THE PEOPLE THE BEST GOVERNORS, etc. Thomas Paine (?) (1776)

DEMOCRACY, (Poem)

PAPER MONEY, (Poem)

TARRYTOWN, N. Y.

REPRINTED

WILLIAM ABBATT,

1922

BEING EXTRA NUMBER 84 OF THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WITH NOTES AND QUERIES

EDITOR'S PREFACE

UR first item is a very rare poem by Dr. Benjamin Church, whose "Choice" we printed in our issue No. 68. It shows the Doctor, though a Tory, to have been at first, heartily against the "Stamp Act," and also a poet of considerable ability-though that had previously been fully established by "The Choice.'

Our second item is of excessive rarity, being unknown to Sabin, Evans and other bibliographers. No copy is recorded as having ever been offered at public sale in America or England, until this was sold (for $160) in New York in 1918.

It can well be classed as a "nugget" of historical interest among those early American pamphlets relating to controversies between England and the schemes for forming new State Governments.

The anonymous author shows a strong advocacy of the "rights of the common people," and the direct election of their state officialsGovernor, Representatives, Judges, etc., some of whom are to be voted for in town meetings.

Issued at, or soon after, the time of the Declaration of Independence, its composition bears strong resemblance to other works of the same period, notably those published in Virginia and North Carolina. At one place the word "have" is written in, the handwriting resembling that of Thomas Paine. The pamphlet may have been written by him, though the "12thly" does not sound like his production.

The poem of "Democracy" was privately printed, and is now very scarce. Mr. Sabin says it was written by Brockholst Livingston. It was probably issued about the time of the internal troubles which culminated in the "Whisky Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania, 1794. According to the "New York Echo" of 1807, p. 195, it was published in New York in March 1794, in consequence of a meeting of citizens called to recommend to Congress the adoption of hostile measures against England. The Second Canto was immediately prepared for the press, "but the timidity of the booksellers and the peculiar circumstances of the times prevented its publication."

It would be interesting to know if the MS. is still in existence.