(CONNECTICUT.) Liberty! Equality! At a Convention of Republicans . . . Delegates from...

(CONNECTICUT.) Liberty! Equality! At a Convention of Republicans . . . Delegates from Ninety-Seven Towns in Connecticut. Letterpress broadside, 18 x 11 inches; minor wear and tasteful repairs at folds, uncut edges. Np, circa 1804

first edition of a satirical constitution, mockingly attributed to the Jeffersonian Republicans; a second edition was later issued. The state Republicans had recently held a secret meeting to draft a new state constitution, and offered here is an anonymous Federalist's take on what may have transpired: "We cannot fail of being accurate in our reasonings, for WE ARE REPUBLICANS. . . . The Executive power shall be vested in three Consuls to be chosen for life by the President of the United States; provided he be a Republican; if not, by the Sovereign People. . . . Taxation is tyranny; the expences of Government therefore shall be defrayed by a grand Republican gaming-table to be established at New-Haven. . . . All business of the Councils shall be transacted behind closed doors, that the people may be more enlightened." Political sarcasm is not a new development. Shaw & Shoemaker 6150. 2 copies traced on OCLC, and none known at auction.