Beschreibung:

The Constitution of the Common-Wealth of Pennsylvania, as established by the General Convention elected for that purpose, and held at Philadelphia, July 15th, 1776, and continued by Adjournments to September 28, 1776.
Philadelphia: John Dunlap, 1777. [6], 3-18, [2] pp. (including the terminal blank leaf), 8vo (168 x 105 mm). Modern boards. Condition : staining principally affecting the first three leaves, circular stain on the title, minor restoration at a few corners and repairing a few edge tears. the first pennsylvania constitution, published just weeks before the british occupation: the establishment of “the first real democratic government in america” (Selsam). Meeting just eleven days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted at Independence Hall, the Pennsylvania Convention, led by its President Benjamin Franklin framed one of the most liberal of all the early state constitutions. The Constitution of 1776 consists of three sections: a Preamble, a Declaration of Rights and a Plan or Frame of Government. The Preamble and the Declaration of Rights, which were clearly influenced by the Declaration of Independence, set forth the Commonwealth’s grievances against the Crown and proclaim in detail the rights of its citizens. Article one of the latter begins: “That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” The third section created an entirely new system of government for the Commonwealth: a unicameral legislature without an executive with veto power and enfranchisement to every tax-paying male over twenty-one years of age. The Constitution elevated the status of the “common people” of Pennsylvania, empowering both the western counties, as well as the non-Quaker laborers and artisans of the eastern counties. “The attempt to form a new constitution in Pennsylvania was apparently a part of the general movement to throw off the yoke of Great Britain. But in reality it was far more than that! It was the outgrowth of years of patient suffering and smouldering antagonism; the culmination of class rivalry and sectional strife; the development of the spirit of democracy” (Selsam). This second printing of the Consitution (Dunlap printed the first edition the year prior) is preceded by a 17 June 1777 Address to the People of the Pennsylvania from the General Assembly, calling for unity under the approved Constitution and was issued to quell opposition to the Consitution largely by the Quaker and monied minorities. Both the 1776 and 1777 editions of the first Pennsylvania Constitution are very rare, with only a handful of institutional holdings and no copies of either appearing at auction in the last quarter century. Evans 15512; Selsam, The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 (Philadelphia: 1936); Sabin 60014.