51 B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s “Liberty And The Laws Depend Entirely On A Separation Of [Powers]”: John Adams’ Defence Of The Constitutions, A Foundational Text In Constitutional History 66. ADAMS, John. A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. London, 1787. Octavo, contemporary full speckled calf rebacked, custom clamshell box. $14,000. First edition of Adams’ important work on a constitutional separation of powers, his reasoned yet impassioned “rendition of the case for checks and balances in government” (McCullough). While acting as America’s minister in Great Britain, John Adams “felt an urgency like that of 1776. Great events were taking place at home… A constitutional convention was in the offing, and as he had been impelled in 1776 to write his Thoughts on Government, so Adams plunged ahead now, books piled about him, his pen scratching away until all hours… By early January 1787, Adams had rushed the first installment of his effort to a London printer. Titled A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America… copies were sent off at once to the United States and to Jefferson in Paris” (McCullough, 374). On its receipt, Jefferson replied, “I have read your book with infinite satisfaction and improvement. It will do great good in America. Its learning and its good sense will, I hope, make it an institute for our politicians, old as well as young” (Sowerby, 3004). “Adams’ Defence was an expanded, more erudite rendition of the case for checks and balances in government that he had championed in his Thoughts on Government (1776)” (McCullough, 75). Howes A60. Sabin 233. Bookplate of Aaron Putnam of Medford, Massachusetts. Putnam served as a regimental surgeon from 1775 to 1777 during the Revolutionary War. Scattered foxing to text. A handsome copy of this important work.
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