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Journal of the First Session of the Senate of the United States of America, Begun and Held at the City of New-York, March 4th, 1789, and in the Thirteenth Year of the Independence of the Said States. First edition. New York: Thomas Greenleaf, 1789. Signed by Caleb Strong on title page. 172 pp., 8 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. A unique association to one of the people who played an active role in creating the laws passed here. This first edition records the actions of the first session of the first United States Senate, which met at Federal Hall in New York City from March 4 to September 29, 1789. The Senate did not achieve a quorum until April 6, when both houses assembled to count the electoral votes for president (recorded here on p.7).John Adams' first address to the Senate over which he presided (pp. 16-18) is followed by George Washington's first inaugural address (23-25). Of particular interest are two versions of what would become the Bill of Rights. James Madison, proposed a series of amendments on June 8, 1789. After considerable debate, on August 24 the House approved 17 proposed amendments and sent them to the Senate for consideration (103-107). Over the next few weeks, the Senate reduced those 17 articles to 12, which it passed on September 9. A few weeks later, on September 25, both houses approved the final version of 12 articles (163-164).President George Washington sent them to the various states on October 2-3. By December 15, 1791, the required three-quarters of the states had ratified ten of the amendments, which became the "Bill of Rights."This Senate Journal is one of only two 1789 book printings of the Bill of Rights, along with the Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States. Both were printed in New York soon after the end of the session on September 29. On October 5, 1789, Francis Childs and John Swaine announced through their newspaper, The Daily Advertiser, that "This Day is Published, And to be sold by the Printers hereof, Price One Dollar, The ACTS, Passed at the first session of the first Congress of the United States of America. To which are annexed a correct copy of the Constitution of the United Staes, and the amendments proposed by Congress to the same."[1]In July 1789, Thomas Greenleaf had begun soliciting subscribers for the Journal of the Senate through his newspaper, The New-York Journal, and Weekly Register.[2] Through the issue of October 8, he informed subscribers that they could pick up copies, beginning on Saturday, October 10.[3]Excerpts[John Langdon of New Hampshire"declared to the Senate, that the Senate and House of Representatives had met, and that he, in their presence, had opened and counted the votes of the Electors for President and Vice President of the United States.whereby it appears, that George Washington, Esq. Was unanimously elected President,-And John Adams, Esq. Was duly elected Vice President, Of the United States of America." (p7)"The Report of the Committee appointed to determine upon rules for conducting business in the Senate, was agreed to. Whereupon, Resolved, That the following Rules, from No. I, to XIX, inclusive be observed." (p14)First Address of Vice President John Adams as President of the Senate (p16-18)George Washington's First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789 (p23-25)"On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years-a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distr. (See website for full description).
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