A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (Presentation copy)
London: Printed for C. Dilly, 1787.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (Presentation copy)
London: Printed for C. Dilly, 1787. First edition. Rare first edition, presentation copy, inscribed by John Adams to the American clergyman Samuel Provoost (1742-1815), an early supporter of the Revolution. The circumstances of presentation are exceptional, this copy being bound and inscribed within a month of its publication, at a time when both Adams and Provoost were in London, the former advocating in his role as first US ambassador to Great Britain for the latter to be consecrated bishop by the English church.
The inscription, penned in Adams’s characteristic open hand on the first blank, reads: “Dr Provost [sic] from the Author”. It is to our knowledge the earliest dated presentation copy to appear on the market, preceding those inscribed to the Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, dated 27 December 1795 (Christie’s 2015, vols 1-3); Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, dated 21 May 1794 (Christie’s 1995, vol. 1 only); and Yale President Dr Ezra Stiles (Stiles’s signature dated 28 February 1788, Parke Bernet 1939, vols 1-2). Closest in date is the interleaved copy given by Adams to Richard Henry Lee, estimated as received overseas in April or May 1787 (Profiles in History 2013, vol. 1 only).
Adams wrote his landmark treatise on tripartite federal government, the Defence of the American Constitution, while serving as first US Minister Plenipotentiary to Britain, 1785-88. Although it eventually comprised three volumes, volume one was issued as a standalone work, with volumes two and three following in August 1787 and January 1788 respectively. The title page of volume one bears no volume statement, being “all published” at the time of issue. First and early bindings - such as that of the present copy - therefore do not incorporate numerals on their spines (as is also the case with the Rochefoucauld-Liancourt copy).
The Adams Papers narrows the publication date of the first volume to circa 15 January 1787. Adams certainly had copies to hand at his Grosvenor Square residence by then: on 15 January he wrote to Cotton Tufts, his cousin in Massachusetts, “informing him that the London bookseller Charles Dilly was sending him and Isaac Smith Sr. copies of the first volume of his Defence. Adams provided a list of those to whom copies should be distributed that included his sons and [Richard] Cranch. Tufts replied on 15 May, reporting that the books had been distributed to the people indicated in Adams’s letter and to others as determined by himself, Cranch, and Smith” (footnote, letter from Adams to Cranch, 15 Jan. 1787). The number of copies sent to Tufts is thought to be about 100, earmarked primarily for family members and influential acquaintances, but also for institutions such as Harvard College and the new American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Aside from these “presentation” copies, regular copies of the Defence reached American shores in mid-April 1787, onboard the Polly & Nancy and the Neptune; the earliest newspaper excerpts appear midway through the month, and one Boston bookseller who listed the book on 28 April recorded selling thirty copies within a week.
Back in London, Adams had ample reason and opportunity to present Provoost with a copy of his Defence in person. Adams was the driving force behind Provoost’s consecration. He would later say that “there is no part of my Life, on which I look back and reflect with more Satisfaction, than the part I took, bold, daring and hazardous as it was to myself and mine, in the introducti[on] of Episcopacy into America” (letter, John Adams to William White, 29 Oct. 1814). As early as January 1786, he met with John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, to facilitate the introduction of candidates. William White, Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania, and Samuel Provoost, first Episcopal bishop of New York and chaplain to the Continental Congress, were eventually chosen. At Adams’s encouragement, the two bishops-elect sailed from New York on 2 November 1786, arriving in late November. By the point at which White sent his first report to the Committee of the Church in Pennsylvania - 6 December - he and Provoost had already called on Adams. A letter from Abigail Adams of 17 January - two days after the estimated publication of the Defence - records that “To day we have a Clerical party to dine with us, amongst whom are the two American Bishops” (Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 17 Jan. 1787). It is appealing to think that this copy might have been inscribed and handed over at this very occasion.
White and Provoost’s audience with Moore was successful, and the royal licence was issued on 25 January 1787; they were consecrated at Lambeth Palace Chapel on 4 February. Within the week they departed London, sailing from Falmouth on 17 February and reaching New York on 8 April. Provoost’s bookplate, headed by a bishop’s mitre and present on the front pastedown of this volume, is by the New York engraver Peter Rushton Maverick (1755-1811), likely commissioned by Provoost on his return to America (American Bookplates no. 709).
The paths of Adams and Provoost intersected again at the inauguration of George Washington in New York City on 30 April 1789. Both held prominent roles in the proceedings; Adams as Vice-President and Provoost as the first Chaplain of the United States Senate. Provoost presided over the “divine service” and read from a proposed Episcopalian version of the Book of Common Prayer, a fitting choice given that he had by this point established himself as “one of the leaders in organizing and establishing the Episcopal church” in America (ANB).
Subsequent provenance: with the ownership signature on the title page of Richard Sheppard Moloney (1811-1891), a New Hampshire-born medical doctor who, after graduating from Dartmouth Medical School, set up practice in Belvidere, Illinois in the late 1830s. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-second Congress (1851-3) and served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1852 and 1884, for Illinois and Nebraska (his home in later years) respectively.
Octavo (211 x 128 mm). Bound for presentation in contemporary English tree calf, smooth spine elaborately tooled in gilt, red morocco spine label, gilt floral-and-leaf roll borders on covers, gilt scrollwork roll on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. Housed in a brown quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery.
Engraved armorial bookplate of Samuel Provoost on front pastedown (the arms sometime hand- coloured); ownership signature of Richard S. Moloney on title page; early pencil annotations on p. 144 (replacing “established” with “abolished” in the phrase “established oligarchy”), p. 325 (a marginal “XXX”), and on blank facing p. 392 (“p. 259-321”). Joints split but holding as cords expertly rethreaded, tiny early patch re-adhered to front board; contents sporadically foxed and toned, occasional brown marks, short closed tear at lower edge of b3, small patch of damp through fore edges of gatherings C-D, small chip at lower edge of H2, blank scrap of paper laid in between pp. 156-7. Overall a very well-preserved copy, the binding in near-unsophisticated state.
ESTC T143995; Howes A60; Sabin 234. For Provoost’s bookplate, see Charles Dexter Allen, American Bookplates, 1894. “Volume 1 of John Adams’s A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Editorial Note”, The Adams Papers, Founders Online, National Archives, accessible online; all letters cited also from the Adams Papers. (Item #5172)
