“THE MAGNA CARTA OF THE UNITED STATES”: RARE FIRST EDITION OF CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SEVERAL INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA, 1781, WITH THE “FIRST AUTHORIZED” PRINTING IN BOOK FORM OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, ONE OF ONLY 200 COPIES, A MOST RARE ASSOCIATION COPY WITH THE BOOKPLATE OF EZEKIEL CORNELL, WHO FOUGHT AS A GENERAL IN THE REVOLUTION BEFORE BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, EXCEPTIONAL IN CONTEMPORARY SHEEP

(CONSTITUTION) (DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE). The Constitutions of the Several Independent States of America; The Declaration of Independence; The Articles of Confederation Between the Said States; The Treaties Between His Most Christian Majesty and the United States of America. Philladelphia [sic]: Printed by Francis Bailey, 1781. Small octavo (4-1/2 by 7 inches), contemporary full brown sheep rebacked and recornered with original spine laid down, raised bands, black morocco spine label. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Exceedingly rare and important first collected edition of the Constitutions of the 13 American states, one of only 200 copies printed for Congress, an exceptionally memorable association copy containing the bookplate of Ezekiel Cornell, who served as a general in the Revolution and was on Washington’s staff before being chosen to represent Rhode Island as a member of the Continental Congress (1780-1782), this work containing the “first authorized reprint in book form of the Declaration of Independence,” along with key early printings of the Articles of Confederation and major early treaties, especially scarce in contemporary sheep.

Published by order of Congress, this exceedingly rare and important volume assembles the first authoritative and original printed text of the constitutions of the 13 states, and most notably “contains the first authorized reprint in book form of the Declaration of Independence. Two hundred copies were printed” (emphasis in original, Matyas 81-01). Along with this seminal printing of Declaration and the 13 state constitutions, Constitutions of the Several Independent States contains early printings of the Articles of Confederation, the 1778 treaty of amity and commerce with France (the first treaty between the United States and another country) and the treaty of alliance with France (assuring the French of an alliance should their recognition of the United States lead to war with Britain). “It contains a greater portion of unsophisticated wisdom and good sense, than is, perhaps, to be met with in any other legislative code that was ever yet framed. It is, in short, the book which may be considered the Magna Carta of the United American States” (Monthly Review). Constitutional scholars, such as Adams in First American Constitutions (2001), have demonstrated the vital influence of state constitutions on the 1787 Federal Constitution. First edition: mispagination as issued of page 208 as “108.” While the imprint reads Philadelphia, this volume was actually published by Bailey in Lancaster, where he had moved with Congress after the British occupation of Philadelphia began in September 1781. Exceptionally scarce, with copies located in the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale of France, the Library of Congress, American Antiquarian Society, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Rosenbach Museum, Princeton, Yale, Columbia and Harvard. Sabin 16086. Howes C716. Evans 17390. ESTC W20083. Adams 81-741. NYU Law Catalogue, 47. This rare association copy possesses an especially distinctive provenance in containing the owner bookplate of Ezekiel Cornell, who represented Rhode Island as a delegate to the U.S. Continental Congress from 1780 to 1782 after leading his fellow Americans into battle as a general in the Revolution. A self-educated mechanic, Cornell was appointed Deputy Adjutant General in October 1776 and then was made Brigadier General, serving until 1780 when he became a member of the Continental Congress the same year as James Madison. “Cornell participated in the siege of Boston as well as the action in and around New York and Long Island. As to the latter, while in Hempstead, Cornell transformed an Episcopal Church (St. George’s) into his headquarters and ordered the pastor to refrain from saying any prayers for the king or the royal family. Later that year, Cornell was with Washington’s staff during the attack against Trenton in December 1776 and Princeton in early January 1777” (Hannings, American Revolutionary War Leaders, 81). Major General Nathanael Greene early appointed Cornell one of his aides, along with Thomas Paine (who he nicknamed “Common Sense”). Cornell, “a dependable disciplinarian,” was similarly dubbed “Old Snarl” (Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 34). This copy additionally contains the owner bookplate of Seth Davenport, Jr., possibly the great-great-grandfather of President William Howard Taft, whose mother was “a daughter of Samuel Davenport Torrey, who was the son of William Torrey and Anna Davenport. Anna Davenport was the daughter of Seth Davenport (son of Samuel), and Chloe Daniels” (Washburn, Ancestry of William Howard Taft). Early owner signature of Weatherspoon dated “98.” Small bit of early annotation, marginalia. Trace of plate removal to initial blank and gutter edge of title page.

Text professionally but lightly cleaned; original rear endpapers with a bit of wormholing. An extremely good copy in handsome contemporary sheep of this foundational work in America’s constitutional history.