[Americana] [Franklin, Benjamin] Dell, William The Doctrine of Baptisms, Reduced from its Ancient and Modern Corruptions; And Restored to its Primitive Soundness and Integrity...

Philadelphia: B. Franklin, and D. Hall, 1759. Fifth edition (first American edition). 8vo. 43 pp. Three-quarter brown calf, stamped in gilt, over brown linen-covered boards, front and rear joints rubbed; all edges trimmed; marbled endpapers; scattered minor spotting; signature of Benjamin Martin, 1798, bottom p. 43, ink scrawl on verso of same. Miller 702; Evans 8338.

"First printed in London in 1648...The Society of Friends of Philadelphia requested Overseers Anthony Benezet and John Reynell to arrange for a reprinting of this work in an edition of 4,000 copies..." (Miller 702), and enlisted local printers, Franklin and Hall.

Benjamin Martin might be the same Martin who participated in the 1837-38 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention as a Democratic delegate representing Philadelphia. It was here on January 17, 1838 that Martin moved to ammend the suffrage clause by adding the word "white" before "freemen". The motion passed 77-45, and was included in the final Constitution, effectively disenfranchising all black males in Pennsylvania for the next 32 years until the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1870.

From the estates of Charles M. and Mary Elizabeth Meredith III, Bucks County, PA.