first edition in any form of New York's first state constitution (one of two states, priority undetermined). 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. Evans 15472 (also lists an alternate 34-page printing); Sabin 53626. Only one other copy known at auction since 1944, the Ransom copy at a Swann sale, 2 October 2012. A defective example of an important rarity. with--a yet more defective copy of the related 12-page pamphlet, "An Ordinance of the Convention of the State of New-York, for Organizing and Establishing the Government, Agreed to by the Said Convention." 8vo, stitched; heavy vermin damage affecting all pages, with loss of most of the title page. Evans 15477. [Fishkill, NY: Samuel Loudon, 1777].