The Crisis

The Crisis. London: for the author, by T. W. Shaw, 21 January 1775 – 12 October 1776

92 issues in one volume, small folio (12 x 7 1/8 in.; 305 x 180 mm). Occasional printer's ornaments, caption titles, issues 1–91 plus the unnumbered issue ("A Crisis Extraordinary") of 9 August 1775; some neat contemporary underlining,  first and last leaves creased, light dampstain in lower edge of last leaf, occasional marginal soiling or edge staining from binding. Contemporary calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in six compartments with red morocco label; upper cover detached, head and foot of spine chipped, corners worn. Half blue morocco folding-case.

John May (engraved armorial bookplate, motto "Labor ipse voluptas") — James S. Copley Library (sale, Sotheby's New York, 14 April 2010, lot 44)

Crane & Kaye, Census of British Newspapers 153; Gephart 2576; Matyas, Declaration of Independence 76-03. See Sabin 17516 (noting a different start date but the same imprint); the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, vol. 2, col. 1285 attributes it to "W. Moore?"; S. Poole, The Politics of Regicide in England: 1760-1850 (2000), p. 39

First editions; a complete set of this rare weekly periodical, which was reprinted at the same time in America. Published between January 1775 and October 1776, the serial attempted to join Britain and the American colonies in a transatlantic community of protest. It did so more stridently than virtually anything printed either in the colonies or elsewhere in the London press. The nineteenth-century historian John R. Bartlett observed that The Crisis, "which is of great rarity, contains a remarkable collection of papers attacking the Ministry and the British Government in terms of the greatest severity. Indeed, one can hardly believe that in time of war, a publication of such character would be tolerated."

King George III, his chief ministers, and their supporters in parliament were all fair game for its caustic commentary. The 4 February 1775 number attacked the King, and the House of Lords prosecuted the publisher Samuel Axtell for seditious and treasonable libel against the King, ordering that the paper be burned (though radical crowds tried to extinguish the flames; see Poole). News of Lexington and Concord drew a sharp address directed to George III: "Sir, like that fell moster and infernal Tyrant Charles the First, you are determined to deluge the land with Innocent Blood."

The "Crisis Extraordinary" offers a withering—and prescient—assessment of General Gage's Proclamation (see lot 71): "General Gage's Proclamation lies before me, tho' it is not a Subject for Criticism, yet it deserves Notice, we may overlook the Style, but must detest the Doctrine. … This murderous Proclamation opens with great Solemnity, bold Assertions, and notorious Falsehoods, it proceeds with the persevering Spirit of the Times; but alas! its imperious Offers of Clemency, and its conceited Menaces, are vain alike. The one will make no Converts for Want of Confidence; and the other can make no Cowards for Want of Power, to subjugate America entirely by Means of our Fleet and standing Army, is impossible, the Thought only proves, that Administration is as weak as it is wicked, should they be determined, like their misguided Master, to persevere, they will e'er long, find it impracticable either to go forward, or to retreat. …"

The Crisis condemned British imperial policy as self-destructive and the government's treatment of the Americans as foolishly shortsighted. It condoned American resistance to what it characterized as tyrannical policies and called on Britons to beware that what began as oppression of the colonies could end up threatening rights on their own side of the Atlantic as well. Almost the entirety of issue 84, 24 August 1776, is devoted to an early printing of the Declaration of Independence, prefaced by a characteristically inflammatory preamble: "The following is the Declaration of Independence of the Brave, free, and Virtuous Americans, against the most dastardly, slavish, and vicious Tyrant, that ever disgraced a Nation, whose savage cruelties are covered under a mask of Religion. Horrid Impiety! Execrable Hypocrisy!"

The authors of The Crisis ended the final issue of their periodical with an intimation that they might be going to the American colonies to join the struggle for independence. "We now lay down this Paper, with grateful Thanks to the Public, and as Liberty and Virtue have taken their Flight to America, the only Asylum for Freemen, we are determined to follow, and not longer struggle in vain to animate our our dastardly, degenerate Countrymen with the noble Spirit of their Forefathers, against the Ingratitude of a Tyrant, whose bare-faced System of Despotism and Blood, must soon end in the Ruin of England, and the Slavery of the present Bastard Race of Englishmen."