1776 A Proclamation by the Great and General Court of Massachusetts, John Adams
DESCRIPTION
Issued by the Massachusetts General Court on January 24, 1776, this extraordinary broadside proclamation marks one of the earliest official declarations that political authority rested with the people rather than the British Crown. Drafted with influence by John Adams and other members of a joint committee of the Massachusetts Council and House of Representatives, it was published only months before the Declaration of Independence and outlines the philosophical and legal justification for Massachusetts' newly established revolutionary government.
The proclamation opens by asserting that "the Happiness of the People is the sole end of Government" and that all legitimate authority is founded upon the consent of the governed. It argues that rulers who abandon their duty to protect the lives, liberties, and property of their citizens cease to be lawful magistrates and instead become "public Enemies" who "ought to be resisted." These arguments closely parallel the principles that would later appear in the United States Declaration of Independence, making the broadside one of the clearest ideological precursors to American independence.
From Protest to Revolution
The document was issued in response to the constitutional crisis created by the Intolerable Acts, the dissolution of the Massachusetts legislature, and the outbreak of fighting at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. With royal government effectively collapsed, the proclamation defends the legitimacy of the Provincial Congress and the newly organized Council, encouraging citizens, local officials, and clergy to recognize and support the revolutionary government. Far more than a routine administrative order, it presents a carefully reasoned argument for replacing royal authority with representative government founded upon popular consent.
One of the broadside's most remarkable features is its concluding phrase, "God Save the People," replacing the traditional British formula, "God Save the King." This deliberate substitution signaled a profound constitutional shift, declaring that sovereignty now rested with the people rather than the monarchy. Historians have long noted that the proclamation's opening arguments read more like the preamble to a declaration of independence than a governmental directive, and many of its ideas would later reappear in both the Declaration of Independence and the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.
Historical Significance
Printed in Watertown by the prominent patriot printer Benjamin Edes, the broadside was distributed to courts, town clerks, and ministers throughout Massachusetts for public reading. As one of the earliest official American documents to openly advocate government by consent and conclude with the words "God Save the People," it stands among the most important surviving printed proclamations issued during the opening year of the American Revolution.
CONDITION
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