(NEW YORK) Constitution of the State of New York

Sale 2287 - Lot 357

Price Realized: $ 18,000

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000

FIRST PRINTING IN ANY FORM (NEW YORK.) Constitution of the State of New-York. 33 pages. 8vo, modern 1/2 morocco gilt; minor foxing, lacking final blank; early gift inscription, cropped, on page [3]. (JMR) Fishkill, NY: Samuel Loudon, 1777

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first edition in any form of New York's first state constitution. The Constitutional Convention deliberated at several locations while in flight northward from Manhattan. They passed this constitution in Kingston on 20 April 1777. "On the same night . . . one of the secretaries was hastily dispatched to Fishkill, to urge the printing of the Constitution . . . and the printer was directed to lay aside all other business to give place for this" (Hough, American Constitutions II:61).
The text of the new constitution begins by denouncing "the many tyrannical and oppressive usurpations of the King and Parliament of Great Britain," reprints the entire text of the Declaration of Independence, and asserts that New York "will at the risque of our lives and fortunes join the other Colonies in supporting it."
It goes on to define the responsibilities of state's Assembly, Senate, and Governor, and the allocation of Assembly seats by county. Article XXXVII, in order to promote "peace and amity with the Indians" and avoid "the frauds too often practiced toward the said Indians," nullifies all future treaties made outside the authority of the legislature. Article XXXVIII notes that "the bigotry and ambition of weak and wicked priests and princes, have scourged mankind," and ordains "the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship."
Provenance: Gift of John Berr[y?] to John Temple, Esq., possibly the Sir John Temple who served as British consul to America from 1785 to 1798. Evans 15472; Sabin 53626. No other copies are known at auction since 1944, when an inferior copy brought $280 at Parke-Bernet.