MASSACHUSETTS GAZETTE; AND THE BOSTON POST-BOY AND ADVERTISER, from Boston, Massachusetts, dated January 2, 1775

* Eve of the Revolutionary War
* Nice masthead engraving for display
* Rare title

Here is an issue from just a few months before the start of the Revolutionary War. The front page has a lengthy address "To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay" that discusses the political climate in the province, including such statements as:

* I saw the small seed of sedition, when it was implanted....I have watched the plant 'till it has become a great tree....I would now induce you to go to work immediately with axes and hatchets, and cut it down; for a two-fold reason, because it is a pest to society, and lest it be felled suddenly by a stronger arm and crush its thousands in the fall

And much more, the address concludes on pg. 2, signed in type: Massachusettensis. Interestingly enough, there is also strong rebuttal to this address on page 2, that takes most of a column and concludes on pg 3 with:

* Therefore, I firmly believe that the AMERICANS will maintain their FREEDOM, in spite of Tyranny , and continue to defeat the secret Machinations and open Force of their merciless Enemies, who are now, like infernal demons, plotting their Destruction

The reply is signed in type: A Son of New England.

Page 3 has a report about a meeting of the Freeholders of Boston" which includes some discussion about a reply from Peyton Randolph to a letter from General Gage. The report is signed in type by Samuel Adams, John Hancock & several other gentlemen.

Masthead a royal coat-of-arms engraving in the masthead. Has the subscriber's name written above the masthead, bit of lite rubbing in the masthead, has an archival mend inside to a fold tear in part of the second letter and the meeting report, some lite foxing, otherwise nice.