Beschreibung:

REVOLUTIONARY WAR.] GREAT BRITAIN. Manifesto and Proclamation. To the members of the Congress, the members of the general assemblies or conventions of the several colonies ... and all others, free inhabitants...By the Earl of Carlisle, Sir Henry Clinton, and William Eden Esq;...Commissioners to Treat, Consult, and Agree upon the Means of Quieting the Disorders Now Subsisting in Certain of the Colonies...in North-America...Given at New-York, this third day of October, 1778. By their Excellencies command, Adam Ferguson, secretary. Carlisle (L.S.) H. Clinton (L.S.) Wm. Eden (L.S.) [New York: James Rivington, 1778].
REVOLUTIONARY WAR.] GREAT BRITAIN. Manifesto and Proclamation. To the members of the Congress, the members of the general assemblies or conventions of the several colonies ... and all others, free inhabitants...By the Earl of Carlisle, Sir Henry Clinton, and William Eden Esq;...Commissioners to Treat, Consult, and Agree upon the Means of Quieting the Disorders Now Subsisting in Certain of the Colonies...in North-America...Given at New-York, this third day of October, 1778. By their Excellencies command, Adam Ferguson, secretary. Carlisle (L.S.) H. Clinton (L.S.) Wm. Eden (L.S.) [New York: James Rivington, 1778]. Folio broadside: 19 x 15 in. (480 x 380mm), printed in two columns. Small losses along edges and folds (a few words supplied in ink), several stains, woodcut of Royal arms trimmed away at top. CARLISLE AND HIS PEACE COMMISSIONERS MAKE A FINAL ATTEMPT AT RECONCILIATION. Desperate to head off the looming American alliance with France, the British government sent Frederick Howard, the 5th Earl of Carlisle to make a last ditch try at reconciliation. With him were (among others) William Eden and, as secretary, the famed Edinburgh professor Adam Ferguson, of Scottish enlightenment fame. The Congress, however, was in no mood to be conciliatory. They issued a dire warning against any individuals or groups conducting negotiations with the commission. Then they made an "unconditional surrender" reply to Carlisle: the only "terms" they would entertain were American independence and British evacuation. Uncovering spies in the "peace" delegation only strengthened American resentment. Trying to salvage something from his failure, Carlisle approached Congress, promising to "grant and proclaim a pardon or pardons of all, and all manner, of treasons." He found no takers, and retuened to England. The war wOuld continue. Though the woodcut of Royal arms has been excised, this remains an impressive document, assigned by Evans to the New York printer James Rivington. If that attribution is correct, the broadside it must have issued from Rivington's shop just over a month from the destruction of his press by a mob resentful of his apparent loyalist leanings (27 November). Undaunted, Rivington reopened his shop and remained in British-held New york during the war. It was later established that Rivington secretly passed intelligence to the American patriots. In light of that, he was allowed to remain in New York after the war. Two copies of the broadside have appeared at auction in the last 30 years; most recently the Snider copy (sale, Christie's, 21 June 2005, lot 70, $14,000). Evans 15832.