“BY ADOPTING THIS SYSTEM WE SHALL PROBABLY LAY A FOUNDATION FOR ERECTING TEMPLES OF LIBERTY IN EVERY PART OF THE EARTH”: EARLY BOOK PRINTING OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF RATIFICATION FROM THE 1787 PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION, USED TO INFLUENCE THE RATIFICATION BATTLES IN OTHER STATES

CONSTITUTION. Debates of the Convention, of the State of Pennsylvania, on the Constitution, Proposed for the Government of the United States… Taken accurately in Short-Hand by Thomas Lloyd. Philadelphia: Joseph James, 1788. Octavo, modern half brown calf, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $25,000.

First edition, second issue, featuring an early book printing of the U.S. Constitution and influential Federalist arguments in favor of ratification from Pennsylvania’s 1787 state convention (the first to convene and the second to ratify the Constitution). Published in February 1788, this work primarily consists of the pro-Constitution speeches of Pennsylvania Federalists James Wilson (who was also an important participant in the federal convention) and Thomas McKean, and it was circulated to Federalists in other states to give them arguments to use to defend the Constitution during their bitter ratification debates. Pages from this work were sent before publication to James Madison to forward to a member of the Massachusetts convention, and George Washington thanked James Wilson for sending him a copy of this work before the Virginia convention.

The proposed federal Constitution was sent to the states for ratification in September 1787. There were bitter battles between the Federalists (who supported the Constitution) and the Antifederalists (who opposed it for various reasons, primarily because it did not have a Bill of Rights) at the state conventions and in the press. The Pennsylvania Convention was the first to convene on November 20, 1787, and after three weeks of heated debate, on December 12, 1787, voted two-to-one in favor of the Constitution (46 to 23).

"The Debates of the Convention of the State of Pennsylvania, which the short-hand reporter Thomas Lloyd published privately in February 1788, only includes speeches by James Wilson and Thomas McKean, both of whom supported ratification of the Constitution as written… Lloyd eliminated speeches that criticized the Constitution to satisfy Federalist benefactors who planned to circulate his account of the convention debates… in order to give political colleagues elsewhere arguments to use in defending the Constitution. For that reason, he included only what seemed to be the stronger orations by Federalists. Lloyd's Federalist backers of course had no reason to publicize answers to the Federalists' arguments nor, for that matter, the criticisms of the Constitution to which Wilson and McKean responded. If the incomplete Debates implied that the Federalists' speeches went unanswered and were perhaps unanswerable, that served their purposes perfectly" (Maier, Ratification, 101).

"The contest over ratification in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Virginia would have a decisive effect on the actions of many other states… Pennsylvania would provide the most important initial test of the Constitution's popularity… The state's Federalists and Antifederalists engaged in a war of words, seeking to swing the unconverted over to their side. In Pennsylvania, as in subsequent state ratifying contests, attitudes toward the federal Convention did not fall into the neat categories that a yes or no vote on the Constitution required. While Federalists like James Wilson led the charge, giving unequivocal support to the Constitution, many others ended up supporting it in spite of grave reservations… Wilson was by far the most articulate and outspoken of the advocates of the Constitution… On November 24 James Wilson rose to give a speech that would frame the debate for the remainder of the Convention… He claimed that the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention confronted three alternatives—to abolish the state governments and create a single consolidated government, to divide the country into 'thirteen separate, independent commonwealths,' or to create a 'comprehensive Federal Republic.' Wilson's description and defense of that comprehensive federal republic was every bit as impressive as the extended defense of the same concept articulated by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay in The Federalist… 'In truth,' Wilson argued, final authority rested not with either a central or state government, but, rather, 'remains and flourishes with the people… That the supreme power, therefore, should be vested in the people, is in my judgment the great panacea of human politics. It is a power paramount to every constitution, inalienable in its nature, and indefinite in its extent.' By that logic, Wilson concluded, the principles underlying the new government were 'purely democratical.' When assessing the 'streams of power that appear through this great and comprehensive plan,' he assured his audience, 'we shall be able to trace them all to one great and noble source, THE PEOPLE.'… The debate on the Constitution in the Pennsylvania ratifying convention provided a good preview—and a primer—for the debates that would follow in other states" (Beeman, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, 375-382).

This work was circulated by Federalists in other states to help influence their ratification debates, especially in the crucial states of Massachusetts and Virginia. In January 1788, Pennsylvania Federalist Tench Coxe twice sent James Madison pages from this work that he obtained from Lloyd before publication and asked Madison to send them to a member of the Massachusetts convention, which began on January 9th. He wrote to Madison on January 16th: "I have obtained from the Editor about sixty pages of the debates of our State Convention. I am anxious to get into the hands of Mr. King, for the use of the gentlemen in the Massachusetts convention. Uncertain whether he is in New York or Boston I have taken the liberty of enclosing it to you with a request that you will as early as possible have it sent forward to him under a franked cover from yourself…" On January 27th he wrote to Madison: "From your letter with respect to the Convention at B[oston], I have been anxious to procure the Remr. [remainder] of Mr. Lloyd's debates to send to Mr. King. There were some pages more struck off, which I have obtained and cover them to you with a letter to be forwarded as before…" In an April 4, 1788 letter, George Washington thanked James Wilson for sending him a copy of this work through Madison and discussed his uncertainty over whether Virginia would ratify when it would meet in June: "You will please accept of my best thanks for the copy of the debates of your late convention which you have been so polite as to send me… It is impossible to say, with any degree of certainty, what will be the determination of the Convention in this State upon the proposed plan of Government…"

This work begins with the full text of the proposed Constitution (pages 5 to 17), the federal convention's resolution sending the document to Congress, and a letter to Congress from George Washington, the president of the convention. This is followed by a summary of the main Antifederalist arguments, beginning with "there is no declaration of rights," but the rest of the work is primarily transcriptions of speeches by Wilson and McKean arguing in favor of the Constitution. While the title page calls for two volumes, all sources agree that this was the only volume published, as "the Federalists were able to prevent publication of a projected second volume giving anti-constitution views" (Howes L407). First edition, second issue, with the cancel title page dated 1788 and errata leaf at rear (first issued with a 1787 title page, with only the Brinley copy in the auction records, from 1880). Evans 21365. Sabin 60040. ESTC W31192. Ford Bibliography 110. Owner signature dated 1799 on title page.

Scattered light foxing; dampstaining along top edge of first half of text block, not touching text itself. Handsomely bound.