Extract from The New Hampshire Gazette, entitled ‘Continental Congress to People of Great Britain’, 2 December 1774. Catalogue ref: CO 5/939 (2 of 4)
Transcript
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Let justice and humanity cease to be the boast of your nation! Consult your history, examine your records of former transactions, nay turn to the annals [yearly records] of the many arbitrary states and kingdoms that surround you, and shew us a single instance of men being condemned to suffer for imputed [responsible for] crimes, unheard, unquestioned, and without even the specious [misleading] formality of a trial…
- Can you think why the Continental Congress would have written to Great Britain about their history?
- Why did they think that this would further their cause?
- What had they learnt from British history that they did not want to see repeated?
- Consider both sources 6a and 6b. What do they reveal about the role of newspapers like the ‘New Hampshire Gazette’ and Boston Evening Post in the American revolution?