The British Counter-Declaration: The Unpublished Response to America's Independence
By
David Armitage
Summary
This article explores the largely unknown story of the British government's response to the American Declaration of Independence. While the United States' declaration in July 1776 is famous, the British state commissioned a counter-declaration that was never published. The piece examines the war of words that accompanied the American War of Independence, situating it within broader historical patterns of political print spikes during revolutionary periods in British history, such as the 1640s and the Glorious Revolution. It highlights how the imperial crisis of the 1760s-1770s fueled an explosion of political pamphleteering, elevating writers like Thomas Paine to fame, while also revealing the British establishment's own (ultimately abandoned) attempts at rhetorical counter-attack.
Source
Hacker NewsThe British Counter-Declaration: The Unpublished Response to America's Independencehistorytoday.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledThe American War of Independence was a war of words as well as a war of arms.
It has sometimes been said that books cause revolutions but it is often the case that revolutions cause books – and lots of them.
That the United States declared its independence in July 1776 is well known; that the British state commissioned, but never published, a counter-declaration is not.
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