Continental Congress | The first collected edition of the state constitutions

Continental Congress

The Constitutions of Several Independent States of America; The Declaration of Independence; The Articles of Confederation Between the Said States; the Treaties Between His Most Christian Majesty and the United States of America. Published by Order of Congress. Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1781

8vo (162 x 102 mm). Lightly washed. Modern quarter dark blue morocco over blue cloth, black morocco label, edges gilt.

The first collected edition of the state constitutions, one of 200 copies printed by order of Congress. Many constitutional scholars—most notably Willi Paul Adams in The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology and the Making of State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era (2001)—have demonstrated that the political systems and initiatives of the state constitutions were vital to the construction of the Federal Constitution of 1787. The Monthly Review noted that "[I]t contains a greater portion of unsophisticated wisdom and good sense, than is, perhaps, to be met with in any legislative case that was ever yet framed. It is, in short, the book which may be considered the Magna Charta of the United States."

REFERENCE

Adams 81-74a; ESTC W20083; Evans 17390; Hildeburn 4091; Howes C716; Sabin 16086