Beschreibung:

Boston Committee of Correspondence[Solemn League and Covenant:] We the Subscribers, inhabitants of the town of [——] having taken into our serious consideration the precarious state of the liberties of North- America … Do, in the presence of God, solemnly and in good faith, covenant and engage with each other, 1st, that from henceforth we will suspend all commercial intercourse with the said island of Great Britain … Witness our hands, June [——] 1774 [Boston: Edes and Gill], 1774 One page (315 x 192 mm) printed on a bifolium. Docketed on the verso "Boston Draught of a Covenant"; light toning, short separation at central fold. Brown cloth portfolio. Shall the inhabitants of Massachusetts boycott British goods? In the spring and summer of 1774, news reached Boston that the Parliament had enacted a number of measures in retaliation for the Tea Party of 1773. These "intolerable acts" closed the port of Boston, revoked the colony's charter and outlawed town meetings. Samuel Adams and his colleagues in the Boston Committee of Correspondence considered a non-importation pledge known as the "Solemn League and Covenant." The Covenant, attributed to Joseph Warren by Sabin, called for its signers to halt the purchase of British goods and, further, to stop dealing with those who did not sign. Many towns found it difficult to support the action. Ultimately the effort was eclipsed in the fall of 1774 by similar actions taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Scarce. For a slightly variant printing of the text in 49 lines (the present is in 47), see Evans 13163. PROVENANCESotheby's New York, 14 December 2012, lot 141 ("Property from an Important Private Collection) REFERENCEColonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, vol. 18 (1917), pp. 107 ff.; ESTC W17103; Evans 13427; Ford, Massachusetts Broadsides 1779; Sabin 101479