AMERICANA 48 Franklin On The Colonies, The Stamp Act, Wealth And Weather—The Only Edition Of His Political Writings Printed During His Lifetime And With His Consent, 1779 First edition, octavo issue, of this major collection of Franklin’s writings, many printed here for the first time, containing his powerful testimony before Parliament in 1766, in which his eloquent answers to questions about the Stamp Act and other incendiary measures made Franklin “the foremost spokesman for the American cause,” printed with “substantially the same setting of type” as quarto issue. Complete with frontispiece portrait of Franklin, beautifully bound. This important work “is the only edition of Franklin’s writings (other than his scientific), which was printed during his life time; was done with Franklin’s knowledge and consent, and contains an ‘errata’ [Addenda & Corrigenda] made by him for it” (Ford 342). Edited by his close friend Benjamin Vaughan and published in London while Franklin was serving as America’s ambassador, this seminal collection contains many of his writings on the rebellious American colonies and incendiary British measures such as the Stamp Act. Of particular interest is The Examination of Dr. Benjamin Franklin (255-301), a record of his 1766 appearance before Parliament. In Franklin’s answers to the over 150 questions posed him in an afternoon of “highly charged testimony, he would turn himself into the foremost spokesman for the American cause” (Isaacson, 229). Responding to a question over how Americans might react to a British army sent to enforce the Stamp Act, Franklin replied that if such an army landed on American shores: “They will not find a rebellion: they may indeed make one” (275-6). In subsequent testimony he soundly declared that Americans saw themselves as fully due “all the privileges and liberties of Englishman… that they are not to be taxed but by their common consent (italics in original, 297)). In addition to these and other pivotal writings, this volume offers first printings of many philosophical pieces that, the editor notes, “are not elsewhere extant in print.” Octavo issue, printed by the same publishers the same year as the quarto and “from substantially the same setting of type” (Adams 79-38b). Franklin’s famous epitaph is printed prior to a lengthy appendix, an index, and Franklin’s Addenda and Corrigenda. Sabin 25565. Ink notation, faint blindstamp to title page. A near-fine copy, beautifully bound. 54 FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces. London, 1779. Octavo, recently rebound in early tree calf gilt. $15,000
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