Money for the Navy and completing the U.S. Capitol...
Item # 707401
February 13, 1805
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, Feb. 13, 1805
* President Thomas Jefferson
* United States Navy support
* Construction of the U.S. Capitol
The front page begins with: "An Act Making appropriations for the support of the Navy of the United States, during the year 1805" plus: "An Act Making an appropriation for completing the South Wing of the Capitol...", each signed in type: TH: Jefferson.
Four pages, never-trimmed margins, nice condition.
background: This issue of the Columbian Centinel serves as a remarkable primary source from the "Age of Jefferson," capturing the growing pains of a young nation balancing its democratic ideals with the practicalities of governance. The presence of the Navy appropriation act is particularly evocative, as 1805 marked the height of the First Barbary War—a conflict that forced the famously frugal Jefferson to expand American naval power in the Mediterranean. Simultaneously, the appropriation for the Capitol’s South Wing highlights the literal construction of the American state, as architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe struggled to finish the Hall of the House of Representatives amidst political and budgetary hurdles. Because your copy remains untrimmed, it preserves the original physical scale of the rag-paper broadsheet as it would have appeared on a Boston merchant's desk, making it not just a record of early Federal-era policy, but a pristine artifact of 19th-century print culture.
* President Thomas Jefferson
* United States Navy support
* Construction of the U.S. Capitol
The front page begins with: "An Act Making appropriations for the support of the Navy of the United States, during the year 1805" plus: "An Act Making an appropriation for completing the South Wing of the Capitol...", each signed in type: TH: Jefferson.
Four pages, never-trimmed margins, nice condition.
background: This issue of the Columbian Centinel serves as a remarkable primary source from the "Age of Jefferson," capturing the growing pains of a young nation balancing its democratic ideals with the practicalities of governance. The presence of the Navy appropriation act is particularly evocative, as 1805 marked the height of the First Barbary War—a conflict that forced the famously frugal Jefferson to expand American naval power in the Mediterranean. Simultaneously, the appropriation for the Capitol’s South Wing highlights the literal construction of the American state, as architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe struggled to finish the Hall of the House of Representatives amidst political and budgetary hurdles. Because your copy remains untrimmed, it preserves the original physical scale of the rag-paper broadsheet as it would have appeared on a Boston merchant's desk, making it not just a record of early Federal-era policy, but a pristine artifact of 19th-century print culture.
Category: Pre-Civil War
