"IT WAS NOT EXPECTED… THAT SUCH AN OUTRAGE AND MASSACRE…WOULD HAVE BEEN PERPETRATED: RARE AND IMPORTANT CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE 1770 BOSTON MASSACRE, THE EARLIEST BOSTON PRINTING TO BE SOLD IN AMERICA

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (BOWDOIN, James). A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston. Boston, Printed, by Order of the Town, by Messirs. Edes and Gill; And Re-printed for W. Bingley… London, 1770. [Actually printed in Boston by Edes and Gill in July, 1770].

Extremely rare and important July 1770 Boston printing of this contemporary and influential account of the Boston Massacre, originally commissioned and ordered to be printed by the Town of Boston. Though the title page bears a London imprint, this edition was actually printed and sold in Boston to circumvent the American distribution ban (put in place so as not to prejudice the jury hearing the trial of the soldiers), and as such was the earliest Boston printing to be sold in America. $35,000.

"THE GREATEST THREAT TO AMERICAN LIBERTIES": RARE FIRST EDITION OF CONTINUATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS, 1770, ISSUED IN BOSTON SAME YEAR AS THE BOSTON MASSACRE, DOCUMENTING THE "CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS" PROVOKED BY LT. GOVERNOR THOMAS HUTCHINSON

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (HUTCHINSON, Thomas) (ADAMS, John) (ADAMS, Samuel) (HANCOCK, John). Continuation of the Proceedings. Boston, 1770.

First edition of the momentous work that documents powerful legal and philosophical debates in a stand-off between Boston patriots and Hutchinson over his command to remove the Massachusetts Court from Boston amidst fury over the recent Boston Massacre, causing colonial leaders, chief among them Samuel and John Adams, to rage against "the most valuable of our Liberties from being wrested from us," this rare edition "almost certainly a major cause" of the Declaration of Independence "accusing the King of calling 'together legislative bodies at place… distance from the repository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance." $11,500.

FIRST EDITION OF THIS SCARCE PLATEBOOK CONTAINING 16 RICH COPPER-ENGRAVINGS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION— THE FIRST FRENCH IMPRINT TO NAME THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) PONCE, Nicolas and GODEFROY, François. Recueil d’estampes representant les differents evenemens de la guerre. Paris, 1784. First edition of the first French book to name the United States on its title page, with 16 full-page copper engravings of momentous Revolutionary battles, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga and of Cornwallis at York, and commemorating the signing of the Treaty at Versailles in 1783, complete with two plates of maps. $8200.

"WHERE-EVER LAW ENDS, TYRANNY BEGINS"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) TUCKER, John. Sermon Preached at Cambridge, Before His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson… May 29th, 1771. Boston: New-England, 1771.

First edition of Reverend Tucker's profoundly influential Sermon—"an account of the origins of legitimate government that was drawn directly from Locke's Second Treatise"—calling on Americans to "act as free" yet "never use our liberty for a cloke [sic] of maliciousness." $6800.

"THAT THESE AMERICAN STATES MAY NEVER CEASE TO BE FREE"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) ADAMS, Samuel. Oration delivered at the State-House. Philadelphia Printed; London, Re-printed for, 1776.

First edition of a fascinating Revolutionary work of deliberate political misdirection, misattributed to Samuel Adams, firebrand of the Boston Tea Party, published in the wake of the Declaration "to show that the colonies were bent on independence," issued in London despite the imprint of a fictional Philadelphia printing. $6750.

AMERICANS, "TO COMPLETE OUR POLITICAL HAPPINESS… SHOULD VOLUNTARILY RISE UP"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) SHUTE, Daniel, A.M. Sermon Preached before His Excellency Francis Bernard…. May 25th, 1758. Boston: New-England, 1768.

First edition of Shute's provocative Sermon delivered in the aftermath of the Stamp Act and other punitive British legislation, asserting the basis for "political resistance" against violation of Americans' "natural and civil rights," affirming historians' view of colonial rebellion as fueled by clergy such as Reverend Shute, demonstrating "religion was a fundamental cause of the American Revolution, very rare uncut in original wrappers. $5500.

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST FRENCH BOOK TO NAME THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WITH 16 COPPER-ENGRAVED PLATES, COMPLETE WITH MAPS

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) PONCE, Nicholas and GODEFROY, Francois. Recueil d'estampes representant les differents evenemens de la guerre. Paris, [circa 1784].

First edition of the first French book to name the United States on its title page, with 16 full-page copper engravings of momentous Revolutionary battles, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga and of Cornwallis as York, and commemorating the signing of the Treaty at Versailles in 1783, complete with two plates of maps. $5000.

"THE BUSINESS OF ALL POWER IS TO DEFEND THE LIVES, LIBERTIES AND PROPERTY OF THE PEOPLE"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) WEBSTER, Samuel, A.M. Sermon Preached Before… House of Representatives of the State of the Massachusetts-Bay… May 28, 1777. Boston, 1777.

First edition of Webster's electrifying 1777 Sermon delivered barely ten months after America's Declaration of Independence, invoking God's wrath to put the British "to flight speedily… make them quake with fear… and so return to their own lands… let them have neither credit nor courage, to come out any more against us." $4800.

"THE BUSINESS OF ALL POWER IS TO DEFEND THE LIVES, LIBERTIES AND PROPERTY OF THE PEOPLE"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) WEBSTER, Samuel, A.M. Sermon Preached Before… House of Representatives of the State of the Massachusetts-Bay… May 28, 1777. Boston, 1777.

First edition of Webster's electrifying 1777 Sermon delivered barely ten months after America's Declaration of Independence, invoking God's wrath to put the British "to flight speedily… make them quake with fear… and so return to their own lands… let them have neither credit nor courage, to come out any more against us." $4800.

FOUNDING FATHER JOHN DICKINSON'S POWERFUL 1765 ATTACK ON THE STAMP ACT

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (DICKINSON, John). Late Regulations. Philadelphia printed, London Re-printed, 1765.

First English edition of the seminal Revolutionary work by Dickinson—"one of the leaders of the opposition to the Stamp Act"—a rare copy of his influential attack on the 1765 Stamp Act, printed in London immediately after the Philadelphia first edition "on the order of Benjamin Franklin," who was then in London. $4500.

"THE MOST LEARNED STATEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS FOR COLONIAL RESISTANCE": FIRST EDITION OF JOHN ADAMS’ NOVANGLUS LETTERS

((AMERICAN REVOLUTION) ADAMS, John (and LEONARD, Daniel). Novanglus, and Massachusettensis; or Political Essays. Boston, 1819.

First edition of John Adams' Novanglus letters, a series of essays that appeared under his pseudonym in a Boston newspaper just prior to Lexington and Concord, together complete in book form for the first time—"Adams' expansive defense of the colonies' autonomy would play an important role in America's intellectual justification for declaring independence from Great Britain," very rare uncut in original boards. $4200.

“BE ENCOURAGED, ALL YE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM… TREMBLE ALL YE OPPRESSORS OF THE WORLD!”

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) PRICE, Richard. Discourse on the Love of Our Country. London, 1789.

First edition of Price's controversial and incendiary work on the revolutionary progress of human rights from England's 1688 Glorious Revolution to the American and French Revolutions, sparking Edmund Burke's strong refutation of Price in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and an eloquent endorsement from Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). $4000.

“NOTHING LESS THAN A DELIBERATE ASSAULT LAUNCHED SURREPTITIOUSLY BY PLOTTERS AGAINST LIBERTY”

(CONNECTICUT). Acts and Laws Of His Majesty"s English Colony of Connecticut. New Haven and New London: 1769 [i.e. 1782].

1769 edition of the Connecticut Acts & Laws, with a printing of the 1662 Royal Charter, sessional Acts and Laws from 1752-68, and first edition sessional Acts from 1769-82. With rare early printings of some of the most controversial pre-Revolutionary parliamentary laws, including several quartering acts, a 1757 duty on tea setting the stage for the incendiary 1773 Tea Act, evidence of revolutionary fervor with the striking removal of the words “Our Sovereign Lord George the Third, King of Great-Britain” from all acts printed after 1775 and, following the Continental Congress’s urging that all states sever all ties to Britain, a printing of Connecticut’s own 1776 declaration of independence. $4000.

"AMERICANS! THIS DAY RECOGNIZES YOUR EMANCIPATION… THE BIRTH-DAY OF YOUR INDEPENDENCE… A COMPLETE POLITICAL REVOLUTION"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) HITCHCOCK, Enos, D. D. Oration, in Commemoration of the Independence. Providence, 1793.

First edition of a seminal work by the influential Revolutionary-era chaplain who served with the Third Massachusetts Continental at Ticonderoga and Saratoga, as well as Valley Forge, and later in Philadelphia at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, an eloquent voice for America's cause, referencing Montesquieu in praising America's Constitution for its "three powers… most perfectly combined," especially scarce with a contemporary New England provenance. $3800.

"ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD"

PRICE, Richard. Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution. London, 1785.

First revised and expanded edition, published only one year after the first, of Price's Observations, the preferred edition with nearly 50 additional pages. $3200.

“IF YOU ARE MEN, BEHAVE LIKE MEN. LET US TAKE UP ARMS IMMEDIATELY”

(CUSTOMS COMMISSIONERS ACT). Customs Commissioners Act. London, 1767.

Rare first printing of the 1767 Customs Commissioners Act, one of the controversial Townshend Acts that united patriot opposition to British rule and provoked the Boston Massacre. $3200.

“NOTHING CAN BE OF SO MUCH CONSEQUENCE TO US AS LIBERTY”

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) PRICE, Richard. Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty. London, 1776.

Second edition, issued within days of the first, of Price’s powerfully influential British defense of the American revolution, a work of crucial importance in “determining the Americans to declare their independence” (DNB). $3200.

“THE INTELLECTUAL MASTER OF POLITICAL ARITHMETIC AND THE ÉMINENCE GRISE OF INSURANCE”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF MORGAN’S APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN, 1797

MORGAN, William. Appeal to the People of Great Britain… Public Finances. London, 1797.

First edition of William Morgan’s fearless attack on the political and economic cost of British policies in “that detestable war” against America, a major work by the first modern actuary, one of “the pioneers of scientific life assurance in England" (ODNB) and nephew of British radical Richard Price, “the most influential advocate of American independence” (Howes). Jefferson, who became Vice President the year this work was published, had a first edition in his library. $3200.

"THE MOST PROMINENT ENGLISH SPOKESMAN FOR RATIONAL THEOLOGY IN THE LATER 18TH CENTURY"

PRIESTLEY, Joseph. Considerations on Church-Authority. BOUND WITH: View of the Principles of Conduct. BOUND WITH: Serious Address. London, 1769. Three volumes bound in one.

First editions of three of Joseph Priestley's tracts on "rational theology," bound together in nicely rebacked contemporary calf covers. $2800.

“BE ENCOURAGED, ALL YE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM… TREMBLE ALL YE

OPPRESSORS OF THE WORLD!”

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) PRICE, Richard. Discourse on the Love of Our Country. London, 1789.

Second edition, published shortly after the same year's first edition, of Price's incendiary work on human rights from England's Glorious Revolution to the American and French Revolutions, sparking Burke's fiery refutation of Price in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and an eloquent endorsement from Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). $2500.

“BE ENCOURAGED, ALL YE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM… TREMBLE ALL YE OPPRESSORS OF THE WORLD!”

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) PRICE, Richard. Discourse on the Love of Our Country. London, 1790.

Third edition, the scarce first expanded edition of Price's controversial work, issued only one year after the first edition, documenting progress in human rights from England's Glorious Revolution to the American and French Revolutions, sparking Burke's refutation in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and Wollstonecraft's endorsement in Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). $1800.

"THEY ARE NOW MR. LOCKE'S DISCIPLES"

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (BURKE, Edmund) TUCKER, Josiah. A Letter to Edmund Burke… in Answer to His Printed Speech. Gloucester, 1775.

Second edition, issued the same year as the first, of Josiah Tucker's impassioned and insightful response to Edmund Burke's famous speech of March 22, 1775, in which Burke urged reconciliation with the colonies—a course the prescient economist Tucker believed both foolish and fruitless, as he foresaw that the Americans' "rapid economic growth and dislike of regulation would… eventually lead them to separate from Britain through self-interest." $1600.

“TO MAINTAIN, BY FIRE AND SWORD, DOMINION… CONTRADICTS EVERY PRINCIPLE OF LIBERTY AND HUMANITY”

PRICE, Richard. Additional Observations. London, 1777.

Second edition, issued within weeks of the first edition and preceding the first American edition, published in answer to a storm of “virulent invectives” against Price for his support of American independence in Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty (1776), handsomely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. $1400.

"THE STRESS OF THE AMERICAN WARS": RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING OF THE 1765 PARLIAMENTARY ACT IMPOSING "DUTIES … UPON MALT, MUM, CYDER, AND PERRY," PASSED ONLY MONTHS BEFORE THE SAME YEAR'S STAMP ACT THAT SPARKED REVOLUTION

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (PARLIAMENT) GEORGE III. Act for … Duties upon Malt, Mum, Cyder, and Perry. London, 1765.

First printing of the 1765 parliamentary act imposing duties on “Malt, Mum, Cyder, and Perry,” passed only months before the same year’s Stamp Act that sparked the Boston Tea Party and the Revolution, this act targeting Scotland with duties on malt and other goods, taxation key to fueling Britain’s finances “in the stress of the American wars,” one of only 1100 copies. $1250.