PENNSYLVANIA EVENING POST, Phila., March 16, 1776 

* General George Washington 
* Continental Army Siege of Boston 
* American Revolutionary War 
* Great year to have (1776)

 Regarding the siege of Boston... a page 3 report headed "Cambridge" includes: "...the continental army, assisted by a large body of militia, are now carrying on the siege of Boston....our artillery at the fortresses of Cobble-hill and Lechmeres point, below this town, and at Lambs dam in Roxbury, bombarded and cannonaded the town....The enemy returned the fire, from their batteries at West Boston....They threw many shells...one into the fort at Prospect-hill, and one or two...within a quarter mile of the College...". Additionally, a back page letter from Cambridge mentions "his Excellency General Washington".
A page 2 item from the House of Commons includes: "The American Prohibitory bill...was brought into the House...that this bill was a farewell to peace and America; that we might bruise the heel, but not crush the head of America; that America, after all our exertions against her, would still revive; whereas Britain, he feared, would totally sink to ruin...".
The entire front page is taken up with a question/answer session concerning the various types of governments, the pros & cons of each, how governments are set up, etc. Curious that it mentions that: "...a simple democracy in a large community is impracticable. Such a thing never existed but one...".
Also present are reports from Montreal, Philadelphia, and New York.
Four pages, 8 1/4 by 10 1/2 inches, never-trimmed margins, 2 small binding holes at the blank spine, asrchivally rejoined at the spine, and a few minor archival mends at the margins.

background: The March 16, 1776, issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post serves as a poignant historical artifact, capturing the American colonies at a definitive crossroads where the possibility of reconciliation with the Crown was being replaced by the necessity of revolution. By reporting on the tactical bombardment of Boston from strategic positions like Lechmere's Point and Lamb's Dam, the paper documented the final hours of British occupation, as Washington’s "continental army" successfully forced an evacuation that occurred only one day after this printing. This military tension is mirrored by the political desperation found on page two, where the debate over the American Prohibitory Act reveals a British Parliament fractured by the realization that they might "bruise the heel" of the colonies but fail to "crush the head," effectively acknowledging America's resilience. Meanwhile, the front-page philosophical inquiry into the impracticability of simple democracy illustrates the intellectual labor of the era, as the public moved away from monarchical traditions toward the complex representative republicanism that would eventually define the United States. Together, these reports from Montreal to Philadelphia provide a panoramic view of a nascent nation transitioning from a series of scattered protests into a coordinated, principled, and armed struggle for sovereignty.