An incredible rarity with unique association to one of the people who played an active role in creating the first laws of the United States of America.
The Bill of Rights appeared in two 1789 book printings —this Senate Journal and the Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States—both printed soon after the close of the first session of the First Federal Congress on September 29. Thomas Greenleaf began soliciting subscribers for this Senate Journal in July 1789 and advertised it through his newspaper, the New-York Journal, and Weekly Register through October 8, when he informed subscribers that they could pick up their copies on October 11.
Theodore Sedgwick (1746–1813) was born in Connecticut and attended Yale College but did not graduate. He continued to study law, was admitted to the bar in 1766, and practiced in Massachusetts. Sedgwick served as a major in the Continental Army during the 1776 expedition against Canada and began his political career in 1780. In 1781, he and Tapping Reeve represented Elizabeth Freeman, who escaped her enslaver and sued for her freedom citing cruel treatment (Brom and Bett v. Ashley). Based on a clause in the Massachusetts Constitution that “all men are born free and equal,” the state’s Supreme Court upheld her freedom. Sedgwick represented Massachusetts in the First Federal Congress, in the House of Representatives, serving until elected to the Senate in 1796. In 1799, he was reelected to his congressional seat and served as Speaker of the House until 1801. Though critical of John Adams’s attempts to end the undeclared naval war with France, when Adams skipped Jefferson’s inauguration, the retiring Sedgwick shared his carriage ride home.
Important pieces of legislation passed in this session included (with dates of enactment):
- Tariff of 1789, July 4, which provided much-needed income for the federal government;
- Establishment of Department of Foreign Affairs (later Department of State), July 27. On Sept. 29, Thomas Jefferson became the first Secretary of State, though still in Paris as U.S. Minister to France;
- Establishment of Customs Service and official ports of entry, July 31;
- Establishment of Department of War, Aug. 7. On Sept. 12, Henry Knox became the first Secretary of War;
- Establishment of Department of the Treasury, Sept. 2. On Sept. 11, Alexander Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury; and
- Judiciary Act of 1789, Sept. 24, which established the federal judiciary and the office of the Attorney General
[BILL OF RIGHTS.] 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. First edition. New York: Thomas Greenleaf, 1789. Signed by Theodore Sedgwick on title page. 172 pp., 8½ x 13⅝ in.
Offered by Seth Kaller
$285,000
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