Complete issue of The Salem Mercury from September 9, 1788, 11.25 x 18, four total pages, featuring a second-page column headed “American Intelligence” for the state of Virginia, which details how North Carolina held its first ratifying convention at Hillsborough in July–August 1788, where delegates debated the new Constitution but ultimately declined to ratify it. The convention voted that the Constitution should not be adopted without first adding a Bill of Rights and other amendments, reflecting the Anti-Federalist concern that the proposed framework concentrated too much power in the federal government. Though cautious, the delegates made clear they supported the idea of a stronger union, but believed that ratification ought to be done with proper safeguards in place. North Carolina finally ratified the Constitution at its second convention in Fayetteville on November 21, 1789—after the new federal government had already begun operating under President George Washington and the first Congress earlier that year. In very good to fine condition, with edgewear and some paper loss to the spine.
