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Cover image of Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789–March 3, 1791
Cover image of Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789–March 3, 1791
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Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789–March 3, 1791

Correspondence: Second Session, March 15–June 1790

United States, First Congress, 1789-1791. Charlene Bangs Bickford, Kenneth R. Bowling, William Charles diGiacomantonio, and Helen E. Veit, eds.
sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, The George Washington University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities

Volume
Volume 19
Publication Date
Binding Type

Through decades of searching, the First Federal Congress Project has collected primary material documenting the debates, decisions, and thoughts of the members of the First Federal Congress. The volumes of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress permit Congress and its staff, historians, political scientists, jurists, educators, students, and others to understand the most important and productive Congress in United States history. Three new volumes present letters written by and to members of the First Federal Congress during its Second Session, as well as communications from...

Through decades of searching, the First Federal Congress Project has collected primary material documenting the debates, decisions, and thoughts of the members of the First Federal Congress. The volumes of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress permit Congress and its staff, historians, political scientists, jurists, educators, students, and others to understand the most important and productive Congress in United States history. Three new volumes present letters written by and to members of the First Federal Congress during its Second Session, as well as communications from other informed individuals at the seat of government in New York City during late 1789 and 1790.

The correspondence brings the official record to life by providing details about the often informal political means by which Congress accomplished its agenda. During this session, the Congress addressed the two most divisive issues facing the young nation: funding the debts from the Revolutionary War (particularly the debts incurred by the individual states) and determining locations for both the temporary and permanent seats of the federal government. It resolved these difficult issues through the Compromise of 1790, silencing sectional threats of disunion for the immediate future.

A rich source of information about the members of Congress, their lives in New York, their concerns about their families, and the services they performed for their constituents, the documents from these three new volumes will also be incorporated into The Early Republic, an innovative online reference hosted by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Reviews

Reviews

This complete and well-edited record of the First Federal Congress is a model documentary edition. Historians of the early republic owe thanks to the editors and publisher of this exemplary collection.

A monument of careful yet easily usable scholarship. The formal legislative record always needs to be supplemented by the evidence of personal correspondence. This correspondence is in its own important way a memorial to a crucial moment in the translation of the constitution from founding text into functioning document, because it helped to establish the links necessary to maintain loyalty to the new government.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
1136
ISBN
9780801894466
Illustration Description
6 halftones
Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Correspondence: Second Session
15-31 March 1790
April 1790
May 1790
June 1790

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Charlene Bangs Bickford

Charlene Bangs Bickford is the director and coeditor of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789–1791.
Featured Contributor

Helen E. Veit

Helen E. Veit is an associate editor of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789–1791.