Maclay, William:

$375 · Offered by William Reese Company

SKETCHES OF DEBATE IN THE FIRST SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, IN 1789-90-91...Edited by George W. Harris. The first publication of an essential record in constitutional history. At the time they were printed, Maclay's diary constituted the chief source of information for the proceedings of the first United States Senate. "His notes are the only continuous report in existence of that early federal period when debates occurred behind closed doors and no official record was prepared for the public. They reveal the diarist as such a stanch antagonist of the Hamiltonian program, such a strong defender of the interests of the small-farming class, such a denunciator of the speculation rife at the time, that Pennsylvania may be called the home of the first Jeffersonian democrat" - DAB.

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