Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791

FAIN: RQ-50027-03

George Washington University (Washington, DC 20052-0001)
Charlene N. Bickford (Project Director: September 2002 to October 2006)

Completion of volumes 18 and 19, and preparation of volume 20 of the documentary history of the First Federal Congress. (12 months)

Funding is sought for work on the last three volumes of the correspondence series of the "Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791" (DHFFC). The Second Session correspondence volumes (18 and 19 of the DHFFC) will be in production at the Johns Hopkins University Press before the end of the requested grant period and substantial work on the Third Session (volume 20) will be completed. The First Federal Congress was the most important and productive in U.S. history. The documents to be published will shed new light on how the founding generation viewed the constitutional and sectional conflicts facing them and provide information on the behind-the-scenes political negotiations. These volumes cover such issues as funding the Revolutionary War debts, locating the federal capital, regulating the slave trade, the first census, naturalization, copyright and patents, and a national bank. They are vitally important to the completion of the effort to provide a complete published record of the key institutions and individuals of the Revolutionary Era.