Jefferson, Thomas | The Act establishing the the apportionment of the House of Representatives

Jefferson, Thomas

Printed document signed ("Th: Jefferson") as Secretary of State, being an official printing of "An Act for apportioning Representatives among the several States, according to the first enumeration" 

One page (383 x 242 mm) on paper (watermarked posthorn) preserving deckle on the fore-edge, the act approved 14 April 1792; light discoloration to lower right margin with a clean internal tear mended verso with transparent tape, the result of removing an engraving of Jefferson that had been there affixed, two unobtrusive thinned spots at upper corners where formerly hinged, short fold separation.

Apportioning representatives among several states according to the first census, as prescribed by the Constitution.

Signed in type by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jonathan Trumbull, and John Adams as Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, and approved by George Washington as President, the present broadside apportions representatives among the several States, according to the first enumeration. Beginning on 3 March 1793, " … the House of Representatives shall be composed of members elected agreeably to a ratio of one member for every thirty-three thousand persons in each state, computed according to the rule prescribed by the Constitution; that is to say: Within the state of New Hampshire, four; within the state of Massachusetts, fourteen; within the state of Vermont, two; within the state of Rhode Island, two; within the state of Connecticut, seven; within the state of New-York, ten; within the state of New-Jersey, five; within the state of Pennsylvania, thirteen; within the state of Delaware, one; within the state of Maryland, eight; within the state of Virginia, nineteen; within the state of Kentucky, two; within the state of North-Carolina, ten; within the state of South-Carolina, six; and within the state of Georgia, two members."

An extremely important record of the structure and composition of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the republic.

PROVENANCE:

The Dr. Robert Small Trust (Sotheby's New York, 3 April 2008, lot 50)