A COMMENTARY AND REVIEW OF MONTESQUIEU'S SPIRIT OF LAWS, PREPARED FOR PRESS FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN THE HANDS OF THE PUBLISHER... by Destutt de Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude - 1811

Phila: Duane, 1811. First edition. viii,292pp. Cotemp calf (front hinge loosening; pp 135-292 have an ink stain on the upper right of each page of only a small piece to about a one inch by half inch) Translated from the author's manuscript by his close friend, Thomas Jefferson. In his preface, Tracy states that he wrote this work extolling the republican constitution of America over that of England while residing in America, and, more important, that he wrote it for Americans, albeit in his native French for lack of sufficient skill in English. Undoubtedly, Jefferson played a significant role in this work anterior to its translation. An edition in French did not appear until 1817. It also contains considerable discussion of economic policy. Shaw 22689. An important piece of early American political theory.