Beschreibung:

[Americana] Acts Passed at the Second Congress of the United States of America: Begun and Held at the City of Philadelphia... Philadelphia: Francis Childs and John Swaine no date (ca. 1793). First edition. 8vo. 175, iii, (1), 178-291, ii, (1), (24) (index) pp. From the library of the first (and longest serving) Secretary of the United States Senate, Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814), his signature at front. Original full brown calf, stamped in blind, red morocco spine label, chipped, stamped in gilt, front board detached, spine and board edges dry and blistered, boards rubbed, soiled, bottom of front board dampstained; all edges trimmed; scattered foxing to text; scattered dampstaining in text edges; book-plate of Newburyport Atheneum (Massachusetts) on front paste-down. ESTC W14416 (locates seven copies); Evans 26295 Bound in at front: The Constitution of the United States of America; As Proposed by the Convention Held at Philadelphia, Sept. 17, 1787, and Since Ratified by the Several States Philadelphia: John Fenno, 1791. 8vo. 24 pp. Foxing to title-page, top corner of same excised, with faint ownership signature in pencil at top; varying degrees of dampstaining in text edges; scattered foxing to text. ESTC W37570 (locates five copies); Evans 23888 A rare first printing of the Second Acts of Congress, bound with an even more rare printing of the Constitution. From the library of the first Secretary of the United States Senate, Samuel Allyne Otis. Otis was a delegate from Massachusetts during the Second Continental Congress, and went on to serve in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1784-85. He was elected to the position of Secretary on April 8, 1789, through political machinations orchestrated by John Adams that saw front runner, Charles Thomson ruefully sent out of town on the day of the vote. He memorably held the bible during Washington's inauguration, and went to serve as Secretary for 25 years, until his death in 1814.