THOMAS'S MASSACHUETTS SPY OR WORCESTER GAZETTE, June 29, 1803

• The Louisiana Purchase Treaty

Page 3 has an historic report headed: "IMPORTANT NEWS !  LOUISIANA CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES" with the report beginning: "We have now the moral certainty of being paid in the U.S. what France owes to Americans. This Government CEDES LOUISIANA for a certain sum...The thing is fixed; five months are given for the ratification..." with more.
Four pages, some light damp staining, a few discrete archival mends, good condition.

Background: This issue of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy or Worcester Gazette from June 29, 1803, is an exceptionally desirable historic artifact because it contains one of the earliest public confirmations in the American press of the impending Louisiana Purchase. The notable content on Page 3 captures the immediate, unfiltered reaction to the diplomatic breakthrough under the sensational banner "IMPORTANT NEWS ! LOUISIANA CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES," emphasizing the crucial detail that France would cede the territory for a "certain sum" while settling spoliation debts owed to U.S. merchants. What makes this specific issue so rare and historically prized is its timing: because transatlantic news travelled solely by sail, reports of the April 30 treaty signature only trickled into American newspapers in late June 1803. This issue documents the exact window when the American public was first processing that the nation was about to double in size. Original 1803 printings containing "breakthrough" breaking news of the purchase—rather than routine later coverage—are notoriously scarce in the antiquarian market, making a complete, un-trimmed four-page edition a prized centerpiece for collectors of early American period imprints.