(Kentucky)

Congress of the United States. ... An Act declaring the Consent of Congress, that a new State be formed within the Jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and admitted into this Union, by the Name of the State of Kentucky. ... Approved, February the fourth, 1791. [Philadelphia: Francis Childs and John Swaine, 1791]



Small folio broadside (11 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.; 287 x 192 mm). Stab-sewing holes at inner margin (removed from a bound volume).

Evans 23850

The nation expands westward. Kentucky was brought into the Union partially to balance the free state of Vermont, which joined in 1791; Kentucky was the first trans-Allegheny state. Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, was opened to settlement in 1774. In 1776, the area west of the Appalachians was formed into Kentucky County, which was further divided into Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties in 1780. At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, residents petitioned for separation from Virginia and held a series of constitutional conventions from 1784 through 1792. Virginia consented to the separation in 1789, and the present congressional act recognized Kentucky's statehood as of 1 June 1792.

Rare: No copies are recorded at auction for at least the past century and only five institutional copies have been located (Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Yale, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Library Company, Philadelphia).