Publishing and Publicizing the Declaration of Independence Virginia Gazette
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- July 19-26 1776
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Virginia Gazette
Alexander Purdie's Virginia Gazette (Friday, July 19, 1776) briefly noted the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by Congress.
On Saturday, July 20, the Council of the State of Virginia ordered that the full text be published, and it appeared in John Dixon and William Hunter's Virginia Gazette that same day. Dixon and Hunter had established their newspaper a year earlier with the motto "Always for Liberty and the Public Good."
The Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Williamsburg on July 25, at the Capitol, the Courthouse and the Palace "amidst the acclamations of the people, accompanied by firing of cannon and musketry, the several regiments of continental troops having been paraded on that solemnity". Alexander Purdie included the full text in his Virginia Gazette issue dated July 26.