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The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate: Volume 2, 1773–1776

Edited by Gordon S. Wood

“These volumes make a valuable contribution to the learning and teaching of American history. The men who wrote the script for national independence were strong, daring thinkers and skilled writers, with their lives at stake and their conscience in their pens. Their great gift to us lives on in this splendid collection.”—Michael McGiffert, Editor Emeritus, The William and Mary Quarterly

Overview
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

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Save $25 when you buy both volumes of American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate in a boxed set.

Often seen as the beginning of the American story, the momentous decision taken in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, also marked the endpoint of an extraordinary political debate that determined the fate of the first British empire. Largely carried on in pamphlets, the instant media of their day, this war of words fueled the escalation of tensions between Great Britain and her North American colonies in the period from 1773 to 1776. During these crucial years a political controversy that had earlier focused on questions of representation and consent deepened into a more fateful contest over the nature of sovereignty itself.

The pamphlets gathered in this second volume of a two-volume set were written both by Americans and Britons, though such distinctions can be misleading in light of the increasingly interconnected character of the empire in this period. Englishman Thomas Paine had been resident in the colonies for only fourteen months when he wrote Common Sense, the most influential expression of the “American” position during the debate, while Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson, who in two pamphlets articulates the “British” position as forcefully as any writer collected here, had deep ancestral roots in the colonies. The fluidity of these categories shaped the debate traced in this volume, indeed it can be said to have been the central question to be resolved: were Americans and Britons one people, one nation, or not?

Here, in texts that vividly capture the mounting intensity of the imperial crisis, Thomas Jefferson presents a vision of a radically new kind of empire in the work that first made him famous; James Wilson boldly rejects Parliament’s authority over the colonies; Charles Lee, a British officer and future American general, offers words of encouragement for colonial militia; Joseph Galloway puts forward an ingenious but ill-fated plan for preserving union with Great Britain; Samuel Johnson, writing on behalf of the British government, gives vent to his deep animus for the Americans and their pretensions to liberty; and Edmund Burke, in a speech delivered in the House of Commons just a month before Lexington and Concord, makes an eloquent case for reconciliation before it’s too late.

Prepared by the nation’s leading historian of the American Revolution, this volume includes an introduction, headnotes, biographical notes about the writers, a chronology charting the rise and fall of the first British empire, a textual essay describing the reception and influence of each work, and detailed explanatory notes. As a special feature, it also presents typographic reproductions of the pamphlets’ original title pages.

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. His books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Radicalism of the American Revolution, the Bancroft Prize-winning The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History, and Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815, for the Oxford History of the United States. He writes frequently for The New York Review of Books and The New Republic. In 2011 Wood was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

Project support for this volume was provided by The Bodman Foundation.

The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1773–1776 is kept in print by a gift from Sidney and Ruth Lapidus to the Guardians of American Letters Fund.
Table of Contents

The Speeches of His Excellency Governor Hutchinson, to the General Assembly of the Massachusetts-Bay. At a Session Begun and Held on the Sixth of January, 1773. With the Answers of His Majesty’s Council and the House of Representatives Respectively. Boston, 1773

[Thomas Jefferson], A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Set Forth in Some Resolutions Intended for the Inspection of the Present Delegates of the People of Virginia. Now in Convention. Williamsburg, 1774

[James Wilson], Considerations on the Nature and the Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament. Philadelphia, 1774

[William Henry Drayton], A Letter from Freeman of South-Carolina, to the Deputies of North-America, Assembled in the High Court of Congress at Philadelphia. Charleston, 1774

Some Fugitive Thoughts on a Letter Signed Freeman, Addressed to the Deputies, Assembled at the High Court of Congress in Philadelphia. Charleston, 1774

[Jonathan Boucher?], A Letter from a Virginian, to the Members of the Congress to Be Held at Philadelphia, on the First of September, 1774. New York, 1774

[Samuel Seabury], The Congress Canvassed: or, An Examination into the Conduct of the Delegates, at Their Grand Convention, Held in Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1774. Addressed, to the Merchants of New-York. New York, 1774

[Thomas Bradbury Chandler], A Friendly Address to All Reasonable Americans, on the Subject of Our Political Confusions: In Which the Necessary Consequences of Violently Opposing the King’s Troops, and of a General Non-Importation Are Fairly Stated. New York, 1774

[Philip Livingston], The Other Side of the Question: or, A Defence of the Liberties of North-America. In Answer to a Late Friendly Address to All Reasonable Americans, on the Subject of Our Political Confusions. New York, 1774

Ebenezer Baldwin, “An Appendix, Stating the Heavy Grievances the Colonies Labour under from Several Late Acts of the British Parliament, and Shewing What We Have Just Reason to Expect the Consequences of These Measures Will Be.” From Samuel Sherwood, A Sermon, Containing, Scriptural Instructions to Civil Rulers, and All Free-Born Subjects. New Haven, 1774

[Charles Lee], Strictures on a Pamphlet, Entitled, a “Friendly Address to All Reasonable Americans, on the Subject of Our Political Confusions.” Addressed to the People of America. The Second Edition. New London, 1775

[Henry Barry], The Strictures on the Friendly Address Examined, and a Refutation of Its Principles Attempted. Addressed to the People of America. Boston, 1775

[Joseph Galloway], A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great-Britain, and the Colonies: with a Plan of Accommodation, on Constitutional Principles. New York, 1775

[Samuel Johnson], Taxation No Tyranny; an Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American Congress. London, 1775

An Answer to a Pamphlet, Entitled Taxation No Tyranny. Addressed to the Author, and to Persons in Power. London, 1775

Edmund Burke, The Speech of Edmund Burke, Esquire, on Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies, March 22d, 1775. New York, 1775

[Moses Mather], America’s Appeal to the Impartial World. Hartford, 1775

[Thomas Paine], Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, . . . A New Edition, with Several Additions in the Body of the Work. To Which Is Added an Appendix; Together with an Address to the People Called Quakers. Philadelphia, 1776

[Charles Inglis], The True Interest of America Impartially Stated, in Certain Strictures on a Pamphlet Intitled Common Sense. Philadelphia, 1776

[Thomas Hutchinson], Strictures upon the Declaration of the Congress at Philadelphia; in a Letter to a Noble Lord, &c. London, 1776
Contributors

Ebenezer Baldwin
Henry Barry
Jonathan Boucher
Edmund Burke
Thomas Bradbury Chandler
William Henry Drayton
Joseph Galloway
Thomas Hutchinson
Charles Inglis
Thomas Jefferson
Samuel Johnson
Charles Lee
Philip Livingston
Moses Mather
Thomas Paine
Samuel Seabury
James Wilson

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