Paine, Thomas | Paine's final published pamphlet

Paine, Thomas

Thomas Paine to the Citizens of Pennsylvania on the Proposal for Calling a Convention. Philadelphia: Wm. Duane, 1805 

12mo (168 x 96 mm). Some spotting, dampstaining to lower margin, upper right portion of pg. 26 under-inked. Modern half calf and marbled boards, gilt-lettered label to spine.

First edition.

The present work offers Paine's thoughts on the proposed convention to form a new state constitution. Pennsylvania's first constitution of 1776 was one of the most democratic state constitutions, and was replaced by a more conservative constitution in 1790, which had been drawn up by the ascendant Federalists. The 1805 movement was a Jeffersonian reaction, and in this pamphlet Paine attempts to prove the unconstitutionality of the power that was assumed by the New York legislature to grant charters. Paine, who was at this time a resident of New Rochelle, New York, writes: "As I resided in the capital of your state (Philadelphia) in the 'time that tried men's souls,' and all my political writing, during the revolutionary war, were written in that city, it seems natural for me to look back on the place of my political and literary birth, and feel an interest for its happiness."  

REFERENCE

Celebration of My Country 156; OCLC 19939222; Sabin 58240