The Federalist, On The New Constitution. By Publius. Written in 1788. To Which is Added, Pacificus, On The Proclamation of Neutrality. Written in 1793. Likewise, The Federal Constitution, With All The Amendments.

HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay.

$16,000.00

Item Number: 147202

New York: Printed and Sold by George F. Hopkins, 1802.

Second American edition of The Federalist, “without question the most important commentary on the Constitution, the most significant American contribution to political theory, and among the most important of all American books” (Reese). Octavo, bound in full tree calf with elaborate period-style gilt tooling to the spine, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, gilt scrolling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins. marbled endpapers. This is the first edition in which Hamilton, Madison, and Jay are attributed as the original authors in this Preface (though attribution for individual essays were not published until Gideon’s 1818 edition) and the last edition to be issued during Hamilton’s lifetime (Sabin). “The 1802 edition also identified the authors of The Federalist and what essays they had supposedly written. Clearly edited by Hamilton partisans, it gives more authorial credit to Hamilton than modern scholarship cedes him” (Reese). Housed in a custom matching half tree calf clamshell box with with elaborate period-style gilt tooling to the spine and morocco spine labels lettered in gilt. In very good, contemporary marginalia. An exceptional example of this landmark book.

“When Alexander Hamilton invited his fellow New Yorker John Jay and James Madison, a Virginian, to join him in writing the series of essays published as The Federalist, it was to meet the immediate need of convincing the reluctant New York State electorate of the necessity of ratifying the newly proposed Constitution of the United States. The 85 essays, under the pseudonym ‘Publius,’ were designed as political propaganda, not as a treatise of political philosophy. In spite of this, The Federalist survives as one of the new nation’s most important contributions to the theory of government” (PMM, 234). The Federalist “exerted a powerful influence in procuring the adoption of the Federal Constitution, not only in New York but in the other states. There is probably no work in so small a compass that contains so much valuable political information. The true principles of a republican form of government are here unfolded with great clearness and simplicity” (Church 1230). “A generation passed before it was recognized that these essays by the principal author of the Constitution and its brilliant advocate were the most authoritative interpretation of the Constitution as drafted by the Convention of 1787. As a commentary and exposition of the Constitution, the influence of the Federalist has been profound” (Grolier American 100, 56). Of the only 500 copies published, Hamilton is said to have sent nearly 50 copies to Virginia for the ratifying convention. The remaining 450 copies sold poorly, and “the publishers complained in October 1788, long after New York had ratified the Constitution, that they still had several hundred unsold copies” (Maggs, 815).