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Summary: With the full text of the Constitution on page 1, the first column of page 2, and the first and part of the second column on page 3, concluding with signatures in type of George Washington and the other 38 delegates. The Constitution is followed by the September 17, 1787 Resolution of the Constitutional Convention “That the preceeding Constitution be laid before the United States in Congress Assembled,” and then by the Letter of September 17, 1787, transmitting the Constitution to Congress, both signed in type by George Washington. [U.S. Constitution]. The Providence Gazette and Country Journal. Newspaper. Vol. XXIV, No. 1239, September 29, 1787. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. 4 p. Inventory# 20819 SOLD
Partial Transcript: “PROCEEDINGS of the FŒDERAL CONVENTION, held at Philadelphia. WE, the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES, in order to form a more perfect union, eftablifh juftice, enfure domeftic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and fecure the bleffings of liberty to ourfelves and our pofterity, do ordain and eftablifh this Conftitution for the United States of America…” Includes the transmitting documents conveying the Convention’s request that it be laid before Congress and afterwards submitted to “a convention of Delegates, chosen in each state by the People thereof...” Resolved that if nine States ratify, electors should be chosen for a presidential election, and that the machinery of the new government be set in place. Also, among the news dispatches:
“PHILADELPHIA:…
Sept. 19. On Monday laft the Fœderal Convention clofed their feffion, by figning the Fœderal Government. The States, we are told, were unanimous in this bufinefs. The addrefs of his Excellency Dr. FRANKLIN to the Members of the Convention, previous to this folemn tranfaction (a correfpondent affures us) was truly pathetic, and extremely fenfi-
ble. The concurrence of this venerable patriot in this Government, and his ftrong recommendation of it, cannot fail of recommending it to all his friends in Pennfylvania… The Divifion of the power of the United States into three branches, gives the fincereft fatifaction to a great majority of our citizens, who have long fuffered many inconveniences from being governed by a fingle Legiflature. All fingle governments are tyran-
nies—whether they be lodged in one man—a few men—or a large body of the people.” An article from Providence, describing the rebuilding of houses of worship and the proliferation of religious teaching in the wake of the Revolution reads: “Whilst all agree in promoting Love and Charity among all Denominations, and all thefe are united amongft themfelves in Faith and Uniformity of Worfhip, and abhor Bigotry, Superftition and Perfecution ; ... agree[ing] as Brethren,...as one allied Body againft Vice and Irreligion, American Independence will be eftablifhed, her Peace and Profperity promoted, more than by all the combined Force of Fleets and Armies,…. this Continent…an Afylum from Tyranny and Oppreffion, and Pofterity enjoy[ing] thofe Bleffings for which we have fought and bled, for which our Heroes have died.”
Among the advertisement section, is a solicitation for a journeyman to noted pewterer Gershom Jones. Historical Background:
Having just been approved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17th, the complete text of the Constitution is printed here. This newspaper provided many in Southeastern New England with their first look at the newly proposed Constitution. State ratification conventions would soon pit Federalist against Anti-Federalist in impassioned debates over the implications of the Constitution and its extension of national government power and influence. Despite Rhode Islanders’ early resistance to British authority (i.e. the burning of The Gaspee), and willingness to fight in the Revolution, their assemblymen proved the most discriminating of all the colonies when it came to establishing the Federal Government, finally ratifying the work on May 29, 1790. “In 1778 the state had quickly ratified the Articles of Confederation, with its weak central government, but when the movement to strengthen that government developed in the mid-1780's, Rhode Island balked. The state's individualism, its democratic localism, and its tradition of autonomy caused it to resist the centralizing tendencies of the federal Constitution. This opposition was intensified when an agrarian-debtor revolt in support of the issuance of paper money placed the parochial Country party in power from 1786 through 1790. This political faction, led by South Kingstown's Jonathan Hazard, was suspicious of the power and the cost of a government too far removed from the grass-roots level, and so it declined to dispatch delegates to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, which drafted the United States Constitution. Then, when that document was presented to the states for ratification, Hazard's faction delayed (and nearly prevented) Rhode Island's approval. In the period between September 1787 and January 1790, the rural-dominated General Assembly rejected no fewer than eleven attempts by the representatives from the mercantile communities to convene a state ratifying convention. Instead, the Assembly defied the instructions of the Founding Fathers and conducted a popular referendum on the Constitution. That election, which was boycotted by the supporters of stronger union (called Federalists), rejected the Constitution by a vote of 2,708 to 237. Finally, in mid-January 1790, more than eight months after George Washington's inauguration as first president of the United States, the Country party reluctantly called the required convention, but it took two separate sessions -- one in South Kingstown (March 1-6) and the second in Newport (May 24-29)-- before approval was obtained. The ratification tally -- thirty-four in favor and thirty-two opposed -- was the narrowest of any state, and a favorable result was obtained only because four Antifederalists either absented themselves or abstained from voting. Rhode Island’s course during this turbulent era -- first in war and last in peace -- is attributable in part to its tradition of individualism, self-reliance, and dissent. Most of its residents feared the encroachment on local autonomy by any central government, whether located in London, Philadelphia, or Washington. This ideology, coupled with the economic concerns of the agrarian community, explain Rhode Island’s wariness of the work of the “Grand Convention.” Those economic worries consisted principally of a fear that the new central government would be financed by exorbitant taxes on land and that the new constitution's ban on state emissions of paper money would terminate the inflationary financial scheme formulated by Hazard and the Country party to discharge public and private debts. Because the Constitution three times gave implied assent to slavery, the influential Quaker community also denounced it. These factors explain the strength of Antifederalism. Small wonder that Rhode Island withheld ratification until May 29, 1790, making it the last of the original thirteen states to join the new federal union. Fortunately, a number of equally influential factors turned the tide in favor of ratification. These included the desire of the holders of national securities and continental loan office certificates to be paid by a strong, fiscally sound central government. Coastal towns desiring federal reparation for wartime losses had a similar desire. The local press -- Peter Edes’s Newport Herald, John Carter’s Providence Gazette, and Bennett Wheeler’s U.S. Chronicle (Providence) -- all urged ratification. Such a plea was aided by the prestige and integrity of the new national leaders, especially Washington, and by congressional passage of a Bill of Rights to safeguard individual liberties from federal invasion. The proposed federal assumption of state debts was a carrot, and the economic coercion exerted upon alien Rhode Island by the new central government (a tariff and a demand for debt payment) was a stick. Most bizarre was Providence’s threatened secession from the state on the eve of the May convention if that body rejected or deferred ratification once more. In the end, a nearly immovable object yielded to an irresistible force; Rhode Island joined the union, which had left it behind and embarked upon a new era of economic and political development.” (http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/studteaguide/RhodeIslandHistory/chapt3.html) Condition: some loss in left margin well clear of text. Minor toning and evidence of old water stain, but overall fine.
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