“TROUBLES OVER PAPER MONEY AND THE QUARTERING OF SOLDIERS THAT KEPT ALIVE THE FEELING AGAINST ENGLAND”: THE COLLECTED ACTS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSEMBLY, 1775
(REVOLUTION). The Acts of Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania… And an Appendix… Together with the Royal, Proprietary, City and Borough Charters; and the Original Concessions of the Honourable William Penn to the First Settlers of the Province. Philadelphia: Hall and Sellers, 1775. Folio, period style full speckled calf gilt, red morocco spine label, raised bands, marbled endpapers.
First edition of this official folio collection of the Acts of the Pennsylvania Assembly, published by Franklin’s longtime partner and spanning the rule of four British monarchs, containing a printing of the Pennsylvania charter of 1681, issued only one year after the convening of the First Continental Congress and shortly before the Assembly was disbanded on the eve of revolution.
This 1775 official printing of the collected Acts of the Pennsylvania Assembly marks a turning point in American history. Published by the former partner of Benjamin Franklin, this folio volume appeared only one year before the colonial Assembly was disbanded and replaced under the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776. Further, this key record emerged shortly after the Pennsylvania Assembly elections of October 1774 were “convened while the First Continental Congress deliberated.” That 1774 Assembly then “promptly approved its actions— the first colonial legislature to do so” (Klein, History of Pennsylvania, 88). Herein are Acts passed under the rule of four British monarchs (1700-1775), a printing of the Pennsylvania Charter of 1681, and laws on religious freedom, western expansion, the controversial quartering of British soldiers, colonial defense and changing relations with Indians. The shift toward revolution is also implicit here in actions such as a 1767 law that orders death for the counterfeiting of currency (p. 336)—signaling a increase of “troubles over paper money and the quartering of soldiers that kept alive the feeling against England” (Lincoln, Revolutionary Movement, 137).
In 1776 the Assembly was disbanded in a move aided “by the Continental Congress which, indeed, chose Philadelphia as its meeting place partly to give aid and encouragement to the Pennsylvania revolutionary party” (Klein, 93-4). This first edition edited by loyalist Joseph Galloway and published by David Hall, a longtime partner in Benjamin Franklin’s publishing firm. Franklin had captured the government printing job in Pennsylvania from his rivals the Bradfords when he was made clerk of the Assembly in 1736, a position that allowed Franklin to secure “the business of printing the votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional jobs for the public”— especially regular printings of the Acts. In 1748 “Franklin retired and turned over the operation of his printing business to his foreman David Hall” (Isaacson, 114, 127). Franklin and Hall’s firm regularly published these official collections until their partnership expired in 1766, and Hall continued to publish Assembly Acts under his imprint. Without three-page Addendum, rarely found. Evans 14364. Harvard Law Catalogue, 322. Sabin 59820. Thomas, 379-80. Tower, 216.
Text generally fresh with light scattered foxing, light marginalia. Beautifully bound.