United States Constitution | Very likely the earliest pamphlet printing of the Constitution

United States Constitution

Proceedings of the Fœderal Convention, held at Philadelphia, in the Year 1787, and the Twelfth Year of American Independence. Philadelphia: Printed by T. Bradford, in Front-street, four doors below the Coffee-House, 1787

8vo (177 x 108 mm, preserving deckle on many edges). Self-wrappers, pinned at central fold, possibly as issued (no evidence of stitching or sewing). Half blue morocco slipcase, chemise.      

The extremely rare first Bradford pamphlet printing of the Constitution—and very likely the earliest pamphlet printing overall—preserved in the freshest possible "as issued" condition. Thomas Bradford first printed the Constitution in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Journal, on 19 September, two days after it had been adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. According to Rapport, Bradford then reset the type to produce the present 15-page pamphlet, which was published before 29 September, as it included only the text of the Constitution, the resolutions of the Constitutional Convention, and the 17 September letter of George Washington as President of the Convention transmitting the document to the President of the Continental Congress.

On 28 September, the Continental Congress in turn passed a resolution that the Constitution and its accompanying documents be submitted to the legislatures of the several states in order that the Constitution be likewise submitted to a convention of delegates chosen by the people of each state. On 29 September the Pennsylvania General Assembly acted swiftly and called for a state convention to ratify the Constitution; the representatives elected for that purpose were to assemble in Philadelphia by the third week of November 1787. Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the Constitution by a two-to-one vote of its convention on 12 December 1787. Bradford subsequently issued a 16-page imprint on or shortly after 29 September, that incorporated the resolutions of the Continental Congress and the Pennsylvania Assembly with the Constitution (Evans 20794).

Both of Bradford's pamphlet publications of the Constitution are very rare, and we can trace only one copy of each in the auction records for more than a century. We sold the last copy of the second Bradford imprint to appear at auction (the Library of Laird U. Park Jr., 29 November 2000, lot 361, $41,000; this copy had previously been sold at Parke-Bernet in 1940). However, evidently no copy of the first Bradford pamphlet printing has appeared at auction since the Henry F. De Puy sale at Anderson Galleries in 1920.

REFERENCE

ESTC W6758; Evans 20808; cf. Rapport, "Printing the Constitution: The Convention and Newspaper Imprints, August–November 1787," in Journal of the National Archives 2:2 (1970)