“Declaration of Independency”

As we get ready to celebrate our nation’s birthday on July 4^th, I wanted to see what books we had in the Rare Book Room relating to the American Revolution and printed during that era.  We have several including:

The History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War.  By C. Stedman.  Dublin, 1794.

The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America.  By William Gordon.  New York, 1801.

 Both are histories of the war…but I found it interesting that although the titles of the two histories were similar, the British publication and the American one had distinctive differences in wording regarding the close of the war.

The close of the war.  And, as Gordon’s book title reads, the “establishment of the independence of the United States of America.”  With the approval of the Second Continental Congress at their meeting in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania State House on July 4, 1776, the colonies severed their ties to Great Britain, and declared themselves to be free and independent states.  In order to let the colonists know as quickly as possible about this momentous decision, Congress ordered that copies of the “Declaration of Independence” be printed that night, and about 200 copies were printed by John Dunlap at his small printing shop near the State House.  Known as the “Dunlap Broadside,” this was the first printing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.  There remain only 25 known copies of this first U.S. printing, and, not surprisingly, Davidson does NOT own one!  But what about the first British printing?  When did Britain let its citizens know what the U.S. had done?

The August 1776 issue of the London publication, The Gentleman’s Magazine includes an early, very possibly the first, British printing of the “Declaration of American Independency” on pages 361-362.

The magazine was founded by Edward Cave in 1731, and was considered to be the most influential periodical of its time.  The August issue also includes additional coverage of the Revolution including Parliamentary debates regarding the colonies, some selected correspondence of George Washington, resolutions of the Continental Congress, and maps of areas of major colonial battles.

We are fortunate to have a collection of The Gentleman’s Magazine in the Rare Book Room, including the volume for 1776.

Happy Birthday, USA!