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1776 Annual Register 1st Edition

Early Publication of Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation

Filled with Contemporaneous Reports of American Revolution

Book Reviews of Adam Smith's Newly Published "Causes of the Wealth of Nations" and Gibbon's "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"

        This is the Annual Register for 1776 which contains an extensive review of the historic events and document of 1776 in America and England.  The accounts and documents were fresh and vibrant to the writer and readers who were reading about events that intimately affected them and the end result of the Revolutionary War was unknown at the time.  This book contains all the important events of 1776, the invasion of Canada led by Benedict Arnold, the Battle for Boston won by the Americans through the fortifications quickly built on Dorchester Heights, the successful defense of Charlestown, the events in Virginia leading to Governor Dunmore's abandonment of the capitol of Williamsburg and emancipation of slaves, the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation, the British Invasion of Long Island, Manhattan, the Hudson River and New Jersey, etc., etc.  Below are some of the text from this volume recounting those events and some of the critical documents, including a very early publication of the Declaration of Independence in book form.

The first chapter summarizes the events in America in 1775 and the invasion of Canada by Arnold and the second chapter, summarized below, focuses on the events in Virginia where Governor Dunmore abandoned Williamsburg, issued a "Proclamation for martial law, and the emancipation of  the negroes."

The summary of the 7th chapter shown below mentions some of the most momentous events in American history, including the Declaration of Independence and the British invasion of New York.

The British occupying Boston got a big surprise when the guns seized from Fort Ticonderoga suddenly appeared on Dorchester Heights and made their occupation of Boston militarily impossible.

The excerpt below shows how embarrassing it was for the British to have to abandon Boston: "With such troops to give up that town which had been the original cause of the war, and the constant object of contention since its commencement, to a raw and despised militia, seemed exclusive of all other ill consequences, a disgrace not to be borne."

The excerpts below comment upon the Declaration of Independence and the reception it received throughout America.

Below is the start and end of the Declaration of Independence which is included in its entirety in this book.  Also included in the book is an early publication of the Articles of Confederation which were approved by the Continental Congress in October 1776.

Two great books were first published in the momentous year of 1776, the first volumes of Gibbon's history of the Roman Empire and Adam Smith's
Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations."  Both are reviewed in this book.

This historic volume is in nice condition as shown by the pictures. It is the combination of first rate contemporaneous historical writing and early publication of historic documents concerning the American Founding.

Price: $2,500/SOLD