“QUESTIONS THAT GO TO THE HEART OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM”: EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, 1819, WITH THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, RHODE ISLAND CHARTER AND CONSTITUTIONS OF 20 STATES, IN A CUSTOM CHEMISE AND SLIPCASE

(CONSTITUTION). Constitutional Law: Comprising the Declaration of Independence; the Articles of Confederation; the Constitution of the United States; And the Constitutions of the several States composing the Union. Washington City: Gales and Seaton, 1819. Tall 12mo (4-1/2 by 7 inches), mid-19th-century full brown tree sheep rebacked with original spine and red morocco spine label laid down; pp. (iv), (1), 2-360, (2). Housed in a custom folding chemise and slipcase, red morocco gilt spine label.

First edition of this important early compilation of America’s constitutions, the first to fully collect the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the federal Constitution, the charter of Rhode Island and the constitutions of 20 states—a “natural history of democratic communities”—including the new 1818 constitutions of Connecticut and Illinois.

“Independence destroyed the old legal foundation of the states, and made it necessary to provide a new one… As early as May 1775, colonies began to apply to Congress for advice to guide them” (Hinsdale, American Government, 64). On May 10, 1776 a resolution was proposed for the “Formation of Local Governments”—one whose preamble by John Adams was seen as directly “manufacturing independence” (Smith, 256). It was there, and in Jefferson’s draft for the Virginia constitution, that “the argument was eminently sensible; unless we get a good government in Virginia [and fellow colonies], why fight a war?” (Brodie, 117). The importance of both the federal Constitution and state constitutions is strikingly evident in Constitutional Law—the first volume to so fully document America’s constitutional revolution.

Herein are printings of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the federal Constitution, the charter of Rhode Island and the constitutions of 20 states—documents that “rested on a new foundation, adjusted to a new political system” (Hinsdale, 66). These include the 1776 constitutions of Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, the 1777 constitution of New York, the 1779-80 constitution of Massachusetts, the second constitutions of Pennsylvania (1790), Delaware (1792) and Kentucky (1792), the third constitutions of New Hampshire (1792), Vermont (1793), Georgia (1798) and South Carolina (1790), the 1796 constitution of Tennessee, along with those of Ohio (1802), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), and the new 1818 constitutions of Illinois and Connecticut (1818). These state constitutions, where the initial article after the preamble is often a declaration of rights, are “‘a mine of instruction for the natural history of democratic communities… The differences between state constitutions and the federal Constitution… raise intriguing questions that go to the heart of American constitutionalism” (Tarr, Understanding State Constitutions, 4, 11). First edition: containing the charter of Rhode Island and “the most current of” of 20 state constitutions (Matyas). Issued by the “strong journalistic team” of Gales and Seaton, noted publishers of the National Intelligencer, “a leading American newspaper” and of a major record of congressional proceedings (Mott, 178). Page 360 with tipped-in printed note (sometimes bound in) commenting on an amendment to the Georgia constitution; without front free endpaper. Shaw & Shoemaker 47716. Matyas 19-02a. Cohen 3013. See Sabin 16133. OCLC lists 18 copies: including the American Antiquarian Society, Library of Virginia, Yale and Harvard. Bookplate.

Text with light tanning, scattered foxing and occasional dampstaining, two expert paper repairs minimally affecting text of one leaf (81) and not affecting text (303), bit of wormholing to final text leaf, rear blanks, slight edge-wear to boards. A very scarce extremely good copy of this most important constitutional volume.