1. The Alarm. Number V is the last of a series of five topical essays published by Hampden, Pseudonym, in 1773. Each of the five essays was published in the month of October. Number V, like the prior Hampden essays, was published in New York, only once, and in only one edition. This is one of a number of pamphlets, folios, advertisements, and broadsides that were published in the Colonies prior to the culmination of the American Revolution. This publication comes after Great Britain's imposed Proclamation of 1763, the Stamp Act (1765), the Declaratory Act (1766) and the Townshend Acts (1767) on the Colonies. As these Acts were issued by Great Britain, publications by authors—such as Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, and the Sons of Liberty—attempted to help repeal the Acts and spread awareness amongst the Americans in general.
[...] The larger aim of the document is to inculcate support among Colonists for repeals to the British taxation Acts. In effect, the author intends to generate a greater body of dissidents to the Crown due to the Crown's unfair taxation practices. To those Americans already familiar with its teachings, the Alarm V further supports their radical mindset. To those Americans unfamiliar with, ignorant of, or undecided upon its teachings, it is an attempt to persuade their mindset toward the radical side. [...]
[...] Great Britain is the cruel tyrant “playing this High Game to enslave and the Americans are given the chance to choose their fate at this seemingly crucial point in history: value the envied blessings you enjoy, purchased by the perillous [sic] toil and stern virtue of your ancestors . remember you have no America to flee to for asylum. Here you must be free men, or the most abject and mortified slaves. There is no alternative; therefore, stand firm, acquit yourselves like free men, who value liberty and life alike. [...]
[...] Hampden takes the time to explore the nuances of the Acts imposed on the Americans, and reasons a conclusion from his observations: Why are you told duty will be paid in England,' that is, three pence sterling robbed from you, paid there, is not robbery because it is not taken from you here? This is logical reasoning indeed! It hath long been agreed among all men of understanding, that names do not alter things. But you are now told Place does, that is, what is robbery in one place is not robbery in another. [...]
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