ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION | Front page printing of the Articles of Confederation in the New-Jersey Gazette, Vol. 1, No. 22. Trenton: Printed by Isaac Collins, Wednesday, April 29, 1778

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

Front page printing of the Articles of Confederation in the New-Jersey Gazette, Vol. 1, No. 22. Trenton: Printed by Isaac Collins, Wednesday, April 29, 1778

Folio, 4 pages (13 7/8 x 8 7/8 in.; 352 x 228 mm) on a full sheet of laid paper, text in three columns; lightly browned and spotted, minor marginal chipping touching two or three letters, separated at central fold, the two leaves hinged to a larger sheet. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

The official New Jersey printing of the Articles of Confederation, one of the great documents of American history and the vital stepping-stone to the United States Constitution, printed on the front page of one of only two newspapers in New Jersey.. Collins was engaged to print the Articles, which occupy all of the first page and the first column of the second, "by order of the General Assembly of this State, for the consideration of the inhabitants thereof."

After more than a year of debate, Congress approved the text of the Articles of Confederation on 15 November 1777 and sent the charter to the states for ratification. Virginia was the first state to ratify the Articles and the only one to do so in 1777. New Jersey was the eleventh state to adopt, on 19 November 1778, but the Articles of Confederation—which were required to be unanimously agreed to—were not officially proclaimed to be the law of the land until Maryland finally assented in February 1781, two years after the twelfth state had approved.

The Articles, with their emphasis on individual state's rights, proved a dismal failure. By the close of 1786, they were widely discredited, with many national leaders eager to refashion the charter into a stronger central government. The Convention called in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation ended by replacing it with the Constitution.

PROVENANCE:

War Department Library (ink stamp, 13 December 1909, on first page)