COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, May 10, 1797  

* President George Washington
* Acts of United States Congress

The middle of the front page contains not one but four Acts of Congress, each signed in script type by the President: Go. Washington.
Such issues are increasingly scarce--particularly with more than one signature--yet increasingly desirable and very displayable as such.
Beginning on the front page & concluding on page 2 is a letter: "From Mr. Jefferson, late Minister of the United States in France...to a citizen of Virginia."
Four pages, never-trimmed margins, a few discrete archival mends at the margins, nice condition.

Background: This May 10, 1797, issue of Boston’s Columbian Centinel stands as a monumental historical artifact that visually and textually captures the fierce partisan warfare and the fragile transition of power in the early American republic. On its front page, the rare inclusion of four separate Acts of Congress bearing the printed script signature of George Washington—published just months after his retirement—documents the final legislative achievements of his foundational administration and underscores the 18th-century newspaper’s role as the official voice of federal law. Mirroring this legal codification is the explosive political scandal unfolding across pages one and two: the publication of Thomas Jefferson’s infamous "Mazzei Letter." Written privately by Jefferson to an Italian friend, its leak and subsequent re-translation into the American press exposed a deep-seated ideological rift, as Jefferson bitterly accused an "aristocratical party"—including a thinly veiled jab at Washington himself—of selling out American liberty to Great Britain. The immense significance of this specific four-page publication lies in its juxtaposition of these two narratives; it serves as a tangible cross-section of 1797 politics, capturing the exact moment the historic, lifelong friendship between Washington and Jefferson was permanently shattered, while fueling the bitter Federalist-Democratic-Republican media war that would reshape the presidency in the looming election of 1800.