Webster, Pelatiah

A Dissertation on the Political Union and Constitution of the Thirteen United States, of North-America: Which is necessary to their Preservation and Happiness. Philadelphia, Printed: Hartford: Re-Printed by Hudson & Goodwin, 1783

8v🤡o (175 x 114 mm). Browned throughout, lacks D4 blank.&nb🧜sp;Quarter calf antique over blue marbled boards, black lettering piece.

Second edition of this important tract on the Constitution. Seeing the disparate Confederation as politically inadequate for fiscal purposes, political economist Pelatiah Webster urged greater union, and became an early advocate of the Federalist cause. First published in Philadelphia in February 1783, his political Dissertation called for the establishment of a new federal constitution, and outlined a bicameral legislature and an independent federal judiciary. Historians have subsequently regarded Webster as the "Architect of the Constitution." Although there is no solid evidence that the 1787 Constitutional Congress used his model as a blueprint, his Dissertation reportedly influenced James Madison's thinking.

REFERENCE:

ESTC W38137; Evans 18300, Howes W208; Sabin 102402; Trumbull, Connecticut 1603

PROVENANCE:

John Backus (inscription on D3v)