Beschreibung:

United States Congress Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, begun and held at the city of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, in the year M,DCC,LXXXIX, … Being the Acts Passed at the First Session of the First Congress of the United States. New-York: Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine Printers to the United States, [1789] (bound with:) Acts Passed at the Second Session of the Congress of the United States of America, begun and held at the city of New-York, on Monday the fourth of January, in the year M,DCC,XC. New-York: Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine Printers to the United States, [1790] 2 volumes bound in one, folio (297 x 178 mm). Some browning and staining, title-page expertly cleaned removing some old library stamps. Handsome retrospective tree calf, spine gilt with red morocco labels, marbled endpapers, binding accomplished utilizing period materials. Red morocco folding-case gilt. Rare official folio printings of the acts of the first two sessions of the first Congress, including the first official House printing of the Bill of Rights, with distinguished provenance. The first session of the first Congress met in New York on March 4, 1789, and continued until the end of September. It officially ratified the Constitution and Washington’s election as first U.S. president, and passed much of the most basic legislation for the machinery of government, regulating the Customs, Judiciary, Post Office, Mint, and the like. Much time was spent on the Bill of Rights, which appears here in what is among its earliest printings, still including twelve amendments (the first two, relating to the numbers in a congressional district and congressional salaries, were later omitted). "The importance of the First Federal Congress cannot be exaggerated. It played a critical role as the body which began to implement and interpret the new Constitution of the United States. The conception of the government occurred at the Federal Convention, but it was not until the First Federal Congress began to make decisions and pass enabling legislation that life was breathed into that government" (Documentary History of the First Federal Congress). "Evans erroneously records two distinct issues of the Acts of the first session: his numbers 22189 and 22949, ascribing a date of 1790 to the latter. Close comparison of multiple copies of each "issue" reveals that the two are identical, from the same setting of type and on the same paper stocks, with the only distinction between the two being the presence of an eleven-page index in the rear, following the Table of Contents (22189, with the Index). There is no evidence to suggest a second issue, without the index, was published in 1790; indeed, it would stand to reason that examples without the index preceded the issuance of copies with the Index, as the work would have needed to have been completed (and fully paginated) before the index could have been compiled. In addition, that the Index was printed subsequently is supported by the collation of the gatherings, with the last leaf preceding the Index being Aa1, and with the first leaf of the Index being Bb1 (rather than Aa2). Finally, a second printing of the Acts of the first session, as suggested by Evans, would have required Congressional approval for the additional expense, which is not recorded. NAIP has corrected Evans’s error by merging the two records into Evans 22189, ascribing both to have been printed in 1789, issued with and without the index (as here)" (Celebration). PROVENANCEChristopher Gore (1758–1827, Boston attorney and delegate to the 1788 Massachusetts ratifying convention; signature [slightly cropped] on first text page of First Session Acts, authoring that "a correct Copy of the Constitution" be prefixed to the publication) — Fisher Ames (1758–1808, a Federalist Representative to the First Congress from the first district of Massachusetts and a strong supporter of the Constitution; signature