THE VIEW FROM THE CONTINENT

  

20. Isaac de Pinto, 1715-1787. Lettre de Mr. ***** a Mr. S. B. docteur en médecine à Kingston, dans la Jamaïque, au sujet des troubles qui agitent actuellement toute l'Amérique Septentrionale. A La Haye: Chez Pierre-Frederic Gosse, libraire de la Cour., M. DCC. LXXVI.

 

21. Observations d'un homme impartial sur la lettre de Mr. ***** à Mr. S. B. docteur en médécine a Kingston dans la Jamaique, etc. Londres: [s.n.], 1776.

 

22. Isaac de Pinto, 1715-1787. Seconde lettre de M. de Pinto, a l'occasion des troubles des colonies, contenant des réflexions politiques sur les suites de ces troubles, & sur l'etat actuel de l'Angleterre. A La Haye: Chez Pierre-Frédéric Gosse, libraire de la Cour., M. DCC. LXXVI.

 

23. Nouvelles observations, sur la seconde lettre de Mr. de Pinto, a l'occasion des troubles de l'Amerique Septentrionalle. Londres. : [s.n.], 1776.

  

24. Isaac de Pinto, 1715-1787. Reponse de Mr. J. de Pinto, aux observations d'un homme impartial, sur la lettre à Mr. S. B., docteur en médecine à Kingston dans la Jamaïque, au sujet des troubles qui agitent actuellement toute l'Amérique Septentrionale. A La Haye: Chez Pierre-Frederic Gosse, libraire de la Cour., MDCCLXXVI.

Europeans were by no means silent on the American Controversy. Among the most vocal proponents in favor of Great Britain was Isaac de Pinto. Pinto was a Dutch Jew of Portuguese descent, who corresponded widely with Enlightenment philosophers. His best known works are the Apologie pour la nation juive (1762), a direct response to what he considered Voltaire's criticism of Judaism, and, following his bankruptcy due to speculation, the Traité de la Circulation et du Crédit (1771).

His Lettre de Mr. ***** a Mr. S. B. touched off a series of pamphlets on the American Revolution. In this letter, he is highly critical of the American revolutionaries, writing, "it is astonishing to see people condemn a great monarch, his ministers, the parliament, that great and illustrious senate." Anonymous respondents were strongly sympathetic in defense of the colonialists' positions. Although Pinto ultimately acknowledged that America would become independent, a bold statement for 1776, he nevertheless maintained that it would be ruinous for both America and Great Britain.

 
 
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  Exhibition prepared by dennis landis, kim nusco, neil safier, and kenneth c. ward.
on view in the reading room from october 2015 to january 2016.