Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist, on the New Constitution; written in 1788, by Mr. Hamilt...
Description
Second Philadelphia Edition of
The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The
Federalist, on the New Constitution; written in 1788, by Mr.
Hamilton, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Madison. A New Edition,
with the names and portraits of the several writers. Philadelphia:
Published by Benjamin Warner, and sold at his stores, Richmond,
Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, 1818. Second Philadelphia
edition and second single-volume edition (a reissue of Warner's
1817 edition, with the addition of an Appendix containing the
Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the first twelve
Amendments). Octavo in fours (8.5 x 5.1875 inches; 216 x 133 mm.).
vi, [7]-504 pages. "Appendix. In Congress, July 8, 1778. Articles
of Confederation and Perpetual Union" (pages [479]-488);
"Constitution of the United States" (pages [489]-501); "Amendments"
(pages [502]-504). First leaf of the Appendix (pages [479]-480)
inserted on a stub between gatherings 60 and 61. Engraved
frontispiece portrait of Alexander Hamilton by Leney after Ames,
engraved portrait of James Madison by Leney after Stuart facing
page 70, and engraved portrait of John Jay by Leney after Stuart
facing page 294, all with tissue overlays.Contemporary mottled sheep. Smooth spine ruled in gilt with burgundy leather title label ruled and lettered in gilt and decoratively tooled in blind; edges sprinkled red (now darkened). Binding quite worn, with several areas of surface loss, including to lettering label, and with boards exposed at corners. One possible area of leather repair on front cover. Front cover and front free endpaper detached; rear joint cracked. Light to moderate foxing and browning throughout, as usual; a few minor stains or smudges. Tiny hole in outer margin of pages 99/100; small hole in rear free endpaper. A few upper corners faintly creased. Early ink signature of W. S. Reynolds, dated 1834, on front pastedown and at head of title (with some bleedthrough); pencil signature of Wm. Drayton on front free endpaper. A few pencil annotations in the lower margin; a few pencil corrections in the text; marginal pencil markings on several leaves. A very good copy, generally very clean, and an excellent candidate for rebinding.
More Information:
"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 eighty-five 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...The first number of The Federalist appeared on 27 October 1787 in The Independent Journal, or The General Advertiser and newspaper publication continued in this and three other papers, The New York Packet, The Daily Advertiser, and The New York Journal and Daily Patriotic Register, through number 77, 2 April 1788. The first thirty-six essays were published in book form on 22 March 1788 by J. and A. McLean of New York and a second volume containing essays 37-85 followed on 28 May. Thus numbers 78-85 were published in book form before they appeared in the popular press" (Printing and the Mind of Man 234, describing the 1788 first edition).
"The lack of incontrovertible evidence of the authorship of individual essays has fueled debate since the early 1800s...It is now agreed that Hamilton wrote Nos. 1, 6-9, 11-13, 15-17, 21-36, 59-61, and 65-86; that Madison wrote Nos. 10, 14, 18-20 (with reference to some material provided by Hamilton), 37-58, 62, and 63; and that Jay wrote Nos. 2-5 and 64" (Richard B. Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation? The Making of the Constitution (1987), page 237). In this edition, Numbers 1, 6-9, 11-13, 15-17, 21-36, 49-53, and 55-85 are attributed to Mr. Hamilton; Numbers 10, 14, and 37-48 are attributed to Mr. Madison; Numbers 18-20 are attributed to Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Madison; and Numbers 2-5 and 54 are attributed to Mr. Jay. Number LXVI is incorrectly numbered LVI.
The engraved portraits are from the same plates as those in the 1810 New York edition published by Williams & Whiting, with the name of the printer omitted.
Ford, Constitution, 40; Ford, Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana, 24; Sabin 23894 ("The same as the edition of 1817, with the addition of an appendix"); Shaw & Shoemaker 44016. Howes H114 (describing the 1788 first edition of the "most famous and influential American political work").
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