[RHODE ISLAND - FEDERAL]
Group of Rhode Island Resolves, 1784-99, 18 volumes, all but one in 20th century cloth (1 in broken half leather, the lot including one photo-facsimile). Commencing with February, 1784. At the General Assembly of the governor and Company of the state of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations, begun and holden at Providence ... Providence: Bennett Wheeler, [1784]. 30 pp. with paper-covered wax seals and ink signature of Secretary Henry Ward, this Evans 18748, the balance of the volume with the resolves for May, June, August, and October 1784 (the imprint changing to Providence: John Carter, [1784]); the subsequent volumes following this format very closely of individual Providence and Newport imprints bound three or four to a year, each with the paper-covered seals and the ink signatures of the secretary (after Ward are those of Amos Hopkins and Samuel Eddy). Variously stamped, some seals lacking and others trimmed or with losses, these and other small losses with old paper replacements, the September 1787 resolves lacking its final leaf which is provided in manuscript although a separately bound duplicate copy is present (this bound in defective half-calf), various markings including those of the "Town Clerk/Johnston" and other locations, a few others with defective or missing leaves which are provided in manuscript (including several in the 1794 volume, the February 1794 section provided in photo-facsimile, and a few others), a few tears with tape repairs, some spotting but generally clean overall.
These Rhode Island imprints are particularly elegantly printed and enhanced by paper-covered seals embossed with the state seal and the hand signatures of Henry Ward, Secretary of the state from the revolutionary period until his death in 1797.