FOUR CRUCIAL DOCUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF VIRGINIA AND AMERICA, ORDERED PRINTED BY THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY IN 1784: THE FIRST VIRGINIA PRINTINGS OF THE RATIFIED ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND THE TREATY OF PARIS, AND THE FIRST VIRGINIA PRINTINGS SINCE 1776 OF THE DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION

(VIRGINIA). The Articles of Confederation; The Declaration of Rights; The Constitution of this Commonwealth, and The Articles of the Definitive Treaty Between Great-Britain a[n]d the United States of America. Published by order of the General Assembly. Richmond, [Virginia]: Printed by Dixon and Holt, [1784 or 1785]. 12mo, sewn as issued, uncut and unopened, in contemporary decorative wallpaper wrappers, custom red half-morocco slipcase; pp. 25. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

An exceptional copy of this rare and important official publication of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a collection of four foundational government documents of Virginia and the United States. Commissioned by the Virginia General Assembly, which ordered it “to be printed and bound together” and distributed throughout the state so it may be “accessible to all who may think proper to consult them.” The work contains the first Virginia printings of the ratified Articles of Confederation (America’s first national constitution, which Virginia was the first state to ratify) and the Treaty of Paris (the peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States that ended the American Revolution). It also contains the first Virginia printings since 1776 of two of the most profoundly important documents in American history: the Virginia Declaration of Rights (the first American Bill of Rights and a direct influence on the Declaration of Independence), and the Virginia Constitution (the first permanent state constitution).

The Virginia General Assembly commissioned and paid for the printing of this work, and page 2 contains the text of the resolution (approved by the House of Delegates on November 27, 1784, and the Senate on December 8, 1784) ordering that these four specific documents “be printed and bound together” and distributed “through the several counties in like manner and proportion as the laws are directed to be distributed; and that the Executive be moreover required to send one copy to every County Court Clerk, to be by him kept among the records of the same, accessible to all who may think proper to consult them.” The work was printed in late 1784 or early 1785 in an edition of 1800 copies, and printers Dixon and Holt submitted a voucher to the Assembly in March 1785 requesting payment (Swem, 1075).

This work contains the first Virginia printing of the ratified Articles of Confederation. (Earlier Virginia printings, in 1777 and 1778, were years before the final ratification.) The Articles of Confederation was America’s first national constitution, providing the governmental framework for the embattled new nation during the Revolution and the tumultuous years that followed. The Articles created a loose confederation between the thirteen states, each retaining its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and a very weak central government with only limited powers. Acting on the instructions from the Fifth Virginia Convention, in June 1776 Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution in the Second Continental Congress proposing that the colonies declare independence, form foreign alliances, and create “a plan for confederation” of the colonies. The Articles of Confederation were initially drafted by a committee headed by John Dickinson in 1776. After much debate and almost complete rewriting, they were adopted by the Continental Congress in November 1777 and sent to the states for ratification. Virginia was the first state to ratify the Articles, in December 1777. But the other states, fearful of central authority and of each other, delayed final ratification until 1781. The Articles remained in effect from March 1781 until March 1789, when they were replaced by the U. S. Constitution.

This work also contains the first Virginia printing of the Treaty of Paris, the peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States that ended the Revolutionary War, recognized American independence, and established borders for the new nation. After the British defeat at Yorktown, peace talks began in Paris in April 1782 with American negotiators Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. The treaty was signed in September 1783 and ratified by Congress in January 1784.

Two of the most profoundly important documents American history are the Virginia Declaration of Rights (adopted June 12, 1776), the first American Bill of Rights; and the Virginia Constitution (adopted June 29, 1776), the first permanent state constitution. These historic documents were critical precursors and direct influences on other major American founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence (parts of which “were copied more or less directly from the Virginia Declaration of Rights,” Lutz, 154), the constitutions of nearly all the states, and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Though George Mason was the primary author of both documents, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other founders made significant contributions. The Declaration of Rights was “the first protection of the rights of the individual to be contained in a constitution adopted by the people acting through an elected convention…. The Virginia Declaration was the first document that may truly be called an American bill of rights” (Schwartz, 67, 72). Most of the rights later protected by the federal Bill of Rights were first constitutionally guaranteed in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, including “the First Amendment’s assurance of the free exercise of religion and freedom of the press, the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms, the Fourth’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, the assurance of due process of law… and the privilege against self-incrimination found in the Fifth Amendment” (George Mason Lectures, 18). The appearance of these two critical documents here are the first since their 1776 printings in the excessively rare Ordinances of the Fifth Virginia Convention.

This printing of the Declaration of Rights is significant because all of the 1776 printings (in the official Proceedings and Ordinances of the Fifth Virginia Convention, in broadsides, in newspapers) have always been extraordinarily rare and are now virtually unobtainable. “Despite the widespread fame of the Virginia declaration, it was almost impossible to come by a copy of the official text in America for nearly forty years… Because the Convention adopted and published the Declaration of Rights separately from the Virginia constitution, even though the delegates intended the declaration as a foreword to the constitution, subsequent compilations often overlooked the former” (Selby, 103-4). Evans 19349, 18818. Sabin 100039. Swem 7430. ESTC W38296.

Text completely uncut and unopened, and in remarkably fresh and fine condition. Wrappers of contemporary wallpaper paper, also in excellent condition with only minor wear along edge, are slightly smaller than text pages (4-1/2 by 6-7/8 inches as opposed to 4-3/4 by 7-1/2 inches). This work very rarely appears on the market; this is one of only four copies that have been at auction in the last 35 years.