8vo (186 x 110 mm). Half-title, title with woodcut seal. (Some pale spotting.) Modern calf; blue cloth folding case. 

FIRST EDITION OF THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST CONGRESS

FIRST ISSUE, with the half-title, title, and 132pp. The title-page bears the seal of the Congress, showing twelve hands representing the twelve participating colonies supporting a column topped with a Liberty Cap resting on the Magna Charta, framed by the motto "Hanc Tuemur Hanc Nitimur" ("This we defend, this we lean upon"). 

Committees of Correspondence resolved to hold a Continental Congress in June of 1774, and delegates from twelve colonies (none from Georgia) gathered in Philadelphia in the fall.  Delegates included: Samuel Adams, John Adams, Roger Sherman, John Jay, Joseph Galloway, John Dickinson, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Edmund Pendleton, and Henry Middleton. On October 14, the Congress adopted a Declaration of Rights, and agreed to an Association governing imports and exports and boycotting British goods. They drafted an Address to the People of Great Britain and an Address to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. They agreed to reassemble on May 10, 1775 for what was to be the Congress that broke with England. Evans 13737; Howes J-263; this issue not in Sabin.