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Anger at Burgoyne for surrendering at Saratoga... Paine talks of "Common Sense"...
Anger at Burgoyne for surrendering at Saratoga... Paine talks of "Common Sense"...
Item # 703514
September 14, 1779
THE PENNSYLVANIA PACKET, Philadelphia, Sept. 14, 1779
One-third of the front page and most of a column on page 2 are taken up with a wonderful letter "To Lt. General Burgoyne".
Portions include: "...Hear then, General Burgoyne, what the people know & learn what they expect. They know that you solicited the command of any army; they are well apprized that never was an army better appointed; none ever better supplied with every thing...they know that this army, which proved irresistible in its progress, was surrendered to the enemy. ..they know that this army was surrendered by you...they know, also, that you had force abundantly sufficient to accomplish whatever was practicable & therefore, that the defect has been in the execution, or the crime in the plan. If the first, indeed, General Burgoyne, you must account for it..." and so much more.
Page 2 contains two columns by Thomas Paine in which he defends himself and talks of his pamphlet, stating in part: "...Let any man look to the condition of America at the time I first took up the pen and published Common Sense, which was but a few months before the declaration of Independence; an army of 20,000 men coming out against her, besides those which were already here...she had not a day to spare in bringing about the only thing which could save her, A Revolution, yet no one measure was taken to promote it...the single pamphlet, Common Sense, would at that time of day have produced a tolerable fortune had I only taken the same profits from the publication which all writers have ever done, because the sale was the most rapid & extensive of any thing that was ever published in this country..." plus much, much more great reading (see the photos) and signed in type: COMMON SENSE.
As if this wasn't enough there are various war-related reports on page 3.
Four pages, archivally rejoined at the spine, never-trimmed margins, handsome masthead, nice condition.
Category: Revolutionary War
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