[John Hancock]. First Printing of A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, in the New England Chronicle or the Essex Gazette, printed by Samuel and Ebenezer Hall, in Stoughton Hall, Harvard-College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, d. July 21, 1775, Volume VII, Number 365. Boldly signed in print:

John Hancock, President

Attest.

Charles Thomson, Secretary

Philadelphia, July 6, 1776.

In the pantheon of American Revolutionary literature and manuscripts three bodies of work stand out: Thomas Paine`s Common Sense (January 1776), the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), and the first of the Revolutionary trinity, a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, (July 6, 1775), in essence, America`s declaration of war against Great Britain.

In March and April, 1775, the House of Commons passed bills restraining the trade of the American colonies to Great Britain and the British West Indies, and made further provisions for the prosecution of the war. In June came the Battle of Bunker Hill and the appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief. Congress responded with one of the great works of Revolution.

On 6 July Congress adopted a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, the joint work of John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, and one of the greatest of the state papers of the Revolution. Still protesting that “we have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great Britain, and establishing independent states,” the declaration reviewed, vigorously but with dignity, the course of recent events, protested in the name of liberty against a policy that would enslave the colonies, and proclaimed solemnly the intention of fighting until freedom was assured.

 

"In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it—for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before."

 

Two days later (8 July) a last petition to the king once more protested loyalty and devotion, and prayed the interposition of the crown to bring about reconciliation. In August a royal proclamation declared the colonies in rebellion. With the rejection of petitions on the one side and of compromise on the other, the passing of royal authority in America was well under way.

Incredibly Rare and Historic, the paper is signed in print by Hancock as President of the Second Continental Congress. Early owner's signature in the upper left, normal folds, edge wear, small intermittent holes on folds. Housed in a custom frame.