Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-04
PAPERS BURIED NEWS
OF JULY 18th DECLARATION
American independence Treated Editorially as In
significant Affair, Event Being Sandwiched Be-
tween Ads and Social Items on Inside Pages.

| dull session of Parliament or de-
scription OF a secondrate fire. In one
| paper it appeared next to extracts
from a new cook book,
| The Morning Post even condensed
| the ringing words of Jefferson, observ-
| ing tersely: Following is the sub
stance of the Declaration of Independ-
ence by the Representatives Of the
| United States of America in General
| Congress assembled"
Considered ImpOlitic Act.
If the editors of the London news
papers realized. as the statesmen and
| publicists of other European coun-
tries were quick to recognize that this
was one of the greatest eXpositions
| of principle ever committed to paper.
| they at least gave no sign OF doing
So Presumably they regarded it as
| an empty gesture, as an ill-advised
act of defiance on the part of rebels
who must be and inevitably would be
crushed. And if so they were not
without excuse. for there were even
| members of the American Congress
| who were resolutely opposed to the
| Declaration, and one of whom, John
| Dickinson. asserted that it would not
add a single soldier to the armies"
50
ration upon the minds of London
| newspaper writer's appears to have
| been to emphasize the necessity for
stamping out the movement for Amer
| lean liberty once and for all. So long
| as the thirteen colonies had been
| merely fighting against the tyranny
and unjust taxation of King George
| the Third, the sympathy of the
British press appears to have been
almost wholly with them. But
severance from the mother country
| was a different matter altogether.
Once 1t was definitely resolved upon,
the London newspapers at least be-
came unanimously condemnatory.
| Thus we have the Morning Post
observing on August II. the same day
| on which it published it's condensation
| of the declarations:
THE Congress have acted with the
utmost impolicy in declaring the
| United Colonies free and Independent
| States, for after such an avOwal Of
| republican principles every Euro
| pean power must abandon them to the
punishment due to their villainy and
folly"
| So much for the Declaration of
| independence, of whose imminence
there was no hint in the London news
papers published on the 4th Of July,
| 1875. Now let's see what news those
journals did contain.
New York Threatened.
| First we have intelligence of his
majesty King George the Third.
Then residing at Kew, some 10 miles
from London. he had, it seems. come
in to the Palace Of ST. James on
the previous day, Eat a quarter before
l o'clock, when there was a full
| levee, considering the season." Prob
ably his majesty and his advisers
were in high spirits on this occasion,
| for the "advices" from America were,
from their point of view. distinctly
good Boston had recently been
evacuated by the colonial forces, and
| Gen. Howe, with fresh troops from
England numbering more than 10000,
was threatening the humiliation of
the wretchedly equipped little army,
shrunken from 800 in April to less
| than $3.50 men-with which Wash
| ington was precariously holding New
| York.
1.-THE next news expected from
| America" said the Morning Post on
July 4, 1875, us that either Gen.
Howe is in quiet possession Of New
York or that he has been under the
necessity of laying that beautiful city
| in ashes"
Accounts are received by private
| letter." declared the Gazetteer on the
same day, that a party Of provincial
militia on the march to join Gen
Arnold were cut off by a large party
of Indians at the instigation of Gen
Clinton, and that a certain regiment
stood the unaffected spectators of the
massacre of their Protestant broth.
rem"
| The Morning Chronicle on July 4.
| 1776, gave most of it's front page to
| long letter from an individual who