Beschreibung:

(Hamilton, Alexander)Report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the House of Representatives, Relative to a Provision for the Support of the Public Credit of the United States, in Conformity to a Resolution of the Twenty-First Day of September, 1789. New York: printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine 1790 Folio (335 x 212 mm, uncut). Title-page soiled with some careful restoration, next few and last few leaves with some dampstaining and repair at upper margin, occasional scattered marginal soiling, tears, and repairs. Stitched into period blue wrappers. Black morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. First printing of the fundamental document of Hamilton's term as the first Secretary of the Treasury, and one of the greatest American state papers. "This first of Hamilton's great public reports … constituted the seven-point legislative program of President Washington's first administration. The seven points were: 1) the restoration of public credit, 2) a sound system of taxation, 3) a national bank, 4) a sound currency, 5) the promotion of commerce, 6) a liberal immigration policy, and 7) the encouragement of manufactures" (Hendrickson, Hamilton 2:21–25 ). As a result of Hamilton's proposals, Congress assumed the debts of the States contracted during the Revolution (see lot 483) and established a national bank. "If the controversies raised by Hamilton’s Report have at times tended to obscure the fact that he was not the first to propose many of the ideas which he advanced, the originality of his synthesis cannot be overemphasized. There are few state papers which carry implications for so many aspects of public policy and which at the same time contain such detailed provisions for the implementation of policy. The institutions suggested in the Report, the ideas upon which they were based, and even many of the phrases by which they were described were not always original. But phrases were sometimes put in a context with which their original authors would have found scant sympathy; ideas were sometimes taken from writers whose main emphasis was quite different from Hamilton’s; and the institutions that the Report proposed were integrated to form parts of a political and economic system that can only be described as uniquely Hamiltonian" (Syrett, "Introductory Note: Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit," in Papers of Alexander Hamilton 6:65). REFERENCECelebration of My Country 122; Church 1253; ESTC W29051; Evans 22998; Federal Hundred 28; Ford, Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana 161