Lot 68D email save

[SMITH, Samuel.] Necessary Truth: or, Seasonable C

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Philadelphia: [W. Bradford], 1748. 16 pp., 8vo (190 x 120 mm). Later tan calf, covers ruled in gilt. Condition: browning and dampstaining, torn portion at head of A2 crudely restored but with loss to several words. rare quaker response to benjamin franklin's call for a volunteer militia. King George's War (1740-48) brought French and Spanish privateers to Delaware Bay and French-allied Indian attacks on the western borders of the colony. The Quaker controlled Pennsylvania Assembly abided by their pacifist beliefs and refused to mount a military response. Franklin, in turn, issued his well-known pamphlet Plain Truth in late 1747 calling for colonial self-defense. This anonymous pamphlet, attributed to Smith from the diary of his brother, supports the position of the Society of Friends. Smith's diary reveals that five hundred copies of the pamphlet were printed, but far fewer have survived. OCLC cites only 5 extant institutional holdings (New York Historical Society, Yale University, American Philosophical Society, Library Company and the State Library of Pennsylvania) and no copies are cited in the last quarter century of American auction records. Evans 6241; Hildeburn 1099; Sabin 83984.

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