viii, [3]-400, [25]-104, 145-185, [2], xiv, [2] pp. []4, <>4 (lacks <>1), B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, 3A-3D4, D-N4, T-Z4, Aa2, Bb- Cc4. (8vo) 8¼x4½, period quarter morocco & marbled boards, spine decorated and titled in gilt.
The first (or second) printing of these acts; Evans calls this a reprint of the folio edition produced the same year by the Congressional printers Childs and Swaine in Philadelphia. Sabin, however, claims the reverse order of appearance. According to Reed (quoted in Sabin), the publisher T. Lloyd is said to have been the stenographer who recorded the debates. Given the fact that Congress was convened in New York and attended by Lloyd, his New York partners would have received first-hand information about the session with greater immediacy than would Childs and Swaine, thus making Sabin's order of priority plausible. The Acts also contained the text of the Constitution and the proposed first twelve amendments to it, drafted by James Madison. The first two were not ratified while the remaining ten were ratified between November 1789 and December 1791, thereby forming the body of the Bill of Rights. This copy includes, as pp. [3]-400 following pp. i-viii, the History of the Proceedings and Debates of the first House of Representatives (the copy in the Columbia Law University Library also includes that addition). However, and unfortunately, it is also lacking pp. ix-[xxiii], being much of the U.S. Constitution, as well as pp. 105-144 of the Acts. It does have, on pp. 183-5 at the end of the Acts, the important amendments, "Articles in Addition to, and Amendment of, The Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress...," twelve in number, of which Nos. 3-12 were adopted and became the Bill of Rights. Evans 22190; Sabin 15492.
Condition:
Just occasional light foxing, including to title-page, some darkening to contents, but quite clean overall, near fine except for the missing portions, sold with those ommissions.