Journals of Congress. Containing the Proceedings From Sept. 5. 1774. to Jan. 1. 1776, Printed by R. Aitken, Volume I, 1776

Journals of Congress. Containing the Proceedings From Sept. 5. 1774. to Jan. 1. 1776. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by R. Aitken, 1777. Volume I. First Edition. 8vo. Rebound in ¼ brown leather and cloth boards, with raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to spine, and new archival slipcase. 

Presented is a scarce, first edition printing of Volume I of Journals of Congress. This volume is a vital document of the proceedings and official records of the First and Second Continental Congress from September to October 1774, and the first seven months of the Second Continental Congress, from May to December 1775. The volume was published by order of Congress and printed and sold by R. Aitken in Philadelphia, in 1777. It includes details of debates, resolutions, petitions, and important decisions made by the Continental Congress and contains the first publication of many key revolutionary texts. It is presented here rebound in ¼ brown leather and cloth boards with raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to spine, and new archival slipcase. 

This exceedingly rare, first edition of Volume I of the eventual 13 separately-issued Journals of Congress provides unmatched insight into the decisive moments of America's early years. "The Journals of the Congress formed the only central record of the colonies and the subsequent states" (Tanenbaum, 12). This volume records the unknown and certainly tumultuous time in our colonial history when, on the brink of revolution, it was not yet apparent  “that the Congress of deputies gathering in the Carpenters' Hall would be the seed from which a government… would emerge" (Powell, 36). 

Volume I of Journals of Congress frames the two major questions that most occupied the First Continental Congress: "what was the basis of American rights and how should they be defended?" (Middlekauff, 243). Essential to that aim is the inclusion of Joseph Warren's Suffolk Resolves, which were adopted in Massachusetts on September 9 and immediately read to Congress in Philadelphia, denouncing "the Attempts of a wicked Administration to enslave America" (15). Also included are John Jay's eloquent Address to the People of Great Britain (38-45) and the Petition of Congress, authored by Richard Henry Lee, Dickinson, John Adams and Patrick Henry, which was passed on the final day of the First Continental Congress and sent to Franklin in Britain, only to be dismissed by King George III (67-72). 

Volume I also charts Congress' decisions in the first shaky months of revolutionary battle, delineating how it decided to organize its troops and central government and presenting its primary reasons for revolt. Shortly after convening in May 1775, the Second Continental Congress heard depositions recounting the Battles of Lexington and Concord (83-97), appointed George Washington as Commander in Chief of American forces (120-22), and laid out the Rules and Regulations for the Continental Army (128-140), "the first orderly description of powers inhering in a central government… [in which] Congress placed itself at the head of a war machine" (Powell, 34, 50). Important to this volume is the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms (142-48), as well as Lee's Address to the Inhabitants of Great-Britain (152-59). 

The earliest proceedings of the Continental Congress were printed as individual parts and issued in real time, as the acts and resolutions occurred. Select documents or decisions were separately printed in small numbers or as broadsides. They were also occasionally collected by the government's official Philadelphia-based printers, the Bradfords, and issued in small “Extracts” or assembled in their publication of Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress (1774), followed by their 1775 Journal of the Proceedings (May 10-August 1775) and their September to December 1775 Journal (published in 1776). As such, this is the second collected printing of those congressional documents, but the first publication overall of numerous key texts. Aitken's Volume I "is the first volume of the official edition," with the thirteen total volumes issued annually (Ford 79). A very rare find, this early first volume is especially hard to come by "because not enough copies were printed" (Powell, 40, 72). 

CONDITION: 

Octavo. Volume I. Rebound in ¼ brown leather and cloth boards, with raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to spine, and new archival slipcase. All edges trimmed. Text leaves lightly toned; scattered soiling and spotting to text; contemporary ink annotations on pp. 36-38, 197, and contemporary manicules on pp. 216, 217, 221, 232, and 238. Lacking the six-leaf index at rear. With page 253 mispaginated 353, as issued. 310 pp.

Book Dimensions: 8 1/2" H x 5 1/8" W x 1 1/8" D. Slipcase Dimensions: 9" H x 5 1/2" W x 1 1/2" D.

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.