Seth Kaller, Inc.

Dunlap and Claypoole had printed the official drafts and final text of the Constitution for the just-completed Philadelphia Convention. This important issue features a report on the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, the day the delegates signed the U.S. Constitution.

[CONSTITUTION]. The Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser, September 18, 1787. Philadelphia: John Dunlap and David C. Claypoole. 4 pp. 11½ x 18½ in.

Inventory #26498       Price: $12,000

Excerpt
“We have the heart-felt pleasure to inform our fellow citizens that the Fœderal Convention adjourned yesterday, having completed the object of their deliberations— And we hear that Major W. Jackson, the secretary of that honorable body, leaves this city for New-York, this morning, in order to lay the great result of their proceedings before the United States in Congress” (p3/c1)

Historical Background
Delegates from seven states, soon joined by five more, assembled in convention in Independence Hall in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787, to consider modifications to the government of the Articles of Confederation, which had governed the new nation since 1781. From the beginning, several delegates, notably James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, hoped to create an entirely new framework of government rather than revising the old one. Fifty-five delegates from twelve states (all but Rhode Island) attended at least part of the Convention.

Over the next four months, the delegates drafted an entirely new frame of government. The Committee of Style produced the final version in early September, and on September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the document. Thirteen others left before the final ceremony, and three who remained refused to sign it because of their opposition to a strong federal government.

In a short speech on the final day, Pennsylvania delegate Benjamin Franklin said, “I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them.... I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution.... It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies....”

Additional Content
This issue also includes foreign news from Vienna, Brussels, Cleves, and London (p2/c1-2); a Board of Treasury notice of western lands to be sold (per the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (p1/cw); proceedings of the Pennsylvania General Assembly (p2/c2-4); news of the availability of a mezzotint print of George Washington, taken from a portrait painted by Charles Wilson Peale “since the sitting of the Convention” (p3/c1); and a variety of advertisements and notices, including one advertising “To the Curious. Just arrived from the Coast of Africa, A Camel; Full grown, and near twenty-one hands high...and of which, there has not been one in this city for near 50 years” available for viewing (p4/c2), and another offering a $10 reward for the return of a German indentured servant (p4/c4).

Pennsylvania Packet, or the General Advertiser was established by John Dunlap (1747-1812) in Philadelphia in 1771 as a weekly newspaper. In 1776, Dunlap became the official printer for the Continental Congress, and printed the first copies of the Declaration of Independence. In 1777-1778, during the British occupation of Philadelphia, the newspaper moved to Lancaster. Around 1780, David C. Claypoole became Dunlap’s partner. In 1784, the Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser became the first successful daily newspaper published in the United States. Dunlap was first to print the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and the first to publish George Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796. It had a variety of additional name changes, including Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser (1791-93), Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (1793-95), and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (1796-1800). In 1800, Zachariah Poulson purchased the newspaper and renamed it Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, the name it carried until sold in 1839.

Condition: Centerfold has been restored; minor chipping to edges and toning at bottom of second sheet; overall, very good.