The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, December 11, 1775. Watertown, Massachusetts: Benjamin Edes. 4 pp., 10 x 15 1/4 in. This newspaper features a masthead by noted silversmith and engraver Paul Revere, first used on January 1, 1770. The masthead features an illustration of a seated woman on the right with a laurel wreath on her brow and a lance with a liberty cap in her hand and the shield of Britain at her feet. She is opening the door to a birdcage and releasing a dove. A tree adorns the left side, and a town is visible in the distance. Beneath the image is the epigram, "Containing the freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestic."This issue publishes a series of letters from Thomas Hutchinson in the late 1760s, demonstrating that Hutchinson had sought the post of governor. The publication of these and other letters by Hutchinson convinced many that he had conspired with Parliament to deprive the American colonists of their rights. Hutchinson left Boston for England in early 1774, and his request for leave was granted. General Thomas Gage replaced him as governor of Massachusetts Bay in May 1774, but Hutchinson's letters continued, even in December 1775, to be evidence to American patriots that the British sought to strip them of their rights. Historical BackgroundAlthough Paul Revere is most remembered for his "midnight ride" of April 18-19, 1775, he was an engraver and silversmith by trade. Although the plates for eighteenth-century newspapers and publications are frequently referred to as woodcuts, they were usually engraved on type-metal, an alloy of lead, antimony, and tin.Excerpts"In this and some following papers the public will be favour'd with a number of letters, from which they will perceive with what art Mr. Hutchinson conducted, that so he might gain the chair." (p1/c1)[Letter of Thomas Hutchinson, July 18, 1767:]"Mr. B--, soon after my misfortune applied for leave to go home, and I was in hopes to have been left in command, at least during his absence, which would have been of pecuniary advantage to me, and if I had gained any reputation might have established me in the government, if he had been otherwise provided for: but it was not thought adviseable for him then to leave the province, and I doubt that he himself is fond of a voyage to England now at his own expence, so that I see no prospect of rising." (p1/c2)[Letter of Thomas Hutchinson to the Duke of Grafton, February 3, 1768:]"I have the unexpected honour of receiving a letter from your Grace, signifying your favourable opinion of my past services and your intention to name me to his majesty for a seat at the board of customs whenever a vacancy shall happen, if you shall know that it will be agreeable to me. The place your Grace proposes has more than three times the emoluments of the post I now hold of chief justice; and as I have several children to introduce into the world, this pecuniary advantage would not be unwelcome, but I may not dispense without acquainting your Grace, that these two posts are thought to be incompatible, and that I very much doubt whether it should remain the [?] and interest which I have in the people, and be as able to contribute to the preserving or ratherrestoring order and a due subordination to the supreme authority of the whole empire, was I to hold a place in the customs, as I might in my present post, or any other place not immediately related to the revenue." (p1/c2-3)[Letter of Thomas Hutchinson, November 14, 1768:]"I Believe he (the governor) has no thoughts of leaving the province this winter. The hint you have given me of my succeeding him has by other hands been given to others, and raised a general expectation. I know too well the weight of the trust to be very eager in seeking for it, but my friends tell me if the appointment should be thought a proper measure, I ought not to decline it [no, or ever really designed to decline it, for it was what he was assiduously and conver. (See website for full description)
