Gage, Thomas, British Governor of Massachusets Bay

By His Excellency, the Hon. Thomas Gage, Esq; Governor, and Commander in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts-Bay, and Vice Admiral of the same. A Proclamation. Whereas the Infatuated Multitudes, who have long suffered themselves to be conducted by certain well known Incendiaries and Traitors, in a fatal Progression of Crimes, against the constitutional Authority of the State, have at length proceeded to avowed Rebellion, … And Whereas, during the Continuance of the present unnatural Rebellion, Justice cannot be adminstered by the common Law of the Land, the Course whereof has, for a long Time past, been violently impeded, and wholly interrupted; from whence results a Necessity for using and exercising the Law Martial; I have therefore thought fit, by the Authority invested in me, by the Royal Charter to this Province, to publish, and I do hereby publish, proclaim and order the Use and Excercise of the Law Martial, within and throughout this Province, for so long Time as the present unhappy Occasion shall necessarily require. … [Boston, 1775]

Broadside (14 x 9 1/2 in.; 355 x 246 mm) on paper. Crude woodcut royal arms (not in Reilly), marked at top "No. 3" with eight words underlined; trimmed to text block, backed with paper with a neat closed horizontal separation at center, evidence of an early seal (where folded and posted?). Half red morocco folding-case, chemise.

J. William Middendorf II (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 18 May 1973, lot 70) — James S. Copley Library (sale, Sotheby's New York, 20 May 2011, lot 870)

Bristol 4040a; BL/ American War of Independence 50 (London edition); for the official Draper edition see: Evans 14184; Ford, Massachusetts Broadsides 1814; Lowance & Bumgardner, Massachusetts Broadsides of the American Revolution 20

A unique patriot printing of Thomas Gage's notorious Proclamation of martial law in Massachusetts, issued on 12 June 1775, less than two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

"On 5 May the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts Bay resolved that as General Gage had 'utterly disqualified himself to serve this colony as Governor … he ought to be considered and guarded against as an unnatural and inveterate enemy to this country.' Against this background of open opposition to the King, Gage wrote to Dartmouth on 12 June; 'I see no prospect of any offers of Accomdation and have issued a Proclamation for the Exercise of the Law martial'" (BL).

At the outset of his Proclamation Gage acknowledges that a state of open rebellion exists in the colony that is ostensibly under his authority: "The Infringements which have been committed upon the most sacred Rights of the crown and People of Great-Britain, are too many to enumerate on one Side, and are all too atrocious to be palliated on the other. All unprejudiced People who have been Witnesses of the late Transactions, in this and the neighbouring Provinces, will find upon a transient Review, Marks of Premeditation and Conspiracy that would justify the fulness of Chastisement. …The Authors of the present unnatural Revolt never daring to trust their Cause or their Actions, to the Judgment of an impartial Public … have uniformly placed their chief Confidence in the Suppression of Truth: And while indefatigable and shameless Pains have been taken to obstruct every Appeal to the real Interest of the People of America; the grossest Forgeries, Calumnies and Absurdities that ever insulted human Understanding, have been imposed upon their Credulity. …The Press, that distinguished Appendage of public Liberty … has been invariably prostituted to the most contrary Purposes. …"

Gage proceeds to characterize the Minutemen of Lexington and Concord as cowardly guerillas: "The Minds of Men having been thus gradually prepared for the worst Extremities, a number of armed Persons, to the amount of many Thousands assembled on the 19th of April last, and from behind Walls, and lurking Holes, attacked a Detachment of the King's Troops who not expecting so consummate an Act of Phrenzy, unprepared for Vengeance, and willing to decline it, made use of their Arms only in their own Defence. Since that Period the Rebels, deriving Confidence from Impunity, have added Insult to Outrage; have repeatedly fired upon the King's Ships and Subjects, … have possessed the Roads, and other Communications by which the Town of Boston was supplied with Provisions; and … carry Depredation and Distress wherever they turn their Steps. The Actions of the 19th of April are of such Notoriety, as must baffle all Attempts to contradict them. …"

Feigning magnanimity, and "to spare the Effusion of Blood," the Governor offers a royal pardon "to all Persons who shall forthwith lay down their Arms and return to the duties of peaceable Subjects, excepting only from the Benefit of such Pardon, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, whose Offences are of too flagitious a Nature to admit of any other Consideration than that of condign Punishment."

Despite its assurances of "Protection and Support, to all who in so trying a Crisis, shall manifest their Allegiance to the King, and Affection to the parent State," Gage's Proclamation did nothing to endear the Governor to the colonists; rather it simply stiffened the resolve of the Boston revolutionaries. In fact the present edition and several other contemporary issues reprinted the official broadside (which was produced by the Loyalist Margaret Draper) as patriotic propaganda. 

Abigail Adams expressed the prevailing sentiment in a 16 June 1775 letter she sent to her husband, John, then serving in the Continental Congress at Philadelphia: "Gage'es proclamation you will receive by this conveyance. All the records of time cannot produce a blacker page. Satan when driven from the regions of bliss, Exibeted not more malice. Surely the father of lies is superceded.—Yet we think it the best proclamation he could have issued" (Adams Family Correspondence, ed. Butterfield, 1: 218). For his part, Samuel Adams wrote to his wife from Philadelphia, 28 June 1775, "Gage has made me respectable by naming me first among those who are to receive no favor from him. I thoroughly despise him and his Proclamation. It is the Subject of Ridicule here … (Letters of Delegates to Congress, ed. Smith, 1:552).