ESSAYS ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THEIR POLITICAL GUARANTIES: BY... COUNSELOR AT LAW IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. WITH NOTES BY GEORGE COMBE. FIFTH THOUSAND.
New York: Fowlers & Wells, Phrenological Cabinet, 1848. Original publisher's cloth, stamped in blind, spine title rather faded. 249pp, scattered spotting. Good+.
A treatise on social and political organization, originally published in 1845 with 219 pages. This second printing includes an Appendix with notes by Combe. Hurlbut enumerates the errors of Jeremy Bentham in denying the doctrine of Natural Rights. Such a denial is dangerous indeed, for it places "man's destiny in the hands of his fellow-men, rather than in the hand of his Creator. Here is spread wide the grand entrance-door of tyranny. What may not the legislature see fit to declare to be right or wrong, duty or misdemeanor!"
Government, which is necessary to restrain individual actions that are harmful to others in accordance with "reason and natural morality," has failed to protect the rights of women. Hurlbut argues for "the legal equality of the sexes," for "Woman is deprived of her natural dignity when the laws depress her below the level of man... Man was not 'born to command,' nor woman 'to obey'." The author also treats issues of intellectual property.
Sabin 33997. Not in Harv. Law Cat., Marvin, Marke, Eberstadt, Decker, Larned. Item #14822
Price: $350.00