REVIEW OF A TREATISE ON EXPATRIATION. BY GEORGE HAY, ESQUIRE, ATTORNEY OF THE U.S. FOR THE DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA. BY A MASSACHUSETTS LAWYER.
Boston: Russell, Cutler, 1814. Stitched, untrimmed, 39pp. Very Good. Inscribed on front wrapper, "Mr. Vaughan from A. Bradford."
The Virginian Hay was a confirmed Jeffersonian Republican who "kept the pen of a ready writer always loaded with diatribes against the Federalists" [DAB]. Hay's Treatise had articulated the legal bases for "the opposition made by the United States to the British claim of impressment," and examined British, American, and international law.
Lowell here exposes Hay's political motivations, arguing that the Treatise was designed to make the people "believe in the continuance of war" and asserting that the Treatise was sponsored by the national government: it was "the product of one of Mr. Madison's officers," printed by government printers, distributed by Secretary of State Monroe himself, under his frank, to prepare the public for harsh war measures.
FIRST EDITION. I Harv. Law Cat. 1207. Marvin 477. Item #13167
Price: $275.00