THE COLUMBIAN MAGAZINE FOR SEPTEMBER, 1787

[United States Constitution]

Published by Printed for Seddon, Spotswood, Cist, and Trenchard, Philadelphia, 1787

About this Item

[2],[615]-674pp., plus one plate (of two). Lacks folding table. Engraved and letterpress titlepages. Later blue wrappers with facsimile of printed volume titlepage mounted on front wrapper. Moderate soiling to wrappers. Minor toning and foxing to text, closed marginal repair to one leaf. About very good. The first periodical printing of the United States Constitution, probably issued within a week of its release as a broadside. The Constitutional Convention ratified its final draft on Monday, Sept. 17, 1787. The following day the broadside version, issued for members of the Convention, was printed by Dunlap and Claypoole, the official printers. On September 19 the same printers issued the first public printing of the Constitution in their newspaper, THE PENNSYLVANIA PACKET. The present magazine was probably printed late in the week, and the final signature, containing the Constitution and recent news, was probably printed on Saturday, September 22. This is the latest internal date, on the last page, and actually refers to an event that took place on the 17th as "Monday last." From a survey of Mott's HISTORY OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES in the period, it seems that it was common practice to issue monthly publications by the last week of every month. This issue would seem to have been out and in general circulation by Monday the 24th, one week after the end of the Convention. Its version of the Constitution was executed, most likely, on the 22nd, four days after the official broadside and three days after the first public, newspaper, appearance. This issue also contains the text of John Quincy Adams's Harvard commencement address (he finished second in a class of fifty-one), which was given in Cambridge on July 18, 1787. It is his first published writing. This copy contains one of the two plates published in this issue, lacking the folding plate of the Natural Bridge in Virginia, and the folding table of meteorological observations. THE COLUMBIAN MAGAZINE was a distinguished publication of the period. Mott calls it one of the best 18th-century American magazines. It began in September 1786 and was well established, with Mathew Carey's AMERICAN MUSEUM, as one of the two major periodicals then being issued in Philadelphia, or for that matter the country, at the time. Since the magazine probably had wider circulation than the newspapers issued in Philadelphia, it is likely that this printing was one of the chief means of disseminating the Constitution immediately after its first publication. An exceptionally early and important printing of the Constitution. MOTT, HISTORY OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES I, pp.94-9. EVANS 20280. Wilbur T. Roberts, "They Printed the Declaration and the Constitution" in THE MENTOR, July 1928, pp.52-54. Leonard A. Rapport, "Printing the Constitution" in PROLOGUE: THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, Fall 1970, pp.69-89. Seller Inventory # WRCAM55477A

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE COLUMBIAN MAGAZINE FOR SEPTEMBER, 1787

Publisher: Printed for Seddon, Spotswood, Cist, and Trenchard, Philadelphia

Publication Date: 1787