JEFFERSON ON CONCILIATION PLUS MENTION OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.


JEFFERSON, THOMAS. 1743-1826. The Resolutions of Congress on Lord North's Conciliatory Proposal, in The New-England Chronicle, or the Essex Gazette, Vol. 8, No. 371, August 31-September 7, 1775. Cambridge: Printed by Samuel and Ebenezer Hall ... Harvard College, 1775.Folio (380 x 347 mm). 4 pp. Chipping to corners, trimmed along lower edge of first leaf, just affecting text.Provenance: Levi Stiles (inscription); Susanna Stiles (inscription).FRONT-PAGE PRINTING OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS RESPONSE TO LORD NORTH'S PROPOSAL FOR CONCILIATION. In August of 1775, a select committee which included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Richard Henry Lee took up the question of Prime Minister Lord North's conciliatory proposal of February 20. Jefferson, who had penned Virginia's response, was elected to draft what was a most eloquent response, beginning: "That the colonies of America are intitled to the sole and exclusive privilege of giving and granting their own money...," and including the important penultimate paragraph of particular grievances, which begins "We are of opinion the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory because it imports only a suspension of the mode, not a renunciation of the pretended right to tax us...." The response to Lord North was an important step in codifying the American resistance, and Jefferson's role, being the newest and youngest member of Congress, revealed the forceful and eloquent nature of both his pen and his thought. The issue also includes an important letter reprinted from the [London] Public Ledger of June 10th, comparing the American and British accounts of Lexington and Concord, and finding: "it is the DESPOTISM of the CROWN and the SLAVERY of the people which the ministry aim at; for refusing those attempts, and for that only the Americans have been inhumanly murdered by the King's Troops."Provenance: Levi Stiles (inscription); Susanna Stiles (inscription).FRONT-PAGE PRINTING OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS RESPONSE TO LORD NORTH'S PROPOSAL FOR CONCILIATION. In August of 1775, a select committee which included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Richard Henry Lee took up the question of Prime Minister Lord North's conciliatory proposal of February 20. Jefferson, who had penned Virginia's response, was elected to draft what was a most eloquent response, beginning: "That the colonies of America are intitled to the sole and exclusive privilege of giving and granting their own money...," and including the important penultimate paragraph of particular grievances, which begins "We are of opinion the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory because it imports only a suspension of the mode, not a renunciation of the pretended right to tax us...." The response to Lord North was an important step in codifying the American resistance, and Jefferson's role, being the newest and youngest member of Congress, revealed the forceful and eloquent nature of both his pen and his thought. The issue also includes an important letter reprinted from the [London] Public Ledger of June 10th, comparing the American and British accounts of Lexington and Concord, and finding: "it is the DESPOTISM of the CROWN and the SLAVERY of the people which the ministry aim at; for refusing those attempts, and for that only the Americans have been inhumanly murdered by the King's Troops."