Mélanges politiques et philosophiques extraits des mémoires et de la correspondance de Thomas Jefferson, précédés d'un essai sur les principes de l'école américaine et d'une traduction de la constitution des États-unis

Paulin, Paris 1833, 8vo (12.7 x 21.1 cm), (4) 468 and (4) 475 (1), bound
First French edition.
Contemporary half dark blue calf. Spine with fillets and roulettes to head and foot. A little slight rubbing, mostly to corners. Faint scattered foxing. A fine copy.
Of the four volumes of the memoirs and correspondence of Jefferson that appeared in the US in 1829 (Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson), the French publishers preferred a judicious and enlightened selection, rather than publishing the integral text. The essay on the principles of the American school is followed by the Constitution of the United States. The extract from the memoirs takes up relatively little room and is mostly made up of political articles. The correspondence takes up the lion's share of the two volumes and deals most notably with Louis XVI, Bonaparte and Europe as well as the American correspondence with Washington, Thomas Payne, etc. and the politics and economy of the United States.
An importtant work for American ideas on liberty and the republic, the US Constitution being at the time still little known in France.
After being Washington's Vice President, Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States. This enlightened man, deeply interested by the varied fields in which he was very competent (architecture, the sciences, and so on) was a devoted democrat, author of the Declaration of Independence and the laws on religious liberty, a first freeing of slaves and freedom of the press, all undeprinned by the ideas of liberty and equality. His time in France as ambassador led to his severely criticising Louis XVI and Royal authority.