The Pennsylvania Gazette Containing the Freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestic. February 18, 1768
Containing Letter XII of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies" by John Dickinson Philadelphia: Printed by David Hall, and William Sellers, 1768.
Newspaper. Newspaper. Single issue. Disbound. Approx. 15.75" x 10". Number 2043. 4 pages. Three columns per page. Light edge wear and toning to the paper. A few brown spots and light toning to the pages.
This issue contains John Dickinson last letter (number 12) written for the inhabitants of the British colonies. From wikipedia: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania is a series of essays written by the Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator John Dickinson (1732–1808) and published under the pseudonym "A Farmer" from 1767 to 1768. The twelve letters were widely read and reprinted throughout the Thirteen Colonies, and were important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts in the run-up to the American Revolution. According to many historians, the impact of the Letters on the colonies was unmatched until the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense in 1776.[1] The success of the letters earned Dickinson considerable fame.[2]
The twelve letters are written in the voice of a fictional farmer, who is described as modest but learned, an American Cincinnatus, and the text is laid out in a highly organized pattern "along the lines of ancient rhetoric".[3] The letters laid out a clear constitutional argument, that the British Parliament had the authority to regulate colonial trade but not to raise revenue from the colonies. This view became the basis for subsequent colonial opposition to the Townshend Acts,[4] and was influential in the development of colonial thinking about the relationship with Britain.[5]: 215–216 The letters are noted for their mild tone, and urged the colonists to seek redress within the British constitutional system.[1][6] The character of "the farmer", a persona built on English pastoral writings whose style American writers before Dickinson also adopted, gained a reputation independent of Dickinson, and became a symbol of moral virtue, employed in many subsequent American political writings.[4]
Other contents cover the English Parliament; information from London, Boston, New York, Philadelphia; advertisements; and more. An advertisement on page 3 reads, "Now in the Press, and will be published with all convenient Speed, in an Octavo Pamphlet, by Hall and Sellers, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the British Colonies. Good. Item #36795
Price: $750.00