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This issue of Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette reports addresses by two students at the Academy of Philadelphia, including seventeen-year-old Francis Hopkinson, who went on to write music and poetry, sign the Declaration of Independence, and design the American flag. Founded in 1751, the Academy provided classical education and instruction in practical skills. Most of the trustees had received a classical education and favored a similar curriculum for the academy, but trustee Benjamin Franklin favored an education that stressed practical skills. He advocated teaching all classes in English and emphasizing mathematics and science.

[FRANCIS HOPKINSON]. Pennsylvania Gazette, November 21, 1754. Newspaper. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and David Hall. 6 pp., 9¼ x 14½ in.

Inventory #22426.09       Price: $1,800

Excerpts

Francis Hopkinson, “On Education in General,” November 12, 1754

“The right Education of Youth has ever been esteemed, by wise Men, one of the chief Cares of the best constituted States; and it is a Truth, confirmed both by Reason and Experience, that Societies have more or less flourished, in all that exalts or embellishes human Nature, in Proportion as they have taken more or less Care in this important Matter.” (p1/c1)

“Upon the whole then, it appears, that whether the Design be to preserve a good Constitution civil and religious, and transmit its Spirit, uncorrupted, down thro’ Ages; or whether the Design be to mend a bad One, and secure it against all Dangers from without, it is only to be done effectually by the slow, but sure Means of a proper Education of Youth.” (p1/c2)

Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) was a Renaissance man. He was a representative of New Jersey in the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was also a lawyer, a musician, and a poet. He was the first American-born composer to publish a song, he contributed to the design of the Great Seal of the United States, and he designed the first official American flag—with thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen white six-pointed stars on a field of blue. Born in Philadelphia, Hopkinson attended the Academy there and became a member of the first class at the College of Philadelphia, graduating in 1757. He received a master’s degree in 1760.

 

Samuel Magaw, “An Enquiry into the Several Branches of Education, in order to ascertain the just Value or Moment of each,” November 12, 1754

“it may not be amiss to enquire more particularly, which of the Branches of Science we are more immediately concerned to be acquainted with; for all cannot be equally important; and as, in this Life, we have many Things to do, and but little Time to do them in, it highly concerns us not to misspend that little, either in useless, or idly curious Researches.” (p1/c2)

Latin and Greek: “To be unacquainted with these universal Languages must therefore be a great Loss to every Person, who has Leisure and Abilities to pursue a liberal Education, especially as they are to be acquired at a Time of Life, when the mind is not ripe enough for higher Studies.” (p1/c2)

“we can never say enough concerning the Usefulness of mathematics, and those Sciences which lead us to investigate the physical Properties of Bodies.” (p1/c3)

“By these Sciences we also extend the Sphere of Sight, search Nature out in her most distant as well as secret Retreats. We not only pry into the minutest Things, and her darkest Mysteries here on Earth, but we scale the etherial Towers, and freely range the celestial Fields, measure the Magnitudes of the Worlds above, determine their Distances, prescribe Laws to the most irregular of them, and confine even the blazing Comet itself to its stated Course.” (p1/c3)

Samuel Magaw (1735-1812) was a member of the College of Philadelphia’s first class and graduated in 1757. He received a scholarship for instructing German immigrants in the area in exchange for lodging and board. He was ordained in England as an Episcopal priest and served as rector of Philadelphia’s St. Paul’s church from 1781 to 1804.

 

New York, November 11, 1754

“Yesterday being the Anniversary of the Birth of his present Majesty, King George the Second, when he enter’d the 72d year of his Age, the same was observed here with great Solemnity: About One a Clock, his Honour the Lieutenant Governor, accompanied by several of his Majesty’s Council for this Province, the Honourable House of Assembly of the same, the Corporation, and most of the principal Gentlemen and Inhabitants of this City, assembled at Fort-George, where his Majesty’s, and several loyal Healths were drank, under the Discharge of Twenty odd Pieces of Cannon; the Vessels in the Harbour, amounting to above 100 Sail, having displayed their Colours in Honour of the Day, made a very handsome Appearance: In the Evening the City was beautifully illuminated; and the whole was conducted with the greatest Decency.” (p2/c1)

 

Boston, November 11, 1754

“The Rev. Mr. Whitefield proposing to leave this Town To-day, preach’d a farewel Sermon at the old South Meeting house early in the Morning to a vast Assembly; several Hundred People were in the House before Three a Clock.” (p3/c3)

George Whitefield (1714-1770) was an Anglican minister and one of the founders of Methodism. He first came to the British American colonies as a parish priest in Savannah in 1738. He returned to England to raise funds for an orphanage to be built in Georgia and began preaching to large congregations. When he returned to America in 1740, he preached a series of revivals that became known as the Great Awakening. In 1754, he was a celebrity and preached in cities from Boston to Georgia as part of his fifth voyage to America.

 

Additional Content

This issue also includes foreign news from Paris, London, and other European cities (p1/c3-p2/c1); lengthy advertisements from merchants (p3-6); and various notices including one announcing the sale of “a handy, well behaved Negroe woman.. .for ten years, or to be hired out by the year: she has been brought up in the country; she belongs to a single person who has no present occasion for her, and is sold for no fault” (p6/c2), and several others offering rewards for runaway German and Irish servants (p3/c2, p5/c1-2).

The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800) was first published by Samuel Keimer as The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette; it was the second newspaper to be published in Pennsylvania. In October 1729, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and Hugh Meredith (ca. 1697-1749) purchased the newspaper and shortened the title to The Pennsylvania Gazette. It became the most successful newspaper in the colonies by the mid-1730s. In 1748, Franklin retired from business but retained an interest in The Pennsylvania Gazette. He left the management of the newspaper to partner David Hall (1714-1772). In 1752, Franklin published a third-person account of his kite experiment, and in 1754, printed the first political cartoon in America, “Join, or Die.” In 1766, Franklin completed the sale of his share of the printing business to Hall, and Hall made William Sellers (1725-1804) his partner.  After Hall’s death, his sons, David Hall Jr. (1755-1821) and William Hall (1752-1834), joined the firm with Sellers. The newspaper suspended publication from November 1776 to February 1777, and again during the British occupation of Philadelphia from September 1777 to January 1779.

Condition: somewhat toned. Will benefit from proper conservation.  Some tight, uneven margins have resulted in the loss of a handful of words of text.  Overall About Very Good.