The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, As Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.

[HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay].

Item Number: 139618

New York: Printed and Sold by J. and A. McLean, 1788.

The Grimke family first edition copy of The Federalist, one of the most unique association copies of one of the rarest and most significant books in American political history. 12mo, two volumes bound in full contemporary tree calf with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, morocco ownership spine labels lettered in gilt, “J.F. Grimke,” gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers. The ownership of the Grimke family copy of the Federalist spans several generations of an extraordinary South Carolina family, from a revolutionary-era patriot, legal scholar and owner of more than 300 slaves through the first southern women activists to raise their voices on the national stage against slavery and in favor of women’s rights. A Continental Army officer and wealthy plantation owner, John F. Grimke (1752-1819) was a leading figure in South Carolina law and planter society during the Founding era of America. He served as senior judge of the South Carolina Supreme Court, Speaker of the House of the South Carolina legislature, and a member of the South Carolina constitutional convention with ratified the Federal Constitution. He wrote ‘The Public Laws of the State of South Carolina’ (1790), the standard treatise on the subject for almost 50 years. Grimke’s daughters, Sarah and Angelina were educated by private tutors in the family home. There, they had access to their father’s copy of The Federalist, and that work informed their thinking about natural rights theory and the principles of liberty on which the nation was founded. The Grimke sisters, who came to share an abhorrence of the slavery system upon which their family’s wealth and position depended, left their home for the North after their father’s death. They soon became the most famous Southern women in the abolition movement. In the 1830s the two spoke before tens of thousands on the abolitionist lecture circuit condemning slavery with the authority of those who had lived in planter society. The sisters frequently drew connections between abolitionism and the cause of women’s rights, and they became the first Southern feminist voices to become nationally recognized. John Greenleaf Whittier referred to the sisters as “Carolina’s high-souled daughters.” “Gradually many of the opponents of slavery were won over to the cause of women’s rights, and the introduction of the question into the anti-slavery agitation by the Grimke’s was an important factor in both causes” (DAB). Provenance: John F. Grimke family; Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney. In very good condition. Housed in a half morocco clamshell box. One of the finest association copies of The Federalist obtainable; which was passed down through several generations of one of the most remarkable South Carolina Founding era families.

The significance of The Federalist has been recognized for more than 200 years, George Washington wrote, "The Federalist will merit the notice of posterity; because in it are candidly and ably discussed the principles of freedom and the topics of government, which will always be interesting to mankind so long as they shall be connected in Civil Society." “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).