The Connecticut Gazette. Vol. XXX, Numb. 1579. New-London: Printed by Samuel Green, at the Northwest Corner of the Parade, 13 February 1794. 4pp, approx. 10 1/4 x 16 3/4 in., bifolium. Includes a report from Philadelphia issued by the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, with additional reporting on the unfolding unrest and French and English military activity on the island of Hispaniola, as well as Congressional action on American ships and the slave trade.

A front-page report: "American Tonnage. The Secretary of the Treasury respectfully reports to the House of Representatives, a statement of the actual tonnage employed between the United States and foreign countries for a year, ending the 30th of September, 1792; which is the statement that remained to be reported, of those required by the order of the 3d instant." This is followed by a list of 35 "Nations" with their respective tons and a total tonnage. Signed in type by Alexander Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, 10 January 1794. Among the trading partners are Russia, Sweden, Gibraltar, France, England, Spain, China, and Africa, with particularly strong volume coming from the West Indies, one of the devastatingly lucrative legs of the "Triangle Trade" route.

Page 2, column 1, "Proceedings of Congress. House of Representatives" records a petition laid before the House "from a convention of delegates of the abolition societies of the states of New-Jersey, New-York, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, praying the interposition of Congress to prevent the American shipping from being concerned in the slave trade."

Extensive discussion outlined in the "Proceedings" related to the "relief of the St. Domingo sufferers in the United States" which on 4 February was "read the third time and passed...."  News reports from New-York and elsewhere discuss the ongoing tensions in Santo Domingo and Saint Domingue as the Haitian Revolution continued, and escalating conflict between Britain, Spain, and France threatened more violence on the island. In news from New York and Philadelphia: "From the West-Indies we learn that the English have taken possession of several fortresses at St. Domingo - that a body of 1200 French troops have arrived at Hispaniola - That Santhonax [Leger-Felicite Sonthonax, French civil commissioner who abolished slavery in the French colony in 1793] had escapted to the mountains among the blacks - and that Polverel [Etienne Polverel, French lawyer and emissary] is imprisoned at Les Cayes. From the West-Indies, by way of Philadelphia, that an English Squadron has arrived at the Island of St. Domingo, consisting of 14 ships of the line, six frigates, and about sixty transports...."

Founded in 1755, the Connecticut Gazette is the earliest known newspaper in the state. Nearly forty years after its founding, it continued to provide timely reporting on military and political matters of consequence. The fledgling U.S. was a rapidly expanding republic in 1794, facing intense internal political division and threats from foreign powers. Yet the young nation's new government operated as designed, and demonstrated to the world the capabilities and possibilities of the American Experiment. Still, looming questions of slavery and threats from world powers, as foreshadowed in this issue of the Gazette, hint of conflicts to come.

[Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] [American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe]

Light creasing along center horizontal fold, scattered dampstaining, several manuscript ink notations, toned. Approx. 7 in. separation along vertical fold.