Beschreibung:

An early Revolutionary War election broadside
New York, 5 June 1775
AMERICAN REVOLUTION – New York, Committee-Chamber, 5th June 1775. Resolved, That Mr. Isaac Sears, be nominated by this Committee, for the approbation of the freeholders and freemen, of this city and county to represent them in Provincial Congress, in the Room of Mr. George Folliott, who declines serving… [New York: John Holt, 1775].
An early Revolutionary War broadside nominating Isaac Sears to represent the City of New York in the First Provincial Congress. Isaac Sears, together with John Lamb Marnius Willet and others led the Sons of Liberty from the passage of the Stamp Act onwards. Dubbed "King Sears" by both the British authorities and the city's merchant class, who feared his control of the New York mob, Sears was a ever-present agitator in the early years of the American Revolution. Several days before the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Sears found himself under arrest for his activities only to be rescued at the prison door and paraded about the streets as a hero. When news of the battles arrived in New York on 23 April, Sears led the seizure of the city's arsenal and custom house and was the de facto leader of the city until Washington's army arrived in June 1776 to begin preparing the defense of the city. By the time of the war in 1775, the city's Whigs had become factionalized, and it appears that Sears was never elected to the post for which he was nominated, though one of his chief rivals, Isaac Low, was elected to represent the city. After the British took control of New York in September 1776, Sears moved to Massachusetts where he organized many privateering expeditions. Sears returned to New York after the evacuation where he speculated in real estate confiscated from Loyalists. He died on a trade expedition to China in 1786 and was buried on an island in the harbor of Canton. Rare. Evans 14331.
Printed broadside, 123 x 200mm (light creases). Provenance: Henry Remsen.