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1788 South Carolina Ratifies United States Constitution

State Convention Attaches States Rights Concerns That Persist Through Civil War

General Rufus Putnam And The Ohio Company, John Trumbull and Cincinnati Society, Samuel Storrs of Mansfield Seeks Runaway

This is an original and complete historic newspaper that reports on the State of South Carolina's ratification of the United States Constitution! This 1788 original, authentic and complete newspaper has an extensive report which includes the actual vote on the Constitution and the resolution passed by the South Carolina Constitutional Convention, portions of which are pictured above and below. South Carolina's ratification is among the most noteworthy given their attempt to "nullify" Acts of Congress which was stopped by President Andrew Jackson and their leadership in secession from the Union prior to the Civil War. Those events were presaged in their ratification convention resolution and noted in this newspaper where it states that "The Convention doth also declare, that no section or paragraph of the said constitution warrants a construction that the states do not retain every power not expressly relinquished by them and vested in the general government of the union."

Further pictures of the entire front page and masthead are also below along with other interesting articles in this 1788 Connecticut Courant.

The newspaper contains a notice shown below of a meeting of Society of Cincinnati, the Revolutionary War officers association whose President from its inception until his death was George Washington. The meeting to be held in Hartford was noticed by the Secretary to the Society, John Trumbull, who was an aide to General Washington during the war and most famous as the painter of the American Revolution.

Another item of interest in the newspaper is the publication of a letter regarding the doings of General Rufus Putnam and his Ohio Company. Below is the article, a portrait and short biography of Putnam.

Putnam, Rufus, 1738–1824, American Revolutionary general, one of the founders of the Ohio Company of Associates, b. Sutton, Mass.; cousin of Israel Putnam. In the French and Indian War he joined (1757) the army and saw action around Lake Champlain. In the American Revolution, Putnam was an engineering officer at Boston, New York, and West Point; he also served as a field officer, most notably under Horatio Gates in the Saratoga campaign (1777) and under Anthony Wayne at Stony Point (1779). He was made a brigadier general in 1783, after the war's end. In 1786 he, with other veterans, formed the Ohio Company of Associates. Putnam helped the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, and in 1788 he and Manasseh Cutler supervised the building of Marietta, Ohio. Putnam was appointed (1790) judge of the Northwest Territory and later was (1796–1803) U.S. surveyor general

Early newspapers like this often contained ads like the one shown above requesting the return of a slave or indentured servant. In this one a Samuel Storrs of Mansfield, Connecticut requests the return of an apprentice boy named Ephraim Kidder.  Today the Storrs family of Mansfield is most famous for donating the land for the Connecticut Agricultural College, which is now the huge main campus of the University of Connecticut and their great basketball teams.

Below are pictures of the newspaper's masthead and the full front page.

This is a wonderful old high rag content newspaper in great condition. The only issue it has is the unnecessary tape on the inside fold and bottom edge by what looks like removable archival tape to protect it from wear. I have removed similar tape and it is unobtrusive on this newspaper.

This 1788 Connecticut Courant has a great historical association to the Revolutionary War and, most importantly, the adoption of the United States Constitution.

Price: $275


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