WITH JEFFERSON’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS: FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST AND SECOND SESSIONS OF THE SIXTH CONGRESS, INCLUDING THE FIRST CONGRESS TO BE HELD IN WASHINGTON DC

(U. S. SENATE). Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Sixth Congress…. Philadelphia: John Ward Fenno, 1799 [1800]. BOUND WITH: Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the Second Session of the Sixth Congress. Washington: Way and Groff, 1800 [1801]. Octavo, contemporary blue paper covered boards rebacked and recornered period in period style brown calf, red morocco spine label. $3200.

First edition of the official record of the first and second Senatorial sessions of the Sixth Congress convened in Adams’ last years as President, with commentary on the death of Washington, and with Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address. Fewer than 700 copies were printed for distribution to the government.

The sixth congress was convened on December 2, 1799 and adjourned March 3, 1801. The nation, and congress itself, underwent enormous changes during this period. Two weeks after the session began, George Washington died, and included here are the senate's official notification of the death, and speeches and letters by founding fathers and Martha Washington in his memory. The end of the first session concluded the senate's meetings in its temporary home of Philadelphia, and the second session of the sixth congress saw the senate's historic first meeting in the newly built capitol building in the newly built city of Washington. The second session includes records of the 1800 presidential election, and the crisis that resulted when Jefferson and Burr tied, with each man receiving 73 electoral votes. Following the end of the second session, Thomas Jefferson stepped down from his vice-presidential chair on March 4, 1801, and was inaugurated as the nation's third president, in the first inauguration to be held in Washington. His inaugural address, eloquent although written in haste as it was only decided on February 17 that he had won the election, is included in this volume. Other issues dealt with by the sixth congress include relations with Prussia, England, and France at the height of the Napoleonic Wars; Adams' condemnation of the John Fries' Rebellion in Pennsylvania (occurring mere miles from Philadelphia), in which armed men resisted new taxes imposed on landowners; proposals for a monument in memory of Washington; the mint; the Judiciary Act; weights and measures; and revisions in the election of presidents No more than 700 copies of each bound Journal of a Senate session were printed, intended for distribution to members of government only. Evans 38749.

Contemporary marginalia on one leaf. Scattered foxing, contemporary boards near-fine. An important piece of early Americana.