41 AMERICANA provide a plan that would convince Britain to restore those rights. This is the first publication of the full account of these extraordinary proceedings, published by order of the Congress from the official minutes taken by Secretary Charles Thomson, and printed by William and Thomas Bradford, the official printers to the new government, immediately after the adjournment of Congress. This is also one of the earliest publications of the new government, preceded only by pamphlets containing partial extracts of the proceedings “printed in separate parts and issued as the acts and resolutions occurred. Later they were collected either by sewing together the existing separate publications without alteration or… repaging standing type.” (Adams, American Controversy, 244). The deliberations of the First Continental Congress “were to be confidential; no news of votes and proceedings was made public. But as the work of the Congress gathered momentum, resolutions, declarations and addresses intended for wide circulation were ordered to be printed. “An eager and excited American public was anxious to learn what the unprecedented Congress had accomplished. The printers immediately began to put together the most important public statements, at first consisting of the separate pamphlets they had printed brought together under the title, dated October 27, Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress, and then, to meet the demand, reprinted it as an entity… It took a while longer for the Bradfords to prepare the text of the Journal which was made available to them by Charles Thomson. This was the full report of the actions of the Congress, including, of course, all the documents which had appeared in the Extracts… One touch was added by the printers on the title-page of the Journal. They had a seal designed for the United Colonies. Upon the Magna Charta stands a pillar held by twelve hands and topped by a liberty cap; a motto reads: ‘Hanc Tuemur, Hac Nitimur,’ or, ‘this we defend, by this we are protected… it stands as the first attempt to represent emblematically a united nation” (Edwin Wolf 2nd, introduction, Journal of the Proceeding of the Congress). Foremost in the proceedings was the “Declaration of Rights,” which clearly defined and asserted the fundamental rights of the colonists, including “life, liberty, and property”; these important rights and liberties were the defining issues of the revolution and became the foundation of the Declaration of Independence. Congress also adopted a nonimportation, non-exportation, and non-consumption agreement, virtually cutting off imports to and from Britain if the Coercive Acts were not repealed. This first issue is quite rare. The second (and more common) issue of the Journal contains two additional documents, General Gage’s letter and the Petition to the King, which were separately printed by the Bradfords early in 1775. Howes J263; notes only 3 copies located. Small perforated stamp of Library of Congress on title page, marked duplicate on verso. Contemporary owner inscription on half title. Only occasional light foxing and embrowning. A bit of expert restoration to corners of handsome contemporary calf. A most desirable copy of an American Revolutionary landmark of the utmost rarity and importance. “Friends and Countrymen, We, the Delegates appointed by the good people of these Colonies to meet at Philadelphia in September last... have in pursuance of the trust reposed in us, assembled and taken into our most serious consideration the important matters recommended to the Congress.”
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