THE BOSTON GAZETTE AND THE COUNTRY JOURNAL. No. 1484

Boston: Benjamin Edes and Sons, February 3, 1783.. 4pp. Folio. Old fold lines. Minor foxing and soiling. Very good plus. THE BOSTON GAZETTE, published weekly, was established in 1719 as a competitor to the BOSTON NEWS-LETTER and ran for nearly a century (1719-1798). From April 1756 to December 1793 it was published with the additional "AND THE COUNTRY JOURNAL." During the American Revolution, the GAZETTE was a leading publisher of material protesting British taxes and anti-British sentiment. Contributors included such notable personages as Samuel Adams, Phyllis Wheatley, and Paul Revere, who also did the engraving on the masthead.

This issue, from the end of the American Revolution, contains a lengthy article written by "Grotius" on the evil of a federal impost and the rights of states to be independent. He writes: "For the general court to pass an act which they consider in its nature irrepealable, thereby giving Congress the power of levying imposts of the property of this state...is 'delivering up the people to the subjection of a foreign power.'" Power assigned to Congress by the Articles of Confederation - or the lack thereof - would be hotly debated, eventually leading to the creation of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. It also contains news from the front including an extract from a letter by General Greene to Congress, announcing the flight of the British from Charleston. A nice piece from the Revolution.