1775. · London
by Gordon, William
London, 1775.. [4],36pp. Half title. Modern fabrikoid, spine gilt. Contemporary ink ownership signature and small ink stain on first leaf, minor foxing. Very good. Untrimmed. A fiery sermon on the "distressing and alarming" state of affairs in the American colonies, by William Gordon, pastor of the Third Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Gordon blasts the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain:
"The late venal Parliament, in compliance with the directions of administration, have, under the false colour of regulating the government of the colony, mutilated its charter, and conveyed dangerous powers to individuals, for the enforcing and maintaining those encroachments, that they have ventured, in defiance of common equity, to make upon the rights of a free people....The operation of the late unconstitutional acts of the British Parliament, would not only deprive the colony of individual privileges, but introduce a train of evils, little expected by the generality, and give the British ministry such an ascendancy in all public affairs, as would be to the last degree dangerous."
The half title reads: "Religious and Civil Liberty, a Thanksgiving Discourse." Reprinted in the same year from the first Boston edition, which includes a warning to the colonies to be prepared for an attack, a leaf not issued in this edition. "William Gordon, the rash and unrestrained clergyman of the Third Church in Roxbury, attacked England and the Loyalists, whom he called 'the partisans of slavery'" (Nebenzahl). Scarce, with only sixteen copies worldwide per ESTC. AMERICAN CONTROVERSY 75-55b. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 167c. SABIN 28005. NEBENZAHL 9:95. ESTC T53922. (Inventory #: WRCAM51168)
"The late venal Parliament, in compliance with the directions of administration, have, under the false colour of regulating the government of the colony, mutilated its charter, and conveyed dangerous powers to individuals, for the enforcing and maintaining those encroachments, that they have ventured, in defiance of common equity, to make upon the rights of a free people....The operation of the late unconstitutional acts of the British Parliament, would not only deprive the colony of individual privileges, but introduce a train of evils, little expected by the generality, and give the British ministry such an ascendancy in all public affairs, as would be to the last degree dangerous."
The half title reads: "Religious and Civil Liberty, a Thanksgiving Discourse." Reprinted in the same year from the first Boston edition, which includes a warning to the colonies to be prepared for an attack, a leaf not issued in this edition. "William Gordon, the rash and unrestrained clergyman of the Third Church in Roxbury, attacked England and the Loyalists, whom he called 'the partisans of slavery'" (Nebenzahl). Scarce, with only sixteen copies worldwide per ESTC. AMERICAN CONTROVERSY 75-55b. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 167c. SABIN 28005. NEBENZAHL 9:95. ESTC T53922. (Inventory #: WRCAM51168)