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Journal of the First Session of the Senate

EXTRAORDINARILY RARE AND IMPORTANT DOCUMENT IN THE HISTORY OF LIBERTY AND THE UNITED STATES: ONE OF THE EARLIEST PRINTINGS OF THE 1789 BILL OF RIGHTS, ONE OF ONLY 700 COPIES PRINTED

(BILL OF RIGHTS) UNITED STATES SENATE. Journal of the First Session of the Senate. New-York, 1789.

The exceptionally rare and important first edition of the 1789 Journal of the Senate, the record of the crucial start of our new government under the Constitution, containing one of the earliest official printings of the proposed Bill of Rights—the original twelve amendments to the Constitution proposed by Congress, of which only ten were later ratified by the states. This is the official account of the daily proceedings of the first session of the United States Senate from March 4, 1789 to September 27, 1789, one of only 700 copies printed for members of government—an uncut copy. $95,000.

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American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces

THE FIRST SERIAL PRINTING OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

(CONSTITUTION) CAREY, Mathew, editor. American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces. Philadelphia, July-December, 1787.

First edition of a true American classic: Mathew Carey's American Museum for 1787 (Volume II: Nos. I-VI), containing in the September issue the first serial printing of the U.S. Constitution and featuring the first serial printings of the first six Federalist papers issued outside of New York City, in original marbled boards. $18,500.

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Constitutions of the United States

"CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW"

(CONSTITUTION) UNITED STATES CONGRESS. The Constitutions of the United States. Philadelphia: 1791.

First edition to assemble a printing of the 1787 U.S. Constitution together with 12 proposed amendments, the first collected printing of the Vermont constitution and those of the 13 original states, including that of Massachusetts—"the oldest functioning written constitution in the world." $16,000.

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Journal, Acts and Proceedings of the Convention

"WE THE PEOPLE… DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION": RARE ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE SECRET PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, ONE OF 1000 COPIES

(CONSTITUTION) UNITED STATES CONGRESS. Journal, Acts and Proceedings of the Convention. Boston, 1819.

First edition of the Journals, Acts and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, held May 14 to September 17, 1787, one of only 1000 copies, printed by order of Congress, breaking the "seal of secrecy" and revealing publicly for the first time "the Secret Journals of the Acts and Proceedings, and the Foreign Correspondence," the first and earliest obtainable account of the Constitutional Convention. This exceedingly rare association copy contains the owner signature on the title page of Caesar Augustus Rodney, the nephew and namesake of Caesar Rodney, signer of the Declaration of Independence and prominent leader of the Stamp Act Congress, an exceptional copy in contemporary sheep, housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $10,500.

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Report of the Committee... Articles of Impeachment

"ONE OF THE MORE IMPORTANT OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS"

(CONSTITUTION) (BLOUNT, William). Report of the Committee… Articles of Impeachment. Philadelphia, 1797.

First edition of the authoritative Report detailing the House of Representatives' assertion of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" in its groundbreaking impeachment of Senator Blount—"setting precedent… concerning the nature of impeachment, conviction and expulsion"—inaugurating "how the Founders generation… believed the removal of public officials should proceed." $7800.

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Security of English-Mens Lives

"A CLASSIC STATEMENT OF POLITICAL FREEDOM"

(CONSTITUTION) (SOMERS, John). Security of English-Mens Lives. London, 1682.

1682 edition of Somers' profoundly influential work on the power of the grand jury, the second of only two 17th-century editions issued the year after the first—"one of the fundamental foundations of the common law in the American colonies"—prompting revolution with Somers' invoking the grand jury and its protection of secrecy as key in opposing "corrupt Ministers of State" and those who "abuse or oppress the People… in the form and course of Justice," seminal in the creation of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, with Jefferson calling grand juries "the true tribunal of the people." $3400.

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Address to the People of Rhode-Island

"THE MOST SIGNIFICANT POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL EVENT BETWEEN THE AGE OF JACKSON AND THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN"

(DORR, Thomas Wilson). Address to the People of Rhode-Island. Providence, 1834.

First edition of Dorr's foundational Address, prompting his role as instigator and leader of the Dorr Rebellion, placing him "in the front rank of the political reformers of Jacksonian America.” $2400.

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Secret Proceedings and Debates

"TO SHOW THE CONSTITUTIONAL LINES DRAWN BY THE TRUE SPIRIT OF 1776"

(YATES, Robert). Secret Proceedings and Debates. Albany, 1821.

First edition of the revealing and detailed account of the 1787 Constitutional Convention by leading Anti-Federalist Yates, one of Hamilton's key foes in ratification, issued posthumously like Madison’s Secret Journals (1819), and also deemed "an important source of information… on the philosophy of Madison at the time of the Convention." $1850.

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Review of Lysander Spooner's Essay

"'THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY' IS 'CHAINED DOWN IN THE IRON LINKS OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION"

(CONSTITUTION) PHILLIPS, Wendell. Review of Lysander Spooner's Essay. Boston, 1847.

First edition in book form of Phillips' bold and influential antebellum work on the U.S. Constitution and the question of slavery, revised and "with additions" to its serialization in the Anti-Slavery Standard. $1600.

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Constitution of England

"THE BEST DEFENSE OF THE POLITICAL BALANCE OF THREE POWERS THAT WAS EVER WRITTEN” (JOHN ADAMS)

DE LOLME, J. L. Constitution of England. London, 1784.

1784 edition in English of De Lolme's important constitutional work, the preferred "corrected and enlarged" edition with his final revisions, a key influence on The Federalist Papers and intensely followed by John Adams in authoring his own Defense of the Constitutions (1787)—his papers containing "closely copied verbatim notes from the 1784 edition" (Appleby)—the power of "the executive for Adams, as for De Lolme and for Lincoln, was the mainstay of the entire mechanism" (Wood), scarce in contemporary calf. $750.

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