PRINCIPES DU DROIT POLITIQUE

([Amsterdam: Chez Zacharie Chatelain], 1751).

FIRST EDITION AND A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON THE PRIMARY POLITICAL THEORIES AND ACTIONS LEADING TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND DEVOLOPMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS. Early American political thought drew on ideas circulating on the Continent and no other author played a greater part in transmitting those ideas over the Atlantic. Burlamaqui's conceptions of judicially reviewed checks and balances was far more practical and developed than that of Montesquieu, another of the most revered French thinkers. Burlamaqui was also the first political philosopher to articulate the idea of a "quest for happiness" to be a natural right; famously restated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
The volume, complete unto itself, discusses the origin and nature of civil society, the idea of sovereignty and the responsibilities inherent, an analysis of the different forms of government, of legislatures, of the role of religion and the rule of the creator, of the issues of non-citizens and of rights and responsibilities in war, of the actions of the people and of their ambassadors and representatives. A highly important work. Item #30739

Volume II only, of two. First Edition. The preferred quarto printing. With a few engraved head- or tail-pieces and with a diagram showing the succession of brothers Louis, Charles and Henri. 4to, in antique full period speckled calf, the spine with raised bands ruled in blind, tan morocco label gilt lettered. ix-xii, 380 pp. A very handsome copy, the text fresh and clean, the binding sturdy and attractive.

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