Considñs on the act of Virginia for religious freedom.
iv. [SWANWICK,
John.]
Considerations on an Act of the Legislature of Virginia, entitled, an Act for the establishment of religious freedom. By a
citizen of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia: printed and sold by
Robert Aitken,
m,dcc,lxxxvi.
[1786.]
16 leaves. Numbered 3 in ink on the title-page.
Sabin 94024.
Evans 20017.
Johnston, page 26.
On the title-page Jefferson has written the author’s name,
John Swanwick.
A condemnation of Jefferson’s Act for the Establishment of Religious Freedom, and contains a reprint of its text.
[3028]
v. BELL,
Robert.
Bell’s Address to every free-man; but especially to the free citizens of Pennsylvania, concerning, a tyrannical embargo, now laid
upon the free-sale of books by auction . . .
Philadelphia: printed and sold by
Robert Bell, in Third-Street.
m,dcc,lxxxiv
. Price
four pence. [1784.]
4 leaves.
Sabin 4478.
Evans 18345.
Hildeburn 4429.
Numbered 4 in ink on the title-page. Not listed by Jefferson.
Robert Bell, 1732-1784, publisher, bookseller and auctioneer, was a native of Glasgow. He came to America circa 1766 and set up in business
in Philadelphia. In 1784 he was accused before the April Sessions of selling books by Public auction without license. In this
Address, Momus writes these lines to Bell:
|
Pray, stop, Master Bell, with your selling of Books,
|
|
Your smart witty Sayings, and cunning arch Looks:
|
|
By Auction I mean----- ’tis a shocking Offence,}
|
|
To sell Wit, or Humour, or e’en common Sense,}
|
|
Unsanction’d by Law, on any Pretence:}
|
|
Read the Act of Assembly, by Mood, and by Tense,
|
|
There’s none can vend Knowledge without A Lie--cense.
|
The fourth line refers to the fact that Bell was the publisher of Paine’s
Common Sense
.
[3029]
vi.
The Constitutional Society. [
Richmond: printed by
Dixon and Holt?]
1784.
4to. 4 leaves, the last a blank; no title-page or imprint.
The first leaf, printed on both sides, begins:
We, the underwritten, having associated for the purpose of preserving and handing down to posterity, those pure and sacred
principles of liberty, which have been derived to us, from the happy event of the late glorious revolution, and being convinced,
that the surest mode to secure republican systems of government from lapsing into tyranny, is by giving free and frequent
information to the mass of people . . .
At the foot of the recto is a list of the members, 34 names. Jefferson’s name is not in this list, which includes John Blair, James Madison, James
M’Clurg, John Page, Mann Page, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, William Short, John Breckenridge, B. Randolph, James Marshall
(The
James erased in this copy, and
John written beside it in ink), Richard Henry Lee, Philip Mazzei, Wilson C. Nicholas, Spencer Roane, James Monroe, Arthur Lee,
and others. The second leaf is printed on one side only, and has a manuscript note at the foot:
At the time of this meeting there were only 23. Subscribers, [
th]
o’ Philip Mazzei is in the 25th place on the Subscription-paper [
th]
is was occasioned by his writing his name below, and others [
si]
gning above his signature.
All the meetings took place in June, 1784.
Every leaf in this copy is folded to fit into the small 8vo. volume.
Not listed by Jefferson, and not numbered on the title-page.
[3030]
