PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION: THE CONVENTION AND NEWSPAPER IMPRINTS, AUGUST-NOVEMBER 1787 LEONARD RAPPORT
type more, going to pica cases. H With the great W set in place in size even his 'the composing stick, the compos Rapidly, skillfully his fingers continue to
|al itor’s right hand goes to the select letters, form words, justify lines, slide T
s: – upper case of the double pica type into waiting forms, fill the empty stick at type cases on the stand before him, picks again and again. When last the E it an and sets alongside. His right hand manuscript copy is in type, he pulls a
to cases, returns the his left hand with the seven-page set of proofs and delivers it to the committee. composing stick moving in tandem. His fingers select, letter by letter: When the proof sheets come back they
are marked for a dozen changes. From the
E the people of the States of first line he removes the duplicate “of”
and justifies the line; he also capitalizes “people.” He strikes perhaps sixty copies.
Then he distributes the type. A The first line is now nearly filled to the month later the compositor again takes
up composing Previously he measure of the composing stick. The com his stick. had positor inserts spaces between the words set the measure to a little more than five
inches. This time he widens it to six and a until the line is justified. Then between this line and the next he inserts thick leads. half. From the same cases his fingers pick
go and set the same first five words. Then the His eyes to the manuscript copy. He
copy—and perhaps a concept of a turns to his cases of great primer type. nation— changes: He sets the line in the smaller type, then
justifies it. He inserts more leads, sets and
People of States, in to justifies the third line, and so on to the end the the United order form
W:a moreperfectunion, so establishjustice,infuredomestictranquility,provide
of the paragraph: forthecommondefence,promotethegeneralwelfare,andlecuretheblesfings
of liberty to ourselvesandourposterity,do ordainandestablishthisConstitutionfor the
UnitedStatesof America.
E the people of the States of
of New-Hampshire, Maffachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plan The earlier printing, except for the pre tations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Penn amble, had been double-leaded. This time fylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Caro he inserts a single lead. The text with the
lina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declarc longer, single-leaded lines prints out to four and establish the following Constitution for the Govern pages. He probably again pulls proofs, gets
ment of Ourselves and our Posterity. them back corrected, makes the corrections, and strikes another sixty copies. This time,
He has set about a fifth of what is to be however, he does not distribute the type.
his first page. Within three or four days the composi of he For the body the text reduces the tor returns to the type standing in the
PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 69 forms. He has before him a marked-up named a five-man Committee of Detail copy of the recent imprint. From the sec "for the purpose of reporting a Constitu ond line he removes "to." Then and dur tion conformably to the Proceedings afore ing the next two days he makes other cor said" and then adjourned for ten days, rections. Finally, probably working by late until Monday, August 6.1 daylight of September 17, 1787, he sets a long thin line and a colophon: Saturday, August 4.
"Returned to Philada," wrote Maryland PRINTED »v DUNLAfirCLArPOOir.. delegate James McHenry in his diary. "The Committee of Convention ready to report. From this setting of type he strikes a six- Their report in the hands of Dunlop the page imprint; the total number of copies printer to strike off copies for the mem may never be known. For a day these are bers."2 the only printed copies of the proposed The circumstances of the selection of the Constitution for the United States of Amer Convention's printer are not known but can ica. Then other hands begin adjusting their be guessed. The Convention wanted some composing sticks to column measure— first one familiar with legislative printing, and in Philadelphia, then in a widening ripple Dunlap and David C. Claypoole— north to Portland, south to Savannah, and John individually or as partners— had been print west to Lexington in Kentucky. The ripple ers to the Congress most of the time since becomes a wave, crests, and in less than a 1775. Their names, particularly Dunlap's, month subsides. In that time the Consti were connected with the great political tution is published in newspapers, maga documents of the era. In 1776, to the two zines, almanacs, and books; it appears names appearing on the official printing separately in broadsides, broadsheets, leaf of the Declaration of Independence— Presi lets, and pamphlets. In the two and a half dent John Hancock's and Secretary Charles centuries since the first printing press Thomson's— Dunlap had added his colo reached the hemisphere there had been phon. Even while the Convention was nothing comparable. meeting in Philadelphia, Dunlap (who The Constitution and the two accom seems to have operated under two corporate panying documents usually printed with it identities) was printer to the Congress in total more than five thousand words. They New York. represent nearly one man-day of composi More important than experience, how tion time. They also represent for many ever, was discretion. The Convention mem newspapers of the period nearly all the bers were pledged to strict secrecy— a pledge space of an issue. Nevertheless, newspaper by and large maintained. With the print publishers make necessary adjustments and ing of the report of the Committee of De print the Constitution. tail they were having to risk that secrecy. Eleven summers before, a fourth of the
On May 25, 1787, in the State 1 of the Constitutional Convention, House in Philadelphia the Fed Journal July 23, 1787, Record Group 360, Records of eral Convention met for the first the Continental and Confederation Congresses time. In late July the members and the Constitutional Convention, National Ar chives Building (hereafter cited as RG , Opening lines of the Constitution that appear NA). 1 in the text are reproduced through the courtesy Diary of James McHenry, James McHenry of the Pennsylvania Historical Society and the Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Georgia Historical Society. (hereafter cited as Papers, LC).
70 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 delegates had sat in the same room and the Congress was spending much of the participated in the creation of the Articles summer of 1787 in New York. And that of Confederation for which they were now body several years earlier had made clear drafting a replacement. Three had been to him what was expected: members of the committee that had pre Resolved, That the secretary be, and is pared the earlier document for the printer. hereby empowered and instructed, to No doubt they remembered that there had continue to employ Mr. John Dunlap, been the same need for secrecy and that to print for Congress; and to inform they had required of the printer an oath: him, that Congress expects him to keep We and each of us do swear that we will his office at the place where they may deliver all the copies of "the articles of reside. confederation" which we will print to During July, August, and September he gether with the copy sheet to the Sec furnished the Congress with at least eight retary of Congress and that we will not imprints.4 disclose either directly or indirectly the
contents of the said confederation. Monday, August 6. Philadelphia July 13, 1776 Four persons left accounts of the hap /s/John Dunlap penings of this day. That by George Wash /s/David C. Claypoole
ington is the briefest. "Met, according to Sworn to before me
adjournment in convention, & received the /s/John Gibson3 Rept. of the Committee."5 McHenry That the Convention should again turn to wrote: "report delivered in by Mr. Rut- Dunlap and Claypoole would seen inevi ledge.— read— Convention adjourned till to table. morrow to give the members an opportu Whose fingers actually picked out from nity to consider the report. . . ." James the type cases the letters that formed the Madison, whose notes are the greatest words of the preliminary and final official single source of information as to what printings of the Constitution of the United went on in the Convention, reported : "Mr. States? The document just quoted may Rutlidge < delivered in> the Report of supply a clue. the Committee of detail as follows; "6 had not been Dunlap's partner but his
The final account of the day is that of employee. The two names on the oath the official journal kept by Secretary Wil strongly suggest that Dunlap signed as liam Jackson. "The honorable Mr Rut- printer of record and Claypoole as printer in fact. That the hand of some journeyman 4 Oct. 31, 1783, Item 36, Motions Made In whose name is now lost in time held the Congress, 1776-88, ibid.; Dunlap's account, Item is, composing stick of course, possible ; but, 146, Register of Incidental Accounts, 1785-89, on the basis of present knowledge, a guess ibid.
as s to the compositor has to be limited to Rough diary of George Washington, George
one of the partners. A closer guess has to Washington Papers, LC.
favor ' Max Farrand, ed., The Records the Federal
Claypoole. of
Convention 1787, rev. ed., 4 Haven, Another reason for favoring Claypoole of vols. (New 1911-66), II, 177. Farrand enclosed in angle is the likelihood that Dunlap as printer to brackets those words that, in his opinion, Madi son added after the 1819 publication of the Con 3 Item 195, Oaths of Allegiance, 1776-89, Papers vention journal. The manuscript of Madison's
of the Continental Congress (hereafter cited as notes is in the custody of the Preservation Office, PCC), RG 360, NA. Library of Congress.
PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 71 ledge, from the Committee to whom were it and other extant copies. It was, in fact, referred the Proceedings of the Conven the proof copy that Dunlap and Claypoole tion for the purpose of reporting a Constitu submitted to the Committee of Detail prob tion for the establishment of a national ably about August 1. Changes marked in Government conformable to these Pro the hand of committee member Edmund ceedings, informed the House that the Randolph were incorporated in the cor Committee were prepared to report," Jack rected printing. son noted. "The report was then delivered After printing the report, Dunlap and in at the Secretary's table, and being read Claypoole distributed the type. Then more once throughout and copies thereof given than a month passed. to the members."7 Thus, of the four ac counts of August 6, two do not mention Saturday, September 8. printed copies; and in the third Madison McHenry noted in his diary that the copied the reference many years later from Convention "Agreed to the whole report the fourth account, the official journal. with some amendments— and refered the Because the official journal is apparently printed paper etc to a committee of 5 to the single contemporary reference to the revise and place the several parts under distribution of printed copies on August 6, their proper heads— with an instruction to it is worth looking at the original manu bring in draught of a letter to Congress" script. Max Farrand, in the generally ac cepted edition of the journal, followed the Monday, September 10. manuscript exactly; but he did not show that the words "and copies thereof The members of the Convention, with given to the members" are interlined with their marked-up copies of the report of the a caret after "throughout." From the ap Committee of Detail before them, contin pearance of the ink and handwriting, Sec ued to discuss parts of it. By the end of retary Jackson made this addition some the day the new committee had one or time before the end of the Convention. more copies of the report corrected to show Moreover, there is other evidence— too de the changes adopted. tailed to give here— that indicates copies were in print and distributed on August Tuesday, September 11. 6; still other evidence argues for August 7. "The House met," Secretary Jackson Of the two dates the sixth is the more likely. wrote, "—but the Committee of revision Of course, the possibility that the report not having reported, and there being no was read on the sixth and printed copies business before the Convention the House furnished the members on the seventh can adjourned." not be ruled out. Whatever the exact date of distribution, Wednesday, September 12. there is in the Historical Society of Penn sylvania one particular version of the report Jackson recorded : "The report was then of the Committee of Detail that takes pre delivered in at the Secretary's table— and cedence. Although this copy has been in the having been once read throughout. Or society since 1881, there is no record that dered that the Members be furnished with anyone noticed anything unusual about it printed copies thereof. The draught of a before 1937. In that year Julian Boyd, then letter to Congress being at the same time librarian of the society, looked at it closely reported— was read once throughout, and and discovered a dozen differences between afterwards agreed to by paragraphs." Dun lap and Claypoole were free to begin set 'Ibid., 176. ting type for the new report.
72 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 the People of the States of New-Hampfliire, Maf&chufettB, WERhode-Iflaod aod Provideoce Plao tatioo!, Coooecticut, New-York, New-Jerfey, Penn- fylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Caro
lina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare and eftablifh the followiog Conllitution for the Govero
ment of Ourfelves aod our Pofterity. ARTICLE I. The flile of thU Government Shallhe, ■ The ItoitcJ Statetof America." II. The GoveromeotShalleonfiftof Soptemelegislative,eaeeotiveeod jodicial powert. > III. ' " a J Thc ,eg',o»,'»ePO»er Ihallhe veiledio a Coogteti, to eoosistof two feparate j/^^i tm* dilliofl " 1%. bodiet of meo, a Honfe of Reptesentative,,and a Seoate; aaaW 4 « ',S #W,r£ ftill, 4• y J^^.^S-y- »>iii ■ill Mfii.ii.inig.ii an ill ■■ Thi Ligdiiaii ftaw mlii liifl Mult) in n In i i
IV. SV7. h The Member! of the Hoofe of ReprefeotativeiShallbeehofeo eve ry feeood year, hy the peopleof the feveralStatet compreheodedwithio thit Unioo. The qoalifieatiootof the electori fhall he the fame,from time to time, ai thofcof the electortio the feveralStatet, of the molt oumeront braoeh of their own legislatoret.
Srt7. i. Fcery or Mecber the llnttfe orHepre'cnta-WeJhall S- ef+e age of twniyfye yeats at leaf ; fhall haveheen a cit o as the I'aitrd Statu ' !or at lea fllHCcai before h't •'• Union, snwaswansn,
Sei7. J, The Hoofe of Reprefeotativetfhall, at itt foft formatioo,and ootil the oomberof eitizeni aod iohabitaoti fhallhe laLco in the maonerhereio af ter deserihed,eoofiftof fixiy.five Membert, of vhom three fhall be ehofeo io Ncav-IIampfhire, io eight Maffaehofetti,ooe io Rhode Iflaod aod Provideoee Plantatioot, five io Coooectieot,fia io New-York, foor io New-Jerfey, eight in ooe io Peoofylvania, Delaware, fix io Marylaod, ten io Virgioia, five io North-Carolioa,five io Sonth-Carolioa,andthree io Georgia. 6V7. Ai the 4. proportioot of nombert io thediffereotStateswill alterfrom timeto time; ai fomeof the Statei mayhereafterhe divided; at othert may he eolargedby additiooof territory; at twoor moreStatei may he onited; ai oew Statei will he erectedwithio the limitt of theUnited Statei, the Legisla tnre fhall, io eachof thefecafei, regulate , tjic^oaoibc^i^ccu^fetitativetbailie oomber of inhabitanti, r ~ aecordiogto itie fjH LanlvBSBBBawxwzCiHB *tcUtw rateof one for erery forty thonfand. ;"•rf.rsj•' fl»^*viv saaKTr. t'.',.-s J*pli.-.•r;.... .^i.
Stlt. 6. The Honfe of Reptefeotativeifhall havethe Solepower of impeaeh meot. It fhall ehoofeit) Speakeraod other offieers. StvS. 7. Vaeaoeieiio theHoofe of Reprefeotativei(hall he Soppliedby writs of electioofrom tbe exeeotiveaothorityof the State,io the represeutationfrom whieh they Shallhappen. T.
George Washington's copy of the report of the Committee of Detail, August 6, 1787. Thursday, September 13. ular meeting room the Convention was oc cupying, had been in session since Septem McHenry's diary, the journal, and Mad ber 4 in another chamber in the State ison's notes agree that the new printed House. The Assembly's assistant clerk, report was brought in on this day. Both Jacob Shallus, was a competent engrosser. the notes and journal record some debate On Saturday evening or Sunday, Jackson taking place before the report was offered, probably put into his hands a corrected suggesting the possibility that the printing copy of the report of the Committee of may not have been available early enough Style and the text of the two resolutions to be the first order of business. that had originally been Articles XXII and Friday, September 14. XXIII of that report but which were now combined into a separate accompanying Fall was in the air. William Samuel document. This should have been enough Johnson noted that Monday had been to keep Shallus busy over the weekend. warm, Tuesday and Wednesday uncom Perhaps he had help.9 monly hot, but Friday was rainy.8 The The compositor, on the other hand, Convention, taking up section by section had an easier task. Type for the report was the report of the Committee of Style, had still standing in the forms and a couple by the end of the day gotten through only of hours should have been enough for him two of its four pages. to make the final changes. Saturday, September 15. Sunday, September 16. Madison's lengthy entry for the day James McHenry wrote his wife: "Yes ends: "On the question to agree to the terday evening the plan of government Constitution, as amended. All the States passed by an unanimous vote, and to ["said" stricken out] ay. The Constitution morrow we shall determine the mode to was then ordered to be engrossed. And the promulge it and then put an end to the House adjourned." Washington wrote in existence of the convention."10 his rough diary, "Finished the business of the Convention all to Signing the proceed Monday, September 17. ings to do which the House set till 6 The Convention met for the last time. O clock." In another copy, probably revised Since Secretary was no longer en after his return to Mount Vernon, he Jackson tering the proceedings in the official jour added, "and adjourned 'till Monday that nal, the record of the day's happenings the Constitution which it was proposed to depends on Madison and McHenry. First, offer to the People might be engrossed— the engrossed Constitution was read. Then and a number of printed copies struck two matters came up, though in what order off.—" The diary entry by McHenry is is not clear. One the delegates settled specific. "The question being taken on the quickly, the other they argued protractedly. system agreed to unanimously— Ordered to be engrossed and 500 copies struck— Ad journed till monday the 17th." "John C. Fitzpatrick first identified Shallus as the engrosser and suggested that an assistant Undoubtedly Secretary Jackson had al may have done the decorative lettering for "We ready arranged for the engrossing. The the People," "Article I," etc. "The Man Who Pennsylvania General Assembly, whose reg- Engrossed the Constitution" in U.S. Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission, History of the For mation of the Union Under the Constitution ' Diary of William Samuel Johnson, William (Washington, 1941), pp. 761-769. " Samuel Johnson Papers, Connecticut Historical Photocopy of autograph letter signed, Mc Society (CHS). Henry Papers, LC.
74 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 Since adoption of the text of the Con teenth Line of the first Page. The Words stitution on Saturday, Nathaniel Gorham "is tried" being interlined between the of Massachusetts had had some second thirty second and thirty third Lines of thoughts. Was it too late, he asked, to the first Page and the Word "the" being make a change? Instead of "the number interlined between the forty third and of Representatives shall not exceed one for forty fourth Lines of the second Page. every forty thousand," he now preferred Nobody's curiosity that day, however, led "thirty thousand." George Washington, the to the discovery that even in the errata presiding officer, rose and for the first and there were mistakes: the interlined "the" only time during the Convention spoke is not between lines forty-three and forty- from the floor; he favored the change. The four but between forty-nine and fifty; and Convention approved it unanimously. another "the" is interlined between lines The other matter was "the mode to pro- fifty-one and fifty-two. mulge" the Constitution. Benjamin Frank At about four in the afternoon the Con lin (in a speech quickly leaked and widely vention adjourned sine die. "Major Jackson printed ) proposed : Secry. to carry it to Congress—" McHenry done in Convention by the Unanimous wrote in his diary. "Injunction of secrecy Consent of the States present the Seven taken off. Members to be provided with teenth Day of September in the Year printed copies . . . Gentn. of Con. dined of our Lord one thousand seven hun together at the City Tavern." dred and Eighty seven and of the In- Two blocks from the City Tavern, at dependance of the United States of their office on Market Street, Dunlap and America the Twelfth In Witness Claypoole now had a firm text; and they whereof We have hereunto subscribed had a deadline. They would need to have our Names" copies ready when the New York stage The debate on this was long and at times left at ten the next morning. Moreover, bitter. An one point Hugh Williamson of an hour after its departure the Pennsyl North Carolina suggested as a compromise vania delegates were to present the results that the signing be confined to the letter of the deliberations to their legislature. accompanying the Constitution. Finally, Nevertheless, this was an easy deadline; the the delegates adopted Franklin's proposed printers had only to make the last-minute form and all but three of those present changes to the standing type. There is no signed it. reason to doubt that dawn found six-page Presumably Jacob Shallus was standing imprints of the Constitution dried, folded, by outside the meeting room since he en and stacked. grossed the adopted closing, though Tuesday, September 18. whether before or after the delegates signed left on ar is not clear. (For whatever its value as a Secretary Jackson schedule, in New the next afternoon. clue, the State names written alongside riving York the twentieth the signatures of the delegates are in the On he delivered to the Con the hand of New York delegate Alexander gress engrossed Constitution; the ac Hamilton.) Shallus also added an errata companying documents; and, undoubtedly, statement : copies of the official imprint. That day the Constitution was read in the The Word, "the," being interlined be Congress, whether the or tween the seventh and eighth Lines of engrossed printed copy is not known.12 the first Page, The Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fif- "Johnson diary, CHS; Despatch Book IV, p. 17, Item 185, Despatch Books, 1779-89, PCC, " As it appears on the engrossed copy. RG 360, NA.
PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 75 Thereafter, the engrossed Constitution partment of State at Washington, the Con received little attention. For more than a stitution of the United States was kept century, while the engrossed Declaration folded up in a little tin box in the lower of Independence was being wet-copied and part of a closet, while the Declaration of exposed to sunlight nearly to the point of Independence, mounted with all elegance, illegibility, the Constitution and its ac was exposed to the view of all in the companying documents were stored away, central room of the library. It was evident out of sight and mind. Indeed, only a few that the former document was an object references to the documents can be found, of interest to very few of the visitors to and it was many years before there was Washington."14 a printing purporting to follow the en Nothing better illustrates this compara grossed text. In 1814 Secretary of State tive lack of interest than the fate of the James Monroe evacuated to Virginia the letter signed by George Washington that Constitution along with other records of accompanied the Constitution and the the Government just ahead of the British resolutions. Although a draft in the hand troops. In 1823 the Constitution surfaced of Pennsylvania delegate Gouverneur Mor briefly in the course of a confrontation ris is among the few surviving loose papers between Secretary of State John Quincy of the Convention, the original letter has Adams (who edited and in 1819 published long since disappeared. There was a single the journal of the Convention ) and a Mem trace left at mid-century. In 1855 the ber of the House of Representatives who sus State Department printed for its own use pected foul play in connection with punc a catalog of its records which lists: "Room tuation of the general welfare clause and No. 1, Drawer. Constitution United States. the dating of the report of the Committee of Washington's letter, transmitting same to Style. Adams believed "this conspiracy of Congress."15 But by the 1890's, when the colons and Capital Letters, would have Department published its meticulous Docu formed a new Impeachment of me before mentary History of the Constitution of the this Nation, had he not found me ready to United States of America, the editors had meet him with irrefragable proof against his to use another version of this letter, "the infamous imputation. ..." As part of original not having been found among the this "irrefragable proof" Adams laid on papers of the Continental Congress up to the table "the original roll of the Consti the time of going to press."16 Of all the tution itself."13 letters Washington signed this must be Sixty years later J. Franklin Jameson, very nearly the one most often reproduced. a historian with a particular interest in Yet if anyone in or out of the State De documents, wrote: "Three years ago [1883] partment, before or after 1894, wondered when I first visited the library of the De- about its disappearance, no record has been found of this interest. In 1921 the State Department trans- " According to Adams, "This inquisitorial Screw lasted at least four hours— that Providence " Franklin Jameson, Introduction to the without which not a sparrow falleth to the ground J. Study the Constitutional and Political History had preserved the papers from which the Book of the States (Baltimore, 1886), 5. was printed, and preserved to me the means of of p. " of a complete justification." Diary of John Quincy [Department State], Catalogue of Manu Adams, Jan. 11, 1823, Adams Family Papers, script Books . . . with Miscellaneous Letters and Massachusetts Historical Society (quotations by Papers (Washington, 1855), p. 37. " permission of the Massachusetts Historical Soci Department of State, Bureau of Rolls and ety). There is correspondence leading up to this Library, Documentary History of the Constitution confrontation in RG 59, General Records of the of the United States, 5 vols. (Washington, 1894- Department of State, NA. 1905), II, 1.
76 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 ferred the engrossed Constitution and reso Claypoole, however, did collect for the lutions to the Library of Congress where printing. The records of payment are in they were exhibited from 1924 to 1952 the National Archives. (except for a period of storage in Fort On February 26, 1793, Secretary of the Knox during World War II). Since 1952 Treasury (and former Convention dele they have been on display in the Great gate) Alexander Hamilton sent to the Hall of the National Archives Building. House of Representatives a supplementary Of the men who read, debated, and rat estimate of "certain sums for which appro ified the Constitution only a few dozen priations are necessary." Included was ever saw these parchment sheets and even $420 for "payment of Dunlap and Clay fewer got to read them. The informing poole, printers their account of printing version was the Dunlap and Claypoole im work done under under the direction of a print. It was the living document that begat Committee of the Convention of the a generation of printings differing from each United States for 1320 copies of the Con other according to the training, peculiarities, stitution &c." The report was referred to and resources of the printers who set them committee. On March 2, its last day, the into type. These printings carried the mes Second Congress passed a catchall appro sage of the Convention to the people. priations act which authorized payment of Those persons who have concerned them $420 to Dunlap and Claypoole and which selves with the Constitutional Convention President Washington signed into law. De have recurrently asked: Did Dunlap and tails of the account are in "Register of Pri Claypoole ever collect for the printing they vate Claims Paid," a volume that begins did for the Convention? John H. Powell, during the first Federal Congress. The entry the scholar who looked most closely into for Dunlap and Claypoole appears on the the matter, summarized the evidence : "Ap first page as item 15; the date of payment parently, the Convention never paid Dun is March 13, 1793.18 lap and Claypoole for it. At least, no bills This evidence of payment replaces ques survived that Dr. Farrand could find. tions with questions. Why did Dunlap and There is a bill for 'stationery purchased for Claypoole wait five and a half years? In the use of the Federal Convention,' $36.00; the Second Congress, which approved the and there is the notation 'to the Clerks payment, were eighteen former members employed to transcribe and engross,' of the Convention; but in 1789 in the $30.00, but there is no printer's account. First Congress there had been even more, Perhaps Dunlap and Claypoole issued the including half the Senate. Going back five hundred copies on a speculation." Ros- even further, the pre-Federal Congress of coe C. Hill, editor of the volumes of the 1787-89 had a strong contingent of former Journals of the Continental Congress cover Convention delegates. At no time would ing the year 1787, also considered the ques Dunlap and Claypoole have been dealing tion. Familiar as he was with the records with strangers. Yet nowhere in the records of the Continental Congress and the Con of these legislative bodies does there ap vention he found nothing specific, so he pear any mention of this debt. Nor was footnoted the $36.00 stationery payment, it an amount to be overlooked. Four hun writing: "This item apparently included dred and twenty dollars was more than a printing, as no separate item for this is " found in the accounts."17 Dunlap and Record of the Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, Vol. IV, Records of the Office of "John H. Powell, Books of a New Nation the Clerk, RG 233, Records of the U.S. House (Philadelphia, 1957), p. 66; W.C. Ford et al., of Representatives, NA; 1 Stat. 339; RG 39, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 34 Records of the Bureau of Accounts (Treasury), vols. (Washington, 1904-37), XXXIII, 483. NA.
PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 77 S9
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Ajiitj Suimohs aMl 02t$ jaduEX3|y uoi|iiuej~j dtesueqre se juauiXEp 01 pE|unQ duE a[OopyE]3 year's wages for a journeyman printer.19 would put their names to it. (That these Although they cannot account for the questions were unresolved on Saturday delay, there are two possible explanations evening may have been clearer to the of why payment finally was made at this delegates in the meeting room than to particular time. The first was passage of the printers three and a half blocks away.) an act barring all claims for supplies fur If there was a stack of five hundred copies nished to or services performed for the waiting on Monday morning, the addition U.S. Government prior to March 1789 of the "Done in Convention . . ." and the unless such claims were presented before signatures below transformed them into in May 1, 1794. The second is suggested by complete copies; and the adoption of Gor- the wording of the entry in the Register's ham's proposal to change the ratio of rep Office day book: resentation rendered them useless. For Warrant 2562 in favor of Dunlap Nevertheless, an "Anecdote" in the & Claypoole, being for printing done by Philadelphia Pennsylvania Herald of No the late Partnership of Dunlap and Clay vember 10, 1787, reprinted three days poole for the Convention which framed later without comment in Dunlap and the Constitution during their Session Claypoole's Pennsylvania Packet, indicates from June until September 1787. that this very thing may have happened. 420.0020 Prior to September 15, according to the This temporary dissolution of the partner "Anecdote," the question of representation ship may have brought about need for a had been debated at length "and it was settlement. carried by a considerable majority to make What about the 1,320 copies? This fig it one for every forty thousand inhabitants. ure can, with near certainty, be reduced to In this form the matter was sent to the twelve hundred by assuming that the print press; when the subject came for the last ings of the two committee reports were of time under consideration of the Conven sixty copies each, a common figure for re tion and was about to be confirmed by an ports for the Congress. But even thus re almost unanimous vote, GENERAL duced, twelve hundred far exceeds the five WASHINGTON rose and spoke to the hundred copies mentioned by McHenry in following effect. . . ." The reference could his diary for September 15. If Dunlap and be to the September 12-13 printing (which Claypoole actually did print five hundred also read "forty"), but more likely it is to copies over the weekend of September 15- the final printing. The account would be 17, they took a risk. At adjournment Sat more persuasive if it had originated in the urday the Convention was clearly not of Packet instead of being reprinted there. one mind as to the necessity or desirabil Nonetheless, nobody was better able than ity of having the delegates sign the pro the publishers of the Packet to say whether posed Constitution as part of its promulga or not "in this form the matter was sent tion. And even if on Monday the Con to the press." vention were to decide on this method, The $420 charge seems a little high, but there was no assurance that all present given the variations in the currencies of the time it may not have been. If, as sug " Twenty-five Philadephia journeyman printers gested earlier, one of the partners acted in 1786 signed a resolve not to work for less as compositor, that fact and the special than six dollars a week and to support any efforts involved in maintaining secrecy in printer who, by refusing, lost his job. Philadelphia the print shop may have helped justify the Pennsylvania Herald, June 6, 1786. ■ higher price. 1 Stat. 301; Office Day Book, Vol. 5, p. 28, RG 217, Records of the U.S. General Account Finally, are there any documents that ing Office, NA. Dunlap and Claypoole may have submitted
PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 79 in support of their claims? The Dunlap and Dunlap and Claypoole offered the official Claypoole entry in "Register of Private imprint publicly, other printers would have Claims Paid" refers to Settlement File No. had no difficulty getting copies. With the in 3605. Such settlement files often contain junction on secrecy lifted, the delegates supporting documents. Many of these files themselves wasted little time in making survive, some are missing. Files 3604 and copies available. George Washington, be 3609 are present; 3605-3608 are among fore leaving for Mount Vernon early on the missing. the afternoon of the eighteenth, had writ An hour after Secretary Jackson left for ten letters to the Marquis de Lafayette and New York, Pennsylvania's Convention dele to Thomas Jefferson. And he obviously gates returned to the room in which they took his quota home with him for "in the had spent the summer and which the Penn first moment after my return" he sent cop sylvania General Assembly had reclaimed ies to Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison, that morning. What the dean of the dele and Thomas Nelson. Also on the eighteenth gation, Benjamin Franklin, held in his delegates from New Hampshire, Virginia, hand was, without question, the six-page North Carolina, and possibly Georgia sent imprint by Dunlap and Claypoole. The copies to their Governors. Phineas Bond, most famous printer of his time must have the British consul in Philadelphia, enclosed looked approvingly at it : type large enough a copy in a letter of September 20 to Lord for old eyes, good proportion, good design, Carmarthan, the Foreign Secretary. In and cleanly printed on good stock. It is not fact, in the Foreign Office files in London likely that he noticed the single error— in there is a neat collection of early imprints Article V, concerning regulation of the of the Constitution received from His Maj slave trade, the Committee of Style im esty's representatives in America. print's "1808" had become, in the final Most accounts name the September 19 version, "one thousand seven hundred and edition of Dunlap and Claypoole's Penn eight." Even if he had noticed he would sylvania Packet as the first public printing have recalled how often he himself had of the Constitution (as distinguished from set in type the century of which he had the Convention's official printing). Such probably seen more years than anyone attribution, however, ignores the fact that else in the room and how seldom he had the Packet was only one of five Philadel set in type the century he must have known phia newspapers in which the Constitution in his bones he would never see, and he appeared that morning. Was there a first would have made due allowance. among the newspapers? Franklin handed the pages to Speaker A tip-sheet in the New-York Historical Thomas Mifflin who read them to the as Society hints that the race may have been semblymen and to the "large crowd of lost for those particular newspapers even citizens" standing in the gallery. The text before the newsboys started their Wednes was now a matter of record and beyond day morning deliveries. On September 18 any question in the public domain. Prob Lt. Erkuries Beatty, paymaster for the ably within the hour compositors in half First U.S. Infantry, was in Philadelphia a dozen Philadelphia printing houses were buying supplies. His diary entry for that setting type. Before each would have been day reads: "The business of Convention a copy of the Dunlap and Claypole im read before the house of Assembly and was print. Dunlap and Claypoole's monopoly published in the Evening." No copy of was in its last hours. The Constitution's such a printing is known to exist. However, journey to the people by way of the print the Philadelphia Evening Chronicle ap ing press had begun. peared twice a week, on Tuesdays and Although there is no indication that Saturdays. Copies of all the Chronicle's
80 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 The Pennfylvana p
[Priee Foor-Penee.] WEDNE3D Cfc** S^YtMBaa
' E, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfedt Unj^n, eftablifh Jufticc, infure Soraeftic for the Tranquility, provide comrfton Defence, pro- ; mote — —— ~ — — — the General wfelfare,—7 and fecure- ^4i v. theiiiV. BleiTingsl^LlllllA of wto Ourfelves ;ind our do Liberty Pofterity, ordain and eftablifh Conftitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I* Set. I. ALL irj.AatitepowertheteiopMIrd fhadhe teBed,o a CoeigT'ftof theUoited Statea,whiehHullccr.nBofaSerineanaHejdrofKeptelaeruliret Seelj. TheHoafrof lleptefrotatiretfhalpeweoaoeWedof rarwrtertchoiro everytreodyear efciMhaietheooa)ifiettK,otrraai- —~e. theIfeof IMoli J •heorterted,heaoiohahitaot ofIkit Aneio whiehheAtallherhafeo. RepeefewtiiiTeiaaddirrAtasetthaiheaafeatiaasxdamoofthefrreralAttn •ioehmayheio elodedwithiaihit Uoioo.aeeordiottoH.e.rA^tsVa^Poirhert,wakhAlallhedetermtaedo•sd~- iogtoit- wholeoomherof •teeperfoot,""WMAtW■taxmoandto krv.eefor,a irrmot >rara,' ameaelwdiftgloduoiamtaaed,ihrer-nMradfanotherpeitmt l b. aAml moiorritioo#ratl hemadewithiothteeyeartafterihefcrftlaeetwaaerfthr-Cottar*ftof theUoitedSaatea,aodwithm everyfwhfeqoeattermof teoyeait.io foehbmn attheykail hylawdurfl. Theoomherot Uetoteaeeedooeforeveryifurryihootaod,hateachHateHullhaveatleaftooe teprrJerltativc, aodootilft aoooMil hemade,thelaaeofNew.Himpfhite0>»ilheeo- iiiledtoehafethtee,Ma£ar ePfctoi fite,Ne*.Yorh fix.Neor.Jerfeyft Ivaoiteight,Delawareeae,Marylaodfia,Virgioia :.Sooth-Carolioafite,aadGanrgiaihtee. ■m*freanaoydue,theEaecotiveaothoritytherred aofefeAiooto fillfora eaeandra. of lUpeeleotaliveafhallehafe.apatr, Speahar*odothereaVm, aodfhallhavethe haaeoi. f See?,a. Tkc heUoitedStatealoaoI heeompote3oftwoIntMottfroeoeaehAate.ehc feohyythet harnfaaaretheteof,i forfiayean;; aadeaehfenauormallUareooevote. Ume lnteiyaftertheyOiallhearterebledioeoancqaetKeol thenrftektVoo,theyStallhedm- dadateooaH'aamayhe otoibreecUriel. TVefeatiofthefcaatoetoftheflrfltWtAtallhevaea tedattheeapiraaiooofthefeeoadyear.oftbafceraadetafeattheeapiratiooofthefoarthyear,aod oftheth.rdclaftatth«eaptatiooofmat<»**myear,fathatooethodaaayhechwkaevrrrfeeoad year;aodit veeaoeieihappeohyiehgwahoa^c*othertn*e.dotiogthetetellof iheLegiOaioref artyHair,thetaeawtm■arim*T laorrf ayryoumoeartaaotllttMeil meetiogof tpe lvriflttiirf, woiebfhalttheoTillfaehrieaariea. No perfmifhalibeafeaatorwhoAtalloothaveaoaiaedtotheareofthirtyyean,aadheeoaiae •eartsowo oftheUoitedStater,aadvaaaaattaoa,arhooelected,haaaiahahitawofthatAate
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tekmallhavepaftdtLehoatVofrratefrpiaomandthefeoate,aVall,hrfate k ; if eaaaa a' lav, be orefewtedta tbeateAdeatof theUmiedStatea heapprovehemadbaait, it, r bat if oathemallrrrara withhaohyoAioaitommthaafemamaehdwmBhite i alleotertheohyexaiaatatUrgeoathTirp-oroai,aadproeeedit it. U after aeratiootwer-thiraaof thathoafeAtaJlaajreetopafkthebill, befeat,toaetae•»ohthe tl
hoafe, t 1 1 if ohieflioat,w theother hywhieh wmilhkearaVhetetam ill A. aad teararrdhatwa- it thoxdaaf thataoafa, ktallhexaatea law. Hotoi all Dunlap and Claypoole's Pennsylvania Packet printing of the Constitution. September issues survive with one excep amble in large type to the width of the tion—that of Tuesday, September 18. With newspaper masthead. Thus, only the mast copies of the official printing available head and the preamble are in proportion Monday night or early Tuesday morning to the page. In the Library of Congress there was time enough for the printer of imprint the preamble has been rearranged of the Chronicle to have obtained and re so that the length of its lines matches that printed a copy by Tuesday evening. If it of the rest of the text and permits it to be did not appear in the missing issue, the printed on a narrower page, an obvious Chronicle would have the distinction of gain in economy and proportion. Except being the only Philadelphia newspaper not to reduce the outsize preamble already used to have published the Constitution.21 for the Packet printing, there would seem Aside from the fact that anybody in to be no other reason for this rearrange Philadelphia with a printing press could ment. have rushed a broadside, broadsheet, or pamphlet into print in time to beat the Wednesday, September 19. Wednesday morning newspapers, there is also a very slight possibility that between With the printing of the Constitution in the official imprint on Monday night and the Philadelphia newspapers that regularly the Pennsylvania Packet printing on appeared on Wednesdays the deluge began. Wednesday morning, Dunlap and Clay- From these five newspapers (six, if the poole may have struck an unofficial four- Evening Chronicle can be counted), from page separate printing. A single known two others published on following days, and copy of such an imprint— the rarest of all from the Dunlap and Claypoole six- and the Dunlap and Claypoole printings— is in four-page imprints stemmed the scores of the Library of Congress Rare Book Divi printings and the tens of thousands of sion.22 However, it is a near certainty that copies of the Constitution that Americans this followed rather than preceded the Penn bought, read, and discussed. sylvania Packet printing. In the Packet the The purest newspaper text is, of course, Constitution occupied all four pages, but the Pennsylvania Packet. Each of the other in poor proportion. The single-column text newspaper versions incorporated changes covers about two-thirds the width of the by error or design. There are variations newspaper page, leaving excessive margins. in spelling, punctuation, abbreviation, ar The compositor' had reset the entire pre- rangement, order of documents, and kinds and sizes of type. In the days and weeks that followed, the printers who copied from 11 In the Pennsylvania General Assembly on them perpetuated these variations, thus 25, 1787, there was a the Sept. protest against making it possible to determine which of State's printing and distributing of the copies the first-generation newspapers and im Constitution: "Mr. Brackenridge observed, that prints the compositor of a second-genera this paper had been published in all the gazettes, tion had before him as he set as well as in handbills [and] it was also probable, newspaper that it would be reprinted in the gazettes at type. Often a second-generation composi Pittsburg and Carlisle." Proceedings and Debates tor's distinctive changes permit, in turn, the General Taken of Assembly of Pennsylvania: the tracing of the lineage through third- in Short-Hand by Thomas Lloyd, 2 vols. (Phil generation imprints. adelphia, 1787), I, 85. With the of " exception the Pennsylvania Clifford K. Shipton and E. Mooney James Journal all the newspaper printings of assign the printing "Evans number" 45178 and September 19 corrected the "seven hun note "No copy located." National Index of American Imprints Through 1800: The Short- dred." Curious variations appeared in the Title Evans, 2 vols, (n.p., 1969), II, 881. Antifederalist Freeman's Journal version of 82 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 the Convention's transmittal letter. This tions, letter— by running the letter first. newspaper dated the letter September 14 Thereafter, most of the New York news instead of 17, omitted "felicity" and "or papers, city and State, followed this order, injurious," and substituted "By unanimous as did some of the Connecticut and Ver consent" for "By unanimous Order." For mont newspapers, and, apparently, most these changes there is no ready explanation." foreign newspapers.23 The Daily Advertiser Once a printer set the more than five noted that "a few copies of the preceding thousand words of the Constitution and its may be had of the Printer." The publishers accompanying documents, he was reluctant of the New-York Packet, before distribut to distribute the type without getting max ing type, struck a twelve-page pamphlet imum usage. The printers of the Philadel and also used the forms to print a twelve- phia newspapers exemplify this. The Free page addition to their 1788 Columbian man's Journal type, with some of its errors Almanac. Although they made a few corrected but others unchanged, was rear changes they failed to correct the Packet's ranged and used to strike a three-column "seven hundred." broadsheet. The type of the Pennsylvania Journal was rearranged to print a fifteen- Saturday, September 22. page pamphlet. The "seven hundred" that appeared in the newspaper appeared also John McLean (or M'Lean as his mast in the pamphlet. The type stood long head and colophon had it), publisher of enough to print a sixteen-page pamphlet the New York Independent Journal, was including the Pennsylvania General As a supporter of the Constitution. His twice sembly's resolution of September 29 call weekly newspaper usually gave three of its ing a ratifying convention; even in this four pages to ads and the remainder to edition the "seven hundred" went uncor domestic happenings. To print the Consti rected. The Pennsylvania Gazette adver tution would have meant omitting most tised a separate printing of the Constitution of his advertisements. He ran the ads. In which, from the wording of its title, seems his news columns he reprinted two brief to have been printed from the type used paragraphs with which the Philadelphia for the newspaper. The Antifederalist In Freeman's Journal prefaced the Constitu dependent Gazetteer is the only first-day tion. The Constitution itself and the sup newspaper printing for which there is no porting documents he printed as a separate evidence that its type was used to print four-page Supplement to the Independent other editions. Journal dated, as the newspaper, Saturday, September 22. There were to be three Thursday, September 20. more versions from this type, including one of the most significant of all the printings The Philadelphia Pennsylvania Herald of the Constitution. printed the Constitution. The Supplement had an interesting bib liographical ancestry. Since Saturday's edi Friday, September 21. tion of the Independent Journal had pub lished the prefacing paragraphs from the The Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mercury Philadelphia Freeman's Journal, one might printed the Constitution. On this day the 23 Constitution also appeared in at least two If the missing September 18 issue of the Philadelphia Evening Chronicle ever turns out-of-town newspapers, the New York up and proves to have the documents in a letter, Daily Advertiser and the New-York Packet. Constitution, resolutions sequence, the rearrange altered the of The Daily Advertiser order ment in the earliest New York City newspapers previous printings — Constitution, resolu may be better accounted for. PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 83 expect the Supplement to follow that news Secretary of the Congress, are in the offi paper's text of the Constitution. Possibly cial archives of New York and North Caro one page did, but the remaining three lina. The account of John Dunlap, who pages resemble Dunlap and Claypoole's seems to have been jobbing the official Pennsylvania Packet or one of their final printing he was doing for the Congress imprints. McLean may have assigned sev meeting in New York, reads: eral pairs of hands to set type from the Septr. 29. To printing 100 Copies of the Freeman's Journal and one of the Dunlap new Constitution 3.10 and Claypoole printings simultaneously. October 3rd To printing 100 copies of Moreover, the compositors appear to have New Constitution 1.4 been working rapidly as there are a num Probably these payments were for McLean ber of errors and omissions— for example, imprints.25 "States" left out of "United States." The This edition— printed by McLean, pub Supplement, however, followed the exam lished by Dunlap, and transmitted to the ple of the Daily Advertiser of the day be States by Thomson— is a historic one. fore and the letter was placed first, fol Denys P. Myers calls it "the printed arche lowed by the Constitution and resolutions. type of the Constitution." Its importance McLean in his second version substituted relates to the nature of the gathering in for the Supplement's heading and dateline Philadelphia and the final product. The a two-column, two-line heading which be Constitution as it came from the Conven gins "Articles agreed upon." He corrected tion, Madison later said, "was nothing some but not all of the Supplement's errors, more than the draft of a plan, nothing and he added a colophon. but a dead letter, until life and validity On or after September 28, McLean were breathed into it by the voice of the struck a third version. It differed from the people, speaking through the several State second in that he added as a final docu Conventions."26 ment the resolution of Congress of Septem The Congress had held this "draft of ber 28 ordering transmitted to the States a plan" for a week and then, after debating it "the report of the Convention . . . with it, had ordered sent unchanged to the the Resolutions and Letter accompanying States. Then the Secretary of the Congress the same." For this third version he rear obtained printed copies (presumably from ranged the components in the order of the McLean by way of Dunlap), attested their congressional resolution— Constitution, reso validity by signing "Chas. Thomson" at lutions, letter. Almost all the errors of the the bottom of the last page, and officially preceding version were corrected.24 transmitted these copies to the Governors Finally, McLean struck a fourth version. of the States in letters dated September 28, He removed the heading "Articles agreed upon" and the colophon and altered "Item 146, Register of Incidental Accounts, slightly the setting of the September 28 PCC, RG 360, NA. A copy of the fourth McLean attested resolution. Almost certainly it was this imprint, by the holograph signature "Chas. Thomson, Secty.," is the only early print last printing that the Congress sent to the ing of the Constitution among the records in the States to be submitted to conven It ratifying National Archives. is wafered between pages tions. Copies attested by Charles Thomson, 98 and 99 in the Resolve Book of Foreign Affairs, 1785-89, Item 122, ibid. " " This version has been overlooked biblio- Myers in "The Constitution of the United graphically. It does not appear in the National States of America," Senate Document 49, 87 Index of American Imprints Through 1800. A Cong. 1 sess., supports his thesis convincingly; copy is in the South Carolina Archives Depart Madison in the House of Representatives, Apr. 6, ment, and two copies are in the Office 1796, Annals 4 1 sess., Foreign of Congress, Cong. p. collection in the Public Records Office, London. 776. 84 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 1787. In theory at least it was this version, zette whose publisher announced: "It is this particular set of spellings, punctuations, needless to mention the Reports we hear capitalizations, abbreviations, and para- relative to the Report of the Federal Con graphings that the State conventions rat vention to Congress, as we expect in our ified. next to give our Readers an exact Copy of Thus ended the first week. Monday had it, when they can make their own com seen Dunlap and Claypoole's compositor ments."28 make the final changes in the Convention's official imprint. Saturday saw John Mc Tuesday, September 25. Lean publish his Supplement from whose type he was eventually to strike the print The Gemeinnutizge Philadelphische Cor- ings of the Constitution that the Congress respondenz printed the Constitution in Ger was to transmit to the States. During this man; it appeared in the Baltimore Mary week there were ten certain and at least land Journal; and the first installment one possible (the Philadelphia Evening began in the Trenton Weekly Mercury.29 Chronicle) newspaper printings. The num ber of non-newspaper printings is unknown, Wednesday, September 26. but it probably exceeded the newspaper printings. The Constitution again appeared in Ger man, this time in the Neue Unpartheyische Sunday, September 23. Lancaster Zeitung. The Carlisle Gazette printed it, but lacked space for the resolu In 1787 no newspapers were published it tions and the letter; these issued in a on Sundays. broadside as a Postscript to the issue of the twenty-sixth. The Constitution appeared Monday, September 24. in Elizabethtown in the New-J ersey The Poughkeepsie Country The Pennsylvania General Assembly or Journal. Jour nal received the of the Grand dered the Constitution printed and "dis "Proceedings Convention, which and ar tributed throughout this state, for the in being lengthy late, we have time to formation of the inhabitants thereof"— riving publish part, tho' the remainder will appear in our next." three thousand copies in English and fif The Constitution in the New teen hundred in an authorized German appeared its translation.27 Haven Connecticut Journal, first print in that State. In Connecticut the publisher of the ing In Boston, Benjamin Russell, publisher Litchfield Weekly Monitor apparently had of the Massachusetts Centinel, prefaced his his Monday issue in type when the Con stitution arrived. He inserted this notice: M "We with pleasure assure our readers and The Constitution often reached a town days before it appeared in the local Of the public, that the long expected, and newspaper. approximately eighty newspapers publishing in anxiously wished for, Form Govern of September and October 1787, only five were ment . . . came to hand on Saturday eve dailies. Of the others, one appeared three times ning last, and will be struck off in a hand a week, ten twice weekly, and two every other bill this day; it having arrived too late for week; the rest were weeklies. When the Constitu insertion in this week's paper." Apparently tion arrived well in advance of the next scheduled it issue, the printer might publish first as a broad it was also late in reaching the Boston Ga- side or pamphlet and later in his newspaper. " The type forms seem the same as those 21 Minutes of the Pennsylvania General As from which Isaac Collins of Trenton, printer to sembly, Sept. 24, 1787, Record Group 7, Penn the State but without a newspaper, printed two sylvania State Archives. slightly differing sixteen-page imprints. PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 85 printing with: "The following HIGHLY In New York the Hudson Weekly Ga INTERESTING and IMPORTANT com zette and in Connecticut the Norwich munication was received late last evening Packet began running the Constitution in by the post— an ardent desire to gratify the first of two installments. The Consti the patrons of the Centinel, and the pub- tution appeared in the New-Haven Gazette lick in general, induced the Editor to strain and the Connecticut Magazine and in Bos a nerve that it might appear this day; ton in the Independent Chronicle. and although lengthy he is happy in pub To the south, the Constitution appeared lishing the whole entire, for their entertain in the Annapolis Maryland Gazette; the ment." The straining caused the meticu Alexandria Virginia Journal began its first lous Russell to omit from his masthead, installment; and the Richmond Virginia for the first time in memory, the day and Gazette and Weekly Advertiser printed it date. He also announced, "A Centinel in full. The day before, Augustin Davis' EXTRAORDINARY will be published Richmond Virginia Independent Chronicle this afternoon, in which the articles of in had printed this notice: "Our Customers telligence, advertisements, etc. unavoidably are respectfully informed that, as the Fed omitted in this, will be inserted." eral Constitution was received too late to To the south a first installment appeared be published in this day's Chronicle, it will in the Fredericktown Maryland Chronicle; be printed in a pamphlet, and handed to and the printer of the Winchester Virginia them on Thursday.— Non-subscribers may Gazette issued the Constitution as a sepa then furnish themselves by applying at this rate imprint. office."30 The daily New-York Morning Post ad vertised copies of the Constitution to be Friday, September 28. had of the printer. This is the earliest ex The New London Connecticut Gazette tant issue of the Post following the Federal printed its first installment of the Consti Convention. If the missing issues ever turn tution. In Boston the Massachusetts Gazette up, undoubtedly the Constitution will ap printed the Constitution from the same pear, in a typesetting matching the adver type forms used for the Massachusetts Cen tised separate printing. tinel printing of the twenty-sixth.31 John McLean, publisher of the New Thursday, September 27. York Independent Journal, was also pub lisher of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Jour Now, ten days after the Convention, the nal. As in New York his Virginia paper flood crested. All nine papers that included printed the Constitution in a Supplement. the Constitution on this date were week The Winchester Virginia Gazette, a re lies. The New-York Journal printed "the cently established weekly, cost subscribers RESULT of the Deliberations of the IM two dollars a year. Column ads of "no PORTANT BODY" and a notice that more breadth than length" were one dol- copies could be had at the printing office. " The publisher explained that A number " In the following issue the Chronicle adver of ADVERTISEMENTS, PIECES, AND tised copies of the Constitution at one shilling. " PARAGRAPHS, are omitted this week, This seems to be an unnoticed practice. Later to give place to the FEDERAL CONSTI in the fall during the debates in the Pennsylvania TUTION.— It is presumed, that the cause ratifying convention, Philadelphia newspapers exchanged forms of For of these omissions will operate as a suffi type long speeches. example, the same forms used in the December cient apology to all interested therein." 15, 1787, Pennsylvania Herald were used to print The Providence United States Chronicle speeches in the Independent Gazetteer two days carried a somewhat similar explanation. later. 86 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 lar for the first three insertions and a Monday, September 30) and in Benjamin quarter dollar thereafter. Advertising rev Edes and Son's Boston Gazette and in enue (assuming collection) was about six Edes' dated broadsheet. The Bennington to eight dollars an issue. To fit the Consti Vermont Gazette began the first install tution into the Gazette's twelfth number ment. the printer had to remove all but one seventy-five cent ad. Tuesday, October 2. Saturday, September 29. On Sunday the ship Philadelphia had arrived in Charleston from Philadelphia The Constitution appeared in the Provi after a passage of eleven days. On Monday dence Gazette; and, for the first time" in the the semiweekly Charleston Columbian Her State, in the Portsmouth New-Hampshire ald had begun printing Philadelphia news Spy. John McLean also began advertising stories of September 18. On this day, Tues in his New York Independent Journal: day, it printed the Constitution in an Ex Just published, on a large Type and traordinary. This is the earliest surviving good Paper, (Price only Six-Pence) and printing south of Virginia. to be had at the Printing-Office, No. 41, The Constitution appeared in New Jer Hanover-Square, the ARTICLES of the sey in a second and final installment in the CONFEDERATION.-r/Kw who wish Trenton Weekly Mercury and in Massa to purchase by the hundred or thousand, chusetts in the Salem Mercury. will have them on very reasonable Terms. McLean seems to have had the confusing habit of applying to the Constitution the title of the form it proposed to replace. On January 2, 1788, he advertised in the Independent Journal, "In the Press and September 17 is the anniversary of the Speedily will be published, The Federalist signing of the Constitution and of Dunlap ... [to which] will be added . . . the AR and Claypoole's official convention imprint. TICLES of the CONFEDERATION." On this day in 1970 an exhibit featuring This refers, of course, to the Constitution convention and newspaper printings of the that he included in his famous first edi Constitution will open at the National Ar tion of The Federalist. Another newspaper, chives Building, Washington, D. C. the Bennington Vermont Gazette, on Octo ber 8, headed its concluding installment of Prologue plans to publish a second arti the Constitution "Articles of Confedera cle on the early printings of the Constitu tion (continued from our last)." tion which will include a bibliographical description of each known printing of 1787 Monday, October 1. and 1788. Prologue welcomes notifications of any separate imprints for those years On this day at least eight weeklies that are not included in Clifford K. Ship- printed the Constitution : the Lansingburgh ton and James E. Mooney's National Index (N.Y.) Northern Centinel, the Litchfield of American Imprints Through 1800. We Weekly Monitor, the Middletown ( Conn. ) would also like to hear of Middlesex Gazette, and in Hartford the newspaper print Connecticut Courant and the American ings of the Constitution during those years Mercury. In Boston, from a single typeset not mentioned in the current article. ting, the Constitution appeared in the American Herald (in an issue misdated t J PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 87 Wednesday, October 3. stitution. To the north it appeared in the Portsmouth New-Hampshire Gazette. The Constitution appeared in Massachu setts in the Northampton Hampshire Ga Monday, October 8. zette and the Newburyport Essex Journal, which explained that "sundry matters in New York printer Hugh Gaine inserted tended for this day's paper, are necessarily between signatures E and F of his Hutchins omitted, to make room for the Constitu Improved almanac for 1788 a four-page tion." Second and concluding installments printing of the Constitution, advertising appeared in the Poughkeepsie Country at the same time in his New-York Morn Journal and in the Fredricktown Maryland ing Post that "it appears highly expedient" Chronicle. that copies of this Constitution should be spread among the "Subjects of the United Thursday, October 4. States"; therefore, "those who wish to possess themselves with one, have now an The Constitution appeared in present- opportunity, with the advantage of an day Maine in the Portland Cumberland Almanack into the Bargain." Gazette. The first known North Carolina The Constitution apeared in Rhode Is printing appeared in the New Bern State land in the Newport Mercury and in a Gazette of North-Carolina. It also appeared second installment in the Bennington Ver in the Albany Gazette and in the Ports mont Gazette. mouth New-Hampshire Mercury. In Charleston, Ann Timothy published the Tuesday, October 9. Constitution in her State Gazette of South- Carolina. There were installments in the A first installment appeared in the New Norwich Packet, the Hudson Weekly Ga Brunswick Brunswick Gazette. zette, the Alexandria Virginia Journal, and the Fredericksburg Virginia Herald.32 Wednesday-Saturday, October 10-13. Friday, October 5. On Thursday the Constitution appeared in the Savannah Gazette of the State of This day's only known printing of the Georgia and in installments in the Alex Constitution was the second and final in andria Virginia Journal and the Fredericks stallment in the New London Connecticut burg Virginia Herald. On Saturday it ap Gazette. peared in the Augusta Georgia State Ga zette. Saturday, October 6. Monday, October 15. In 1786 in a settlement of a few dozen houses on the Pennsylvania frontier, a The first installment of the Constitution newspaper had begun publication. Now appeared in the Windsor Vermont Journal the Pittsburgh Gazette printed the Con- and was concluded in a second installment on the twenty-second. a Issues of this date of the Packet and the Tuesday, October 16. Virginia Herald have not been located. However, the incomplete printing of the Constitution in the The New Brunswick Brunswick Gazette preceding issue of the Packet was to be continued, and that in the succeeding issue of the Virginia printed its final installment of the Consti Herald was continued from the issue of this date. tution. 88 PROLOGUE - FALL 1970 IP* m The great wave of printings—or hundred and fifty; and the number may JUr of printings that can be precisely have approached two hundred. dated— was over. By October 6, Only one newspaper remains unac ?JjPTT*' 6r^- ie only twenty days after the counted for. Federal Convention, at least fifty-five of In August 1787, with an old press that the approximately eighty newspapers of had come by wagon, flatboat, and pack- the period had printed the five thousand or horse and with type that along the way more words of the Constitution and its had spilled and pied and had to be tedi accompanying documents. In the follow ously sorted, John Bradford had printed ing two weeks there were six more known the first issue of a weekly newspaper. "After newspaper printings. Thereafter the only having expended much in procuring the newspaper appearances except for a few materials and conveying them from Phil final installments were three reprintings in adelphia," he announced, "I have ventured the spring of 1788.33 Several other news to open a Printing Office in the Town of papers indicated that they were issuing the Lexington in the District of Kentucke." Constitution in a handbill or other separate Pittsburgh is the nearest post office. imprint instead of in their columns. Of Somebody carries a copy of the October 6 the remaining dozen or so newspapers any Pittsburgh Gazette five hundred or more or all may have included the Constitution. miles southwestward to Lexington. There Some do not survive in a single issue of the a compositor props it at a comfortable dis period; others survive in one issue only, tance and adjusts his composing stick. He or two or three. Even if a newspaper were reads a line or two, then begins taking up to have survived in a complete file of dated the letters: issues there is always the chance of a miss ing extraordinary— for these were almost :hc l-fjdttftheV..iuJSintu, iumjtr ^T'£, ffitm never numbered and, therefore, leave no telltale gap in a numerical series. Thus, it He fills his stick, empties it, fills it, and is a reasonable estimate that by the end of empties it again and again. And so, finally, October some seventy-five newspapers had in a log cabin print shop a thousand miles printed or had begun to print the Con by road, river, and trail from the fine stitution. It is also a safe assumption that presses and the community of printers of before the first State, Delaware, met in Philadelphia, on October 20 and 27 and convention on December 3, the printings November 3, 1787, on the press nearest of the Constitution totaled more than one the heart of the immense land, John Brad ford, printer, strikes, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth numbers of the Ken "In the Hudson Weekly Gazette on April 22 tucke Gazette, the Constitution and in the Charleston State Gazette of South proposed Carolina on both May 12 and May 26. for the United States. PRINTING THE CONSTITUTION 89