Beschreibung:

Martin, LutherThe Genuine Information, Delivered to the Legislature of the State of Maryland, Relative to the Proceedings of the General Convention, lately held at Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Printed by Eleazer Oswald, at the Coffee-House, 1788 8vo (204 x 113 mm). Bound second in a contemporary Sammelband of nine American Federal-era pamphlets. Texts variously browned, scattered foxing. Contemporary blind-panelled sheep; worn, spine and joints cracked, head and foot of spine chipped. Half red morocco folding-case gilt. The very rare first edition of Luther Martin's account of the Constitutional Convention, the only of the Convention by a delegate to be published during the momentous period of debate about ratification. Born in New Jersey, Martin studied and practiced law on the Eastern Shore. Although Maryland had a large percentage of Loyalists, Martin identified with the patriot cause and in 1778 became the state's attorney general. "The Maryland General Assembly … elected him one of Maryland's five delegates to the Philadelphia convention called to revise the Articles of Confederation. In Philadelphia, Martin's extensive legal knowledge and his commitment to preserving a role for small states made him a leader among the delegates who opposed James Madison's Virginia Plan. … Martin helped frame the small states' alternative, the New Jersey Plan. … As the weeks passed, Martin became convinced that the constitution taking shape would create a strong national government that would effectively abolish state governments and jeopardize individual rights. [He] left the convention before it ended, determined to fight ratification of the proposed Constitution in Maryland" (Gregory Stiverson in American National Biography). Martin's opposition to ratification is detailed in The Genuine Information; the significance of the work is demonstrated by its inclusion in Max Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. There was a general consensus among the delegates to the Constitutional Convention that notes and records were not to be published; indeed, the official minutes of the Convention, kept by William Jackson were not published until 1819. The only exception to this rule was Martin's work: "The Maryland legislature had charged their representatives to report on the proceedings of the Convention, and they evidently petitioned Washington, as chairman, to allow them to do so, The result was the publication of Maryland's minutes of the debates, published with the resounding title, The Genuine Information. It was the only public record of the debates of the Constitutional Convention during the period of ratification and the many quarrels of the Federal Era" (Federal Hundred). Rare: evidently only two other copies, one of which lacked the final text leaf, have been sold at auction since 1933. This volume also contains other significant works on critical issues of the Federal Period, principally surrounding the political tensions and controversies of the 1790s. The other works in the volumes are James Monroe, A View of the Conduct of the Executive, Philadelphia, 1797 (Evans 32391); Albert Gallatin & John Nicholas, The Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the United States, with Respect to the Petitions Praying for a Repeal of the Alien and Sedition Laws, Philadelphia, 1799 (Evans 35560); [James Madison], Proceedings of the Virginia Assembly, Raleigh, 1800 (not in Evans; see Federal Hundred 71 note); Joseph Gales, Debates on a Bill to Amend the Penal Laws of North Carolina, [Raleigh, 1801] (not in Shaw & Shoemaker); Edmund Burke A Letter … to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon him and his Pension, Philadelphia, [1796] (Evans 30143); Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society, London, [1796] (ESTC T178693); Charles Caldwell, Character of General Washington, Philadelphia, 1801 (Shaw & Shoemaker 267); [Timothy Pickering], Instructions to the Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary from the United States of Ameri