Excerpt from A Search for a Pamphlet by Governor Hutchinson

During a recent study which I have made of the currency of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, covering the years 1690 to 1750, I have examined not only all the publications to be found in our public libraries treating directly of this topic, but also many with suggestive titles which yielded nothing to the search. Nearly all the pamphlets of this period were anonymously published, the writers taking refuge behind pseudonyms such as "A lover of his Country, " "A Merchant in Boston, " "Amicus patricæ, " "Philopolites, " etc., under cover of which those who wished to do so could indulge in the vigorous denunciations of their opponents which custom seemed to countenance in the polemical writings of that day. In many cases the authors who took a hand in these contests betrayed themselves by their style as fully as if they had signed their names to the publications. Dr. Douglass, for instance, a prolific writer who took a deep interest in the currency question, in all probability never issued a pamphlet anonymously which could not be readily identified by one who had read with care any of his acknowledged works. Nor does the fact that a controversial pamphlet, written by one of his opponents, has repeatedly been attributed to him, in any way compel the qualification of this statement. One of Dr. Douglass's contributions to this controversy has been considered of such value that it has passed through no less than five editions, the last reprint having been made by the American Economic Association in 1897.

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