"THEY HAVE LONG ACTED AS REBELS… AS ENEMIES": RARE FIRST EDITION OF RIGHTS OF GREAT BRITAIN ASSERTED, MACPHERSON'S FURIOUS ATTACK ON REBELLIOUS AMERICANS, TARGETING THE 1775 DECLARATION… [ON] THE CAUSES AND NECESSITY OF TAKING UP ARMS

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) [MACPHERSON, James]. The Rights of Great Britain Asserted Against the Claims of America: Being an Answer to The Declaration Of The General Congress. London: T. Cadell, 1776. Slim octavo, period-style three-quarter burgundy morocco; pp. (iv) (1) 2-92.

First edition of Macpherson's infamous attack on the rebellious colonies, anonymously published in London in 1776 and preceding the first American edition, notoriously targeting America's landmark 1775 Declaration… Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, with Macpherson claiming the "rights to tax all the Subjects of the British Empire can never be denied" and warning that America's rebellion "against the invincible power of a mighty Empire… must terminate in ruin."

The Scottish-born Macpherson once spent time in America as "secretary to Governor Johnstone at Pensacola, West Florida," and returned to England in 1766 where, "on and after 1776, he was specially employed by Lord North's ministry to defend their American policy, and in that year published a pamphlet [The Rights of Great Britain Asserted]" (DNB). This is the first edition of that infamous work, considered one of the most influential English pamphlets on the Revolution. Here Macpherson notoriously targets America's 1775 Declaration… Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, viewed as the colonies' most important precursor to the Declaration of Independence. Approved by the Second Continental Congress and primarily drafted by John Dickinson (and printed here), it contains the memorable words: "Our cause is just: our union is perfect… being of one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves."

In Macpherson's fiery and often inaccurate attack on the rebellious colonies, he argues that the "rights to tax all the Subjects of the British Empire can never be denied," and warns that America's rebellion "against the invincible power of a mighty Empire… must terminate in ruin." He insists British troops did not fire on Americans in the exchange that sparked the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and instead claims it was the British who suffered "BARBAROUS CRUELTY" from scores of "savage Provincials" who "scalped" the British and tore their eyes "out of their sockets" (emphasis in original). The Monthly Review summarily noted that this work would only "exasperate the people of Great Britain against their brethren in America; and by inflaming misrepresentations and invectives, aggravate the evils of our present civil discord." London publisher John Almon later accused Macpherson of being one of the government's "'hired pens' who 'deluded and duped' the nation into supporting a 'war of felony and suicide' in America" (Clark & Erskine-Hill, 82n). Issued anonymously, Rights of Great Britain Asserted was once attributed, by Jefferson and others, to Lord Germaine, "who in 1775 was appointed by Lord North, Secretary of State for the colonies. Other attributions are to Sir John Dalrymple and to Henry Mackenzie" (Sowerby 3107). Lord North, however, "later made the following admission in a letter he wrote to King George III, upon his leaving office in 1782: 'Mr. James Macpherson has for many years been a most laborious and able writer… almost all the pamphlets on the side of Administration were the production of his pen." Macpherson's authorship has been further upheld by Adams and recent scholarship." Caption title, p. 1, reads, 'An Answer to the Declaration of the General Congress.'" Advertised in London newspapers in December 1775, February and April 1776. With half title; folding table at rear. Adams, American Independence 220a. Adams, American Controversy 75-95a. ESTC N12881. Sabin 18347. Howes D37 (ascribing authorship to Dalrymple). Early owner inscription to title page of "James Coles x House."

Text generally fresh with foxing mainly to preliminaries, last leaf and margins. A very good copy, handsomely bound.