AMERICANA 50 One Of The Most Important Works Ever Written On The American Constitution: Story’s Commentaries, First Edition, 1833 56 STORY, Joseph. Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. Boston / Cambridge, 1833. Three volumes. Octavo, modern full brown sheep. $14,000 First edition of this influential three-volume treatise, one of the most important works ever written on the American Constitution, second in significance only to The Federalist. Comparing Story’s Commentaries to The Federalist, James Kent wrote, “It is written in the same free and liberal spirit, with equal exactness and soundness of doctrine, and with great beauty and eloquence of composition” (American Law I: 241). Alexis de Tocqueville, in his work on American democracy, drew heavily on Story’s Commentaries, which when translated into French and German earned Story an international reputation. “The judicial station of the author, his opportunities for hearing constitutional questions mooted and settled, for the last quarter of a century, his habits of patient and thorough investigation, give a weight and value to Judge Story’s writings upon Constitutional Law, which few similar works can claim… Taking The Federalist as the basis of his Commentaries, he advocates a liberal construction of the palladium of our liberties, in order to attain a proper exercise of the functions of the government” (Marvin, 669). Howes S1047. Owner stamp on II:25; occasional notations—generally underlining—in pencil. Scattered light foxing. Handsomely bound. The American Blackstone: First Edition Of Kent’s Landmark Commentaries On American Law 57KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law. New York, 1826-30. Four volumes. Octavo, modern full tan calf. $7800 First edition of one of the most important legal treatises in American history, handsomely bound. “Superior to any previous treatise on this subject, and a landmark in the history of international law” (Chamberlain). “The foremost American institutional legal treatise” (DAB). “Without Kent and Story, it is doubtful that the common law could have been received as readily as it was or that judicial decision could have taken over as the law’s growing point… Above all, the text writers and their affiliated law schools were a great unifying influence in American law” (Schwartz, 111). Kent’s goal was “to transplant the English common law to America… [His] reliance on precedents had the two-prong effect of helping to maintain the primacy of judge-made law in contrast to codification by legislatures, while providing the legal profession with the degree and kind of certainty it craved” (ANB). A Columbia University professor and judge in New York, Kent was one of the most influential jurists of his time, and early in his career “was responsible for two significant innovations: written opinions and published reports” (ANB). Occasional penciled annotations. Mild foxing to text; binding fine and attractive. An excellent copy.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=