THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
The Correspondence of
General Thomas Gage
(1763-1775)
Carter, Clarence Edwin, comp. and ed.
in:
The Correspondence of General Thomas
Gage with the Secretaries of State:
1763-1775, New Haven: Yale
University Press, vol. 1,
1931, pp. v-vi.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
GENERAL THOMAS GAGE
with the Secretaries of State
1763-1775
Compiled and edited by
Clarence Edwin Carter
Professor of History, Miami University.
VOLUME ONE
NEW HAVEN - YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON - HUMPHREY MILFORD - OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCXXXI
PREFACE
THERE is presented in this volume a selected edition of the letters of General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America during the critical years from 1763 to 1775. The original intention was to publish all extant letters emanating from Gage for the period indicated, except those of a technical military character, but such a procedure became impracticable when the collection increased form a few hundred items to more than six thousand. It was then determined to select from the great mass of letters, for publication, those which belonged to certain important series or which illustrated significant aspects of imperial policies. For the first installment choice has been made of letters to the secretaries of state. Effort was exerted to find and publish every letter in this series, and it is believed that there are no omissions of consequence. A rather long hiatus appears, however, extending from June of 1773 to May of 1774, due to Gage's absence on leave, which is explained in the text of the letters.
The originals of the greater part of the letters in this volume are in the Public Record Office in London, transcripts of which are in the Library of Congress. Where the latter have been used, the copies have been carefully collated with the originals. A number of missing links have been supplied from copies in the collection of the Viscount Gage. Since my examination of this monumental collection it has been purchased by Mr. William L. Clements of Bay City, Michigan, for his Library at the University of Michigan, where it is now accessible to all scholars. Each citation to the Gage MSS in the footnotes will be understood, therefore, as referring to this collection in its new location.
Economy of space has determined the extend and character of footnote references. Annotations are confined almost exclusively to the location or identification of references in the text to other letters and documents, the chief exception to this rule being occasional explanations of the names of persons and places. The introductory note which follows is designed not as a complete analysis of the correspondence, a task properly belonging to scholars who use the volume, but merely as a summary of the editor's opinion of its purport.
Other letters of General Gage, which have been of use in editing and interpreting the series herewith published, are found in widely scattered places. In addition to the sources already mentioned, copies were secured from the British Museum, the Archives of the Dominion of Canada, the Historical Societies of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, the State Libraries of Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, Harvard College Library, the Anderson Galleries in New York City, Maggs' Brothers in London, the Public Libraries of New York City and Detroit, the Ticonderoga Museum, the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan, the Newberry Library in Chicago, and the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. It is a pleasure to make this public acknowledgment of appreciation to the officials of these various repositories for permission to procure the necessary copies and for their promptness in executing my requests.
I owe much to Professor Charles M. Andrews, of Yale University, and (page vi) to Professor J. Franklin Jameson, Chief of the Division of Manuscripts of the Library of Congress, for their many suggestions and for their unfailing encouragement and assistance when it seemed impossible to carry the work to completion. To Mr. Victor Hugo Paltsits, Chief of the American History Division and Keeper of Manuscripts of the New York Public Library, I am also indebted for aid and advice. Through the kindness of the Viscount Gage, of Firle, Sussex, England, I was privileged to examine his collection of the papers of his ancestor, which yielded a great quantity of material. Without this generous permission I should not have been able to locate the sources of many documents alluded to in the text of this edition. My thanks are also extend to Mr. A. E. Stamp, Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office, and to Mr. S. C. Ratcliff, Secretary of the Historical Manuscripts Commission in London, for their many efforts to facilitate my examination of the collection.
Acknowledgments are due to the Social Science Research Council, to the American Council of Learned Societies, and to Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, for grants which made possible the assembling of the collection and the execution of the clerical labor.
|
C. E. C. |
Oxford, Ohio,
October 1, 1930.
Return
to TOC, p. 16
Continue to
next part of Miami Collection
[return to Miami
Collection Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last updated: 22
January 2001
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University