carried notices about the publication of a second edition.  John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark identify the author, “A British Bostonian,” as John Allen, a Baptist minister who migrated to New England in the early 1770s.  They consider the Oration “one of the best-selling pamphlets of the pre-Revolutionary crisis, passing through seven editions in four cities between 1773 and 1775.”[1]

The Oration very quickly went to a second edition.  Was that because the first edition sold out so quickly?  Or did other factors play a role.  The advertisement in the January 21 edition of the Massachusetts Spy implied that it was the former, that the popularity of the pamphlet prompted the printers, David Kneeland and Nathaniel Davis, to publish “The SECOND EDITION.”  In addition to the advertisements that ran on January 14, another advertisement appeared in the Boston-Gazette on January 18, helping to incite interest and demand in a pamphlet drawn from an address that many Bostonians heard several weeks earlier.  Word-of-mouth chatter about the Oration likely supplemented newspaper advertisements in promoting the pamphlet.

The advertisement in the January 21 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter provided additional details. It featured two revisions to the original notice.  The headline now read “This Day Published” instead of “To-Morrow will be Published.”  In addition, a new line at the end of the notice advised prospective customers that they could purchase “The SECOND EDITION corrected.”  Did Kneeland and Davis sell out of the first edition?  Or did they take advantage of producing a second edition that corrected errors to suggest that such the first edition met with such success that it made the immediate publication of a second edition necessary?  Either way, the reception of the first two editions apparently convinced other printers in Boston, Hartford and New London in Connecticut, and Wilmington in Delaware, that they could generate revenues by publishing their own editions.  In so doing, they assisted in disseminating arguments that encouraged colonizers to move from resistance to revolution during the era of the imperial crisis that culminated in thirteen colonies declaring independence from Great Britain.

**********

[1] John M. Bumsted and Charles E. Clark, “New England’s Tom Paine: John Allen and the Spirit of Liberty,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 21, no. 4 (October 1964): 561.