A Treatise Concerning Political Enquiry, and the Liberty of the Press.

WORTMAN, Tunis.

$15,000.00

Item Number: 23046

New York: Printed by George Forman, 1800.

First edition of a classic work of libertarian political philosophy. Octavo, contemporary calf. In very good condition with some marginal dampstaining and wear to the extremities. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. First editions are extremely rare.

A New York lawyer prominent in Tammany politics, Tunis Wortman contributed significantly to the emergence of a libertarian theory of the first amendment following the Sedition Act of 1798. His classic treatise, A Treaty Concerning Political Enquiry was the era's most systematic presentation of the case for an absolutist interpretation of freedom. It "was the book that Jefferson did not write but should have” (Levy, 283). Leonard Levy, Legacy of Suppression, pp.283-289; Evans 39150; Sabin 105514.