The twenty-five years in which the American colonists acquired a sense of nationhood were turbulent, highly spirited, and highly literary. The finest written products of this intellectual surge included not only the fiery pamphlets, broadsides, and newspaper articles of the revolutionists, but also works of prose an poetry, letters, diaries, sermons, and plays.

"This work explores the patriot clergymen's arguments for the legitimacy of political resistance to the British in the early stages of the American Revolution. It reconstructs the historical and theological background of the colonial clergymen, showing the continued impact that Stuart absolutism and Reformed resistance theory had on their political theology. As a corrective to previous scholarship, this work argues that the American clergymen's rationale for political resistance in the eighteenth century developed in general continuity with a broad strand of Protestant thought in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The arguments of Jonathan Mayhew and John Witherspoon are highlighted, along with a wide range of Whig clergyman on both sides of the Atlantic. The agreement that many British clergymen had with their colonial counterparts challenges the view that the American Revolution emerged from distinctly American modes of thought"--

A record of literary properties sold at auction in the United States.