A DISSERTATION CONCERNING POLITICAL EQUALITY, AND THE CORPORATION OF NEW-YORK.
New York: D. Denniston, 1800. vii, [1], 9-50, [2 blanks] pp. Lightly toned. Disbound, else Very Good.
Cheetham, pamphleteer and journalist, edited the Democratic-Republicans' newspaper in New York. He argues that the American Revolution is "an unanswerable confutation of pestilent doctrines of the advocates of despotic power." Human liberty is founded exclusively on "the principle of equality." But the Council of Appointment, created by New York's 1776 Constitution, controls every state, county, and municipal office. Nothing, says Cheetham, more egregiously violates democracy's bedrock doctrine of equality.
"In politics there is, perhaps, no maxim clearer than this, that the people, for whom a Government is intended, have the exclusive right of 'choosing their own governors." But the Mayor of New York City is appointed by the Council; he is not elected by the people. The result: New York City's citizens "have no power to remove" a Mayor, "however noxious the Chief magistrate may be."
FIRST EDITION. Evans 37171. Sabin 12375. Cohen 5749. OCLC 808667893 [1- NYHS], 558247297 [1- Brit. Lib.] as of January 2024. AAS also owns a copy. Item #39772
Price: $1,500.00