A Treatise on the Law of Libel and Liberty of the Press...
First Edition of One of the First Important American Books on Freedom of the Press Cooper, Thomas [1759-1835]. A Treatise on the Law of Libel and the Liberty of the Press; Showing the Origin, Use, and Abuse of the Law of Libel: With Copious Notes and References to Authorities in Great Britain and the United States: As Applicable to Individuals and to Political and Ecclesiastical Bodies and Principles. New York: G.F. Hopkins & Son, 1830. xxxviii, 184 pp. Octavo (8-3/4" x 5-1/2"). Contemporary three-quarter calf over marbled boards, lettering piece and blind fillets to spine. Light rubbing to boards, heavier rubbing to extremities with wear to spine ends and corners, joints partially cracked, small worm-track to rear pastedown. Moderate toning to text, light foxing in places. Early presentation inscription to front pastedown (from J.E. Goodrich to Geo. L. Fletcher, Esq., April 1860), small embossed library stamp to front free endpaper. An appealing copy. $1,000. * First edition. With an appendix of two letters by Thomas Jefferson. Cooper, trained as a chemist and lawyer, was a polymath who published books on law, political science, economics, medicine and the natural sciences. A friend of Joseph Priestley and Thomas Jefferson, he was convicted in 1800 under the Sedition Act for libeling President Adams in a 1799 handbill. He went on to become a professor of chemistry at Dickinson College and the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty of South Carolina College in 1819 and became its president in 1820. He is considered one of the intellectual fathers of the secession movement. McCoy, Freedom of the Press C558. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 3445.
Price: $1,000.00
Book number 75361