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Building the historic Cape Henry, Virginia, lighthouse... Vermont separates from New York...
Building the historic Cape Henry, Virginia, lighthouse... Vermont separates from New York...
Item # 712389
October 09, 1790
GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES, New York, October 9, 1790
* "Great Compromise" era in America
* State of Vermont becoming independent
* Creating the "Cape May Lighthouse"
A brief item on page 3 notes: "The Commissioners of New York and Vermont have amicably adjusted the important business of their mission; the result is that Vermont is dismembered from the state of New York...This the way is open for the admission of Vermont into the Federal Union..." which would happen in 1791. An item also notes that the population of Philadelphia is now 50,000.
The back page has two notices from the Treasury Department, one concerning provision for the debt of the United States, and the other concerning the building of a lighthouse at Cape Henry in Virginia, with much detail as to its construction including: "The foundation of the Light House is to be of stone...the diameter of the base is to be 26 feet...The form is to be an octagon, having 3 windows in the east and 4 in the west..." with more descriptive text.
Today this is a very historic lighthouse & looks much like the details noted in this newspaper.
The back page also has a brief item from the "War Department" concerning a pension to injured Rev. War soldiers, signed in type: H. Knox, Sec. of War.
Four pages, very nice condition.
background: This October 1790 issue of the Gazette of the United States serves as a remarkable primary source capturing the "Great Compromise" era of American nation-building, where the federal government was rapidly formalizing its borders and infrastructure. The mention of Vermont being "dismembered" from New York marks the resolution of a decade-long land dispute, signaling the end of Vermont’s stint as an independent republic and its transition to becoming the first state admitted to the Union under the new Constitution. Simultaneously, the Treasury Department’s granular specifications for the Cape Henry Lighthouse—detailing its octagonal stone base and window placement—illustrate the practical execution of the Ninth Act of the First Congress, which shifted the burden of maritime safety from individual colonies to a centralized federal authority under Alexander Hamilton. By featuring these administrative notices alongside Henry Knox’s War Department pension updates and Philadelphia’s milestone population of 50,000, the newspaper provides a vivid cross-section of a society shifting from revolutionary chaos toward a structured, expanding, and increasingly urbanized federal republic.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
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