“IF THESE AMENDMENTS ARE ADOPTED… THEY WILL STAND UPON AS GOOD FOUNDATION AS OTHER PARTS OF THE CONSTITUTION”: MATHEW CAREY’S 1789 AMERICAN MUSEUM, SCARCE VOLUME VI, WITH CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE, LED BY MADISON, ON THE BILL OF RIGHTS

(BILL OF RIGHTS) CAREY, Mathew. The American Museum, Or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, &c. Prose and Political. Volume VI. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1789. Thick octavo, original half brown sheep and pale blue-gray boards, uncut. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $5500.

First edition of Volume VI of Carey’s pioneering American Museum, featuring detailed coverage of fierce congressional debate between Madison and other members of Congress in the summer of 1789 over proposed amendments to the Bill of Rights, with list of Subscribers Names including Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Franklin and other founding fathers, rare in original boards.

As Mathew Carey foresaw, the "good effects" of his American Museum would long "extend beyond the present generation." The Museum was the source of first resort for governmental information, including the proceedings of Congress, activities of cabinet departments, texts of state constitutions, major treaties and international developments. In addition to all these features, this scarce 1789 volume contains an extensive section on the Proceedings of Congress that is appended to the December issue. This contains reports of its daily proceedings, including extensive reporting on debates over the proposed amendments to the Constitution that would ultimately constitute America's Bill of Rights. Madison, encouraged by Jefferson, had presented eight initial amendments to Congress on June 8, 1789. As is carefully detailed herein, throughout August, Madison faced an uphill battle as his colleagues fiercely debated and revised these and other proposed amendments on the floor of the House. They were redrafted as 17 proposed amendments, then reduced to the twelve that were passed by Congress and submitted to the states on September 25. Though the importance of the Bill of Rights can scarcely be overstated, most of the framers of the Constitution thought such a measure unnecessary. "Without Madison's doggedness, in fact, the Bill of Rights that modern Americans venerate would never have become part of the constitutional system" (Burstein & Isenberg, 196). As this important Volume VI of the American Museum makes clear, this was a "magazine of great excellencies," whose "contributors were many of the most eminent writers of that day" (Evans 20195). Regularly featured in its pages were the writings of figures such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, John Jay, David Rittenhouse, Benjamin West, Noah Webster and Benjamin Rush. Washington himself claimed that "a more useful literary plan had never been undertaken in America" (Sabin VI:145). The American Museum "shares with The Columbian Magazine the honor of being the first successful American magazine" (Mott, 100). With list of Subscriber's Names that includes over 1200 figures—a virtual Who's Who of the fledgling nation—including Washington, Madison, Franklin, Jefferson and others. Evans 21650. Sabin 1162. See ESTC P5392. Small bit of early inked notations to front board.

Interior remarkably clean, one leaf of subscriber's list with expert paper repair affecting text but not readability (pg. 8/9), inner hinges expertly reinforced. An exceptional copy in original boards of this rare and important work.