The Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America, now met in General Congress at Philadelphia, Setting forth the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

Continental Congress

Published by London, 1775

About this Item

First British edition, first issue. 32pp. Contemporary manuscript corrections. 8vo. The very rare first British edition of this crucial Revolutionary document - the Declaration of Congress issued July 6, 1775, giving reasons for the American colonies taking up arms against Great Britain. Primarily a collaboration between John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, two of the most elegant and incisive pens of the American Revolution, and published a year before the Declaration of Independence, it set the colonies on a path toward unity and outright revolution. With this document, the Continental Congress and the American colonies crossed the Rubicon and the road to independence became the only realistic path forward. Issued in the wake of the battles of Lexington and Concord and at Bunker Hill, and a year before the formal Declaration of Independence, this Declaration is one of the most significant statements of the Continental Congress - a clear indication of the seriousness and intractability of the Americans. Meeting in Philadelphia in June 1775, a committee was formed to respond to unfolding events. Consisting of John Rutledge, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and others, the first report of the committee was judged to be unsatisfactory. Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, author of Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, were added to the committee, which quickly produced a new declaration. Jefferson's draft, which was deemed too provocative by some, was revised by the older and more cautious Dickinson, who nevertheless went further in severity than the young Virginian, proclaiming that "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable." "In his appeal to pro-American Whigs in England, in his elaboration of Jefferson's arguments, in his detailed account of the suffering of Americans in Massachusetts, and in his closing affirmation of the justice of the American cause and the strength of its union, Dickinson helped make it both a more suitable and a more inflammatory Declaration. Jefferson's refusal to accept Dickinson's suggestions resulted in a stronger, not a weaker text. In the final analysis the differences in the Committee, instead of revolving around polarities of radicalism and conservatism, are reduced to issues of style and method of presentation between two of the great penmen of the Revolution" (Boyd, et al). The work was first published in Philadelphia by William and Thomas Bradford, with subsequent printings in America. The first British edition comprised a collection of Continental Congress papers, including the aforementioned Declaration of July 6, 1775, but also: the address to the twelve colonies on July 8 calling for support; and the Olive Branch Petition, the last attempt at conciliation, issued Sept. 4, 1775. "This London edition was secretly issued, with no printer shown, as propaganda for American sympathizers" (Howes). This publication was evidently subsidized by Richard Champion, a noted Bristol ceramist, American sympathizer, and ally of Edmund Burke. The preface on verso of the title maintains that "The only design in collecting and publishing together the following Papers, is to give the good People of England, a true Idea of the Principles and Aims of their Brethren of America, and to confute, by their authentic Declaration, the Calumnies, of their Enemies, who not content with attributing to them Motives, which they not only disclaim but abhor, have the Effrontery also to brand them with Epithets, which would much better characterise their Accusers." Several issues of the first British edition are known, with corrections to the text; the present example the first issue, with the corrections in manuscript. Adams, American Controversy 75-149b; Howes D198; Sabin 15522, 19160; Reese, Revolutionary Hundred 34 (ref) Modern calf-backed marbled paper boards. Repairs to title 32pp. Contemporary manuscript corrections. 8vo.

Seller Inventory # 371017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America, now met in General Congress at Philadelphia, Setting forth the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
• Publisher: London
• Publication Date: 1775
• Edition: First British edition, first issue.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Americana