The ''Boston Pamphlet'' was a 1772

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

published in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. Written by members of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, the pamphlet outlined the rights of

British America British America collectively refers to various British colonization of the Americas, colonies of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and its predecessors states in the Americas prior to the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1 ...

n colonists and argued recent British policies were in violation of those rights. Although called the "Boston Pamphlet" by contemporaries, it was officially known as ''The Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of The Town of Boston, In Town Meeting assembled, According to Law''. The ''Boston Pamphlet'' had three sections of original material: "A State of the Rights of the Colonists", a "List of Infringements and Violation of Rights", and a "Letter of Correspondence" addressed to the other towns of the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

. Traditionally, authorship of the three sections was attributed to

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, Political philosophy, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts, a le ...

Joseph Warren Joseph Warren (June 11, 1741 – June 17, 1775), a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot movement in Boston, Massachusetts, Bos ...

, and Benjamin Church, respectively, but historian Richard Brown argued that solitary authorship of any section was unlikely, and that each part was probably the group effort of a committee. A fourth section contained correspondence between Governor Thomas Hutchinson and the town of Boston. At issue was the decision of the British government to henceforth pay the salaries of the governor, lieutenant governor, and judges of Massachusetts, which were previously paid by the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

. Colonists were alarmed because this was a step away from

representative government Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies funct ...

, effectively making their leading officials independent of the electorate. In 1773, the Boston Committee of Correspondence printed 600 copies of the pamphlet and distributed them throughout the colony.Middlekauff, ''Glorious Cause'', 223. Dozens of Massachusetts towns responded by passing similar resolves and forming their own committees of correspondence, which helped promote colonial unity in the evolving crisis that led to American independence.

Notes

References

*Alexander, John K. ''Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician''. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. . *Brown, Richard D. ''Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts: The Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Towns, 1772–1774''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. . *Jensen, Merrill, ed. ''Tracts of the American Revolution, 1763-1776.'' Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. * Middlekauff, Robert. ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789''. Revised and expanded edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

External links

Complete text at "American in Class" from nationalhumanitiescenter.org
{{American Revolution origins, state=expanded 1772 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay 1772 non-fiction books 18th century in Boston Massachusetts in the American Revolution American political philosophy literature Pamphlets Samuel Adams Documents of the American Revolution