Books and Manuscripts

First Scottish printing of John Jay's Address to the People of Great Britain, one of the first official statements issued by the First Continental Congress

"Know then, That we consider ourselves, and do insist, that we are, and ought to be, as free as our fellow-subjects in Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent."

(Edinburgh: James Donaldson, Friday, December 23, 1774). Supplement to No. 1147. Small folio, 11 x 8 1/4 in. (279 x 210 mm). 4 pp. Featuring the complete printing of John Jay's Address to the People of Great Britain (A Letter from the General Congress to the People of Great Britain), pp. 1-3, and printing the first part of John Dickinson's Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec (To the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec), pp. 3-4. Creasing from contemporary folds; spotting at center of each leaf; enclosed in quarter calf over marbled paper-covered boards presentation case, with maroon crushed levant label.

A rare supplement of the Edinburgh Advertiser, printing two of the five official messages issued by the First Continental Congress: John Jay's Address to the People of Great Britain, as well as the first part of John Dickinson's Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. These two letters were composed in response to the British Parliament’s passing of the Intolerable Acts (known as the Coercive Acts in Great Britain) in April 1774, following the Boston Tea Party, that curtailed American Colonists' rights and inflamed tensions between the Colonies and Great Britain. Six months after these letters were issued the first shots of the American Revolution rang out at Lexington and Concord. In The Literary History of the American Revolution, American historian Moses C. Tyler (1835-1900) references the occasion of this printing, saying ''the [Continental] Congress sent forth a series of state papers, which proved to be writings of extraordinary dignity, nobility, and force...Thus, immediately after their arrival in Great Britain, the 'Edinburgh Advertiser' for December 23, 1774, printed them in a supplement, and at the same time declared...they 'have given more real uneasiness than all the other proceedings of the Congress...''' (p. 330-331)

Convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress gathered 56 delegates from 12 American colonies (excluding Georgia) with the task of determining an effective and united response to protest British misrule. Their session lasted seven weeks, and by the end of October a Continental Association was formed to boycott British goods, and five official statements were adopted to make clear Congress's intentions and their demands, in order to settle the conflict.

Jay's Address to the People of Great Britain—called by Thomas Jefferson, a "production certainly of the finest pen in America”—enumerates the myriad assaults on the American colonists' rights by Parliament's draconian measures in the Intolerable Acts, in the hope of garnering support from the British public. The letter reflects Jay's moderate political leanings and his ultimate wish for reconciliation, rather than revolt, with Great Britain to end the mounting crisis. Although Jay was disturbed by Parliament's punitive measures—he was a vocal critic of unjust taxation as a lawyer in New York before becoming a delegate—he nevertheless thought that the most prudent course for Congress was to find a conciliatory route between colonial autonomy and the Crown's imperial ambitions.

The germination of the letter began on October 11, 1774 when Congress unanimously resolved that "an address be prepared to the people of Great Britain.” Richard Henry Lee, William Livingston, and Jay were appointed to prepare a draft, although the work was done primarily by Jay, while the others prepared a letter to urge colonial unity in preparation for a trade boycott (To the Inhabitants of the Several Anglo-American Colonies). On Tuesday October 18, a draft of the Address was presented to Congress, read before them, and then left to be perused by them for a debate the following day. The following day it was debated and edited, and finally, on October 21, after additional changes, the documents were adopted by Congress.

Dickinson's Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec, printed in part following Jay's Address ("the remainder of this elegant letter will be inserted in next Advertiser." Printed at the end of this letter.) was the first of three letters directly addressed to the Canadian people between 1774-76, and sought to encourage them to stand united with the cause to their south. Largely French-speaking and Catholic, Quebec was culturally and civically different than the 13 colonies, and had only become subject to British rule ten years earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763, that ended the Seven Years' War. According to Dickinson, their rights since becoming British subjects were not being honored by Parliament even though they were equals under British law. He cites five of those most crucial neglected rights: representative government, trial by jury, Habeas Corpus, land ownership, and freedom of the press. Congress hoped this letter would persuade the Canadians to send delegates to the Second Continental Congress the following summer to redress their lack of representation.

Dickinson's letter was first drafted in a committee comprising Thomas Cushing, Richard Henry Lee, and Dickinson, and presented to Congress on October 24. It was debated, edited, and then returned to the committee, who issued a new draft on October 26, that was then adopted.

The three other official statements issued by the First Continental Congress include, The Declaration and Resolves, adopted on October 14, that outlined colonial objections to the Intolerable Acts, and listed a colonial bill of rights; William Livingston's To the Inhabitants of the Several Anglo-American Colonies, adopted on October 21, that encouraged unity against British tyranny; John Adams's (with corrections by Dickinson) Petition of Congress to the King, adopted on October 26, that sought for a repeal of the Intolerable Acts.