From Benjamin Franklin to the Printer of the Gazetteer, 18 May 1768
To the Printer of the Gazetter2
Printed in The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, May 18, 1768.
In order to shew my countrymen the sentiments of the North Americans, I request you will publish in your paper the inclosed hand bill, which came over by the last ship from Philadelphia, and there is no doubt but great numbers of them have been dispersed in that and the other provinces.
A Briton
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]
2. Franklin wrote only the first paragraph, printed here. The handbill which it introduced, entitled “To the Merchants and Traders of the City of Philadelphia,” appeared in the Pa. Gaz., March 31, 1768, and is reprinted in Crane, Letters to the Press, pp. 120–1; it urged the merchants of Philadelphia to follow Boston’s example in adopting a nonimportation agreement.