The Manifesto of the Edinburgh Congress: Mary's Chapel, Edinburgh, 19th August 1777

A STRIKING EXAMPLE OF THE FAR-FLUNG INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: A PAMPHLET ON THE EDINBURGH TRADES MODELLED THEREON

[SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH]. [AMERICAN REVOLUTION]. The Manifesto of the Edinburgh Congress. Mary's Chapel, Edinburgh, 19th August 1777. 4to, disbound, pp. 10. [Edinburgh: 1777].
Only Edition. An interesting example displaying the widespread influence of the American Revolution. A rare Scottish pamphlet, being an attack on Edinburgh municipal politics as a burlesque dressed in Revolutionary garb. Signed at the end: "John Hancock, Preses," and dated 19th August 1777. The constitution of Edinburgh is known as the "Set" of the burgh, and dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. Our pamphlet has to do with "The campaign against the Set in 1777, in protest at the influence of Sir Laurence Dunbar over the council (and over the influence of Gilbert Laurie and Thomas Simpson)" and the proposal "in council that the incorporation of trades be permitted the free election of their deacons, [which] was voted down by a majority of the council...Yet this was not the end of the matter, as the Old Provost, James Stodart, called a congress (a term very significant in 1777) of delegates from all the incorporated trades of Edinburgh to consider how best to press for a reform of the Set. The use of words and methods with American connotations in this congress was quite striking, especially the action of the members of the congress in adopting the names of those they admired, in the manner of Allan Ramsay's Easy Club of the 1730s. Instead of adopting the names of Scottish patriots, however, the members of the congress took the names of American rebels. Charles Dallas of the wrights called himself Samuel Adams, Peter Bowie, another tradesman, became John Hancock, and Stodart began to be referred to as George Washington..."-Alexander Murdoch, The Importance of Being Edinburgh: Management and Opposition in Edinburgh Politics, 1746-1784, in, The Scottish Historical Review. Vol. 62. No. 173. Part I (April. 1983), pp. 1-16. Dundas, "who, together with his said friends, are hereby proscribed as inimical to all virtue, liberty, and public spirit, and are to be insulted and abused in public and in private by us and all our adherents, in the same manner as the Tories of America are handled by our sister Congress." First leaf foxed. Very rare; three copies recorded at NLS, a copy at BL, and a single American copy at Univ. of Illinois. 84321