Product Description
Special limited numbered (193 copies) edition facsimile reprint of the very rare first edition containing one original leaf from 1788 first edition bound in, and facsimile reprint of the complete text of the two-volume first edition. The views of Hamilton, Madison and Jay expressed in this landmark work have had a lasting effect on U.S. Constitutional law. Most scholars agree that 51 of the essays were written by Hamilton, 29 Madison and 5 by Jay. Most of the individual essays appeared under the collective pseudonym "Publius" in New York newspapers and journals from October 27, 1787 to early June 1788. The first edition was published anonymously and printed by the M'Lean brothers, who collected and published the first 36 essays as Volume I in March, 1788, with the final 49 essays in Volume II in May of the same year, along with the text of the Constitution. The essays were intended to encourage ratification of the proposed constitution by New York State, but were immediately recognized as the most compelling commentary on the most radical form of government the world had seen. Hamilton's essays especially express a strong concern for the rights of property over the natural rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," as outlined by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
