BILL OF RIGHTS. PRINTED IN THE COLUMBIAN CENTINEL. BOSTON: 14 MARCH 1792

Bifolium (16 3/4 x 10 1/2 in.; 428 x 267 mm). 4pp.; separated at the spine and re-hinged, some loss to center margin, and some staining.  

Frederic Hudson. Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 1872. 1873; p.147

This issue contains the twelve proposed Constitutional amendments that Congress sent to the states for ratification. Following Virginia’s vote in December 1791, the required number of states had passed ten of the twelve amendments. On March 1, 1792, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson sent a circular to the governors of the states including the articles that had been ratified, which became the Bill of Rights. , as well as the two proposed amendments that had not been ratified, which were still in question, as the action of the Massachusetts legislature in 1790 had not been transmitted to Jefferson. Both houses of the Massachusetts legislature had approved proposed amendments three through eleven in February 1790, but that was not reported to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, nor to Thomas Jefferson.

The Columbian Centinel was "the most influential and enterprising paper in Massachusetts after the Revolution" (Hudson 147), and until around 1800 its circulation was the largest in Boston.