Maine | The District separates from the Commonwealth

Maine

Petition of a Convention of the People of the District of Maine, Praying to be Admitted into the Union as a Separate and Independent State, Accompanied with a Constitution for Said State. December 8, 1819. Read, and referred to a Select Committee. Washington: Printed by Gales & Seaton, 1819

8vo (242 x 145 mm, untrimmed and unopened). Dampstaining, scattered foxing, and some browning. Modern half calf and marbled paper-covered boards, spine gilt-lettered. 

Maine's first constitution as an independent stateFirst settled by the Plymouth Company in 1607, the coastal area between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers, as well as the tract of land between the headwaters of the two, became the province of Maine in a 1622 land grant. The province was then incorporated into the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1650s. When Massachusetts adopted its state constitution in 1780, it formed the District of Maine to manage its northernmost counties, and shortly thereafter a movement for Maine statehood began. After more than two decades, the Massachusetts General Court passed legislation on 19 June 1819, separating the District of Maine from the rest of the Commonwealth.

REFERENCE:

Eberstadt 166:66; Kuhkman 28