– 16 – N e w A c q u i s i t i o n s “Congress Shall Make No Law”: 1791 Constitutions, First Collected Printing Of The U.S. Constitution And 12 Proposed Amendments, The Declaration Of Independence And 14 State Constitutions 17. (CONSTITUTION) UNITEDSTATES CONGRESS. TheConstitutions of theUnitedStates, According to the Latest Amendments: to Which are Annexed the Declaration of Independence; and the Federal Constitution; With the Amendments Thereto. This Edition Contains the Constitution of Vermont, Not in Any Former One. Philadelphia, 1791. 12mo, contemporary full tree sheep, custom cloth chemise and full morocco clamshell box. $16,000. 1791 edition of this very scarce first collection of state constitutions published after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the first to assemble a printing of the U.S. Constitution together with 12 proposed amendments, and the first to include the constitution of Vermont along with those of the 13 original states, in contemporary tree sheep. This scarce volume is the first to assemble the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of the original 13 states. It especially “contains the constitution of Vermont, not in any previous edition” (Matyas 91-01). Within are the colonial charters of Rhode Island (1662) and Connecticut (1663), the 1776 constitutions of Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, Maryland and North Carolina, the 1777 constitution of New York, the 1789 Georgia constitution, the 1790 constitutions of South Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as the 1780 Massachusetts constitution authored by John Adams—“one of the great, enduring documents of the American Revolution… the oldest functioning written constitution in the world” (McCullough,225). Also containing the 12 constitutional amendments proposed by Congress in 1789 (with a printed note dated August 1791 on the failure of the first two to be ratified). With pages 1, 71 unnumbered as issued. Early owner inscription. Pencil owner signature. Light foxing and occasional dampstaining to interior, a few leaves with expert cleaning, light expert restoration to binding. An extremely good copy in rarely found contemporary tree sheep.
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