NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, Washington D.C., Feb. 28, 1811

• Louisiana Territory

Page 3 has: "An Act to enable the people of the Territory of Orleans to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union, on a equal footing with the original states." Quite detailed and signed in type: James Madison.
This was the first formal step to allow Louisiana to join the Union, which it would formally do in 1816.
Four pages, nice condition.

Background: This issue of the National Intelligencer carries high historic importance as it contains the printed primary source text of the official Enabling Act for the Territory of Orleans, signed in type by President James Madison, which initiated the path to statehood for Louisiana as the first state carved entirely out of the massive 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Because the National Intelligencer functioned as the defacto government bulletin in Washington, D.C., printings of foundational federal acts from this paper are considered authentic period documents and hold substantial value for American history collectors, museum archives, and legal historians specializing in territorial expansion. Given that newsprint from 1811 was composed of high-rag cotton content rather than modern wood-pulp paper.