Gazette of the United States
Unmasking the Hidden Authors and the Mysterious Deaths of the Early Republic
Preface: Common Sense, Republicus, and The Fall of British Tyranny
What do these three things from our Preface's title have in common? They were all written by Thomas Paine.
The advertisement, below, for the tragi-comedy play, titled The Fall of British Tyranny appeared in the column directly adjacent to the Republicus letter, published in the June 29, 1776, issue of the Philadelphia Evening Post.
Paine's authoring of the famous Common Sense pamphlet is not up for debate. The idea that he was behind the now famous Republicus letter, which named our nation the "United States of America" and our Founding document the "Declaration of Independence," is becoming well accepted by modern historians.
But that third one, The Fall of British Tyranny (The Fall), is currently being attributed to John Leacock. Before we proceed further - with solving some of the greatest mysteries of the early republic - it is essential that we first establish, as fact, that it was Paine that authored The Fall of British Tyranny.
Why is the establishment of that, as fact, so important to establish for this project? It is because The Fall pamphlet is a foundational piece of evidence for many of the initial cases that we will be presenting. In essence, if Thomas Paine did not write The Fall, then this new Gazette of the United States will have lost its authority as a truth seeker.
Professor Carla Mulford, Associate Professor of English at Penn State, believes that the play's author, and the person that placed this ad, was a fellow named John Leacock. We humbly disagree with the professor, and we now offer our own conclusions about the identification of the play's author.
John Leacock, the Philadelphia coroner, has a literary history that is virtually non-existent. For him to have authored The Fall of British Tyranny, is extremely unlikely. Especially, when you consider that Thomas Paine was in town, and that there is a plethora of extant evidence that literally screams that the play was written by Paine.
We will start the plethora of evidence in support of Paine being the author of The Fall of British Tyranny. Then, we will explain why the evidence used by modern historians to credit John Leacock is completely flawed.
Firstly, the play sounds precisely like Paine - his grammatic pattern, and his humor, are almost impossible to miss.
Secondly, there are three references, within the play itself, in All CAPS, to the recently written, blockbuster, Independence igniting, patriot making pamphlet, titled Common Sense.
From the end of the play's PREFACE:
"Happy then for American in these fluctuating times, she is not without her Solomons, who see the necessity of heark'ning to reason, and listening to the voice of COMMON SENSE."
From the end of the play's PREFACE:
"Happy then for American in these fluctuating times, she is not without her Solomons, who see the necessity of heark'ning to reason, and listening to the voice of COMMON SENSE."
From the play's PROLOGUE,
"What scene?--- Why blood!--- What act?--- Fight and be free!
Or be ye slaves--- and give up liberty!
Blest Continent, while groaning nations round
Bend to the servile yoke, ignobly bound,
May ye be free--- nor never be opprest
By murd'ring tyrants, but a land of rest!
What say ye to't? what says the audience?
Methinks I hear some whisper COMMON SENSE
From the play's EPILOGUE,
"Let's act in earnest, not with vain pretence,
Adopt the language of sound COMMON SENSE,
And with one voice proclaim INDEPENDENCE."
The three lines, in the above quote block, were bracketed together by the author. Good grief! Could Thomas Paine have screamed, to his colonial day audience, any louder, that This play was written by the same author that gave you Common Sense!
Thirdly, and this is probably the strongest evidence that Thomas Paine was undoubtedly the author of The Fall of British Tyranny. There exists a bibliographic work, written in 1893, titled The First Century of German Printing in America, 1728-1830.[2] The compilation was written by Oswald Seidensticker (love that name), and is sectioned by year, location, and publisher.
In the 1776, Philadelphia section, is the sub-section for German printing partners, Melchor Steiner & Carl Cist. It is the list of everything that the pair published during the year 1776. Here's a condensed, enumerated list of the published works, along with an image of the page beneath it.
1776. Philadelphia, Melchor Steiner and Carl Cist.
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Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, (German translation).
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Call for volunteers and offer of bounties, (German translation?).
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Proceedings of the Provincial Conference at Carpenter's Hall, June 18, 1776.
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The Fall of British Tyranny: or, American Liberty triumphant. (Anonymous)
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Four letters on interesting subjects, (Accredited to Paine by modern historians).
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The American Crisis, Number I. by the author of Common Sense, Thomas Paine. A note added to the sixth entry: "Three others [The American Crisis, II, III, IV] appeared in 1777."
Numbers 2 and 3 are legislative works. Numbers 1, 5, and 6 are known to be works by Paine.
By the end of this exposé, historians will know that Paine also wrote number 4, the 1776 "Tragi-Comedy" play, called The Fall of British Tyranny.
Thus far we have looked at the evidence in favor of Paine's authorship. It is factual, and, essentially, unassailable.
Let us now look at the flawed evidence that modern historians have relied upon to claim that John Leacock, Philadelphia's super busy coroner; wine planter; and engraver; had time to write The Fall of British Tyranny.
The history of the play's attribution went awry on October 4, 1954, when The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (PMHB), a scholarly historical journal published a study, titled "John Leacock and The Fall of British Tyranny," by James Dallett Jr.
The first 10 pages of Dallett's 19 page publication are biographical and never even mention the play. When he does finally get around to mentioning it, he offers his conclusion in the strangest way:
In January, 1776, nine years earlier, Common Sense appeared in Philadelphia, the vanguard of an extensive Revolutionary literature. The sentiments of Tom Paine strongly influenced the writing of a patriotic drama, The Fall of British Tyranny: or, American Liberty Triumphant which was sent rolling from the press sometime during the two months following. . . It was a smashing success, and it seems to have been current knowledge in Philadelphia that behind the pseudonym of "Dick Rifle," by whom the dedication was signed, stood the author, John Leacock.
With that declaration now committed to, Dallett begins to present the "evidence" that brought him to that conclusion. There is so much flawed evidence in Dallett's finding it's difficult to know where to start. Here's an enumerated list of Dallett's, so called evidence.
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The first printed attribution of the authorship of The Fall of British Tyranny to John Leacock was made by John Fanning Watson, the Philadelphia historian, in the 1850 edition of his Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time. Watson quotes certain "J.H.J., of Cheviot, Ohio," who "had been a youth at Philadelphia in the period of the Revolution," and who had written to Watson in Philadelphia (sometime between 1823 and 1849): " 'The Medley' was written, I was told, by Joseph Lacock, Coroner. He wrote also a play, with good humour, called 'British Tyranny' I have several American plays."
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The next bibliographer to mention John Leacock was Joseph Sabin, who, in 1878, recorded positively that Leacock was the author of The Fall of 'British Tyranny. Sabin's source was Watson, but he had ascertained from another authority that John Leacock, not Joseph, was the dramatist.
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Most significant of all is the following memorandum, written under date of July 20, 1781, in the commonplace book: "Left with Mr. Walter to Sell 24 dozens of Plays at 8 dollars per Piece 1 Copperplate Sam Leacock has it Left with Mr. Bernard some plays to Sell 12 dozen." Evidently John Leacock sought to realize some return on excess copies of his play or plays by leaving them with booksellers to be sold. The back cover of the same ledger recorded pay mention nine music books which he had sold to William Caman, and on December 29, 1781, Leacock listed the contents of his library in a memorandum. The last item was "A Bundle of Plays & Pamphlets."
Dallett mentions several late nineteenth, and early twentieth, century historians that have joined the Leacock bandwagon, including Joseph Sabin, in 1868; Charles R. Hildeburn, in 1886; George O. Seilhame, in 1889; Paul Leicester Ford, in 1893; Oscar Wegelin, in 1900; and Montrose J. Moses, in 1918.
Moses cites Sabin as his source. Who does Sabin cite? According to Dallett, " Sabin's source was Watson, but he had ascertained from another authority that John Leacock, not Joseph, was the dramatist. He may have assumed this from seeing Leacock's name in Dunlap, Rees, or Durang, but it is probable that he acquired his information elsewhere or he would have mentioned The Disappointment in the Leacock catalogue."
So, the chain of custody, of this historical information, leads modern historians back to one very weird set of letters sent to John Fanning Watson, in the 1840's, by a man reminiscing about rumors circulating around Philadelphia when he was between 10 and 20 years old?
If you have already read Watson's entire compilation of J.H.J's letters, then you realize he was struggling mightily to bring back those youthful memories.
He identified the wrong Leacock brother. He spelled Leacock's last name wrong, And, worst of all, his information was second hand, "I was told . . ."
That is not evidence in favor of Leacock's authorship. It is precisely the opposite, as it is entirely based on vague memmories and anecdotal family lore. NARA, the Gatekeepers of Fake History, fail this time; big time.
