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.. [4],360pp. Contemporary tree calf, later gilt morocco label. Spine head and upper outer corner of front board chipped, minor edge wear, some scuffing to boards. Previous owner's ink stamp on titlepage. Minor toning and foxing throughout. A few instances of ink marginalia, minor damage to two leaves in the outer margin, costing a few words in seven lines of the second leaf. Overall good condition. 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 (truncated) and the constitutions of twenty 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. 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 twenty states - documents that "rested on a new foundation, adjusted to a new political system" - Hinsdale. 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. This volume was printed by Gales and Seaton, noted publishers of the NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, a major record of congressional proceedings and one of the most influential newspapers of the day.

Though OCLC lists twenty copies over three records, including the Library of Congress, the American Antiquarian Society, the Library of Virginia, Yale, and Harvard, this book is rather scarce in the market. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 47716. MATYAS 19-02a. COHEN 3013. HINSDALE, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 64, 66. TARR, UNDERSTANDING STATE CONSTITUTIONS 4, 11. MOTT 178. OCLC 2940512, 724286759, 1114274787. (Inventory #: WRCAM56091)