Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, Against the Attack of M. Turgot in his Letter to Dr. Price, Dated the Twenty-Second Day of March, 1778  (Volumes 2 & 3 only)

John Adams

William Young, for William Cobbett, opposite Christ's Church, Philadelphia, 1797

Volumes 2 & 3 only. Bound in contemporary sheep, rebacked with renewed modern leather spines. Early St. Mary's Baltimore library inscription, stamp. 451; 528 pages. "Admirably calculated to preserve the Union". - Howes A-60; Sabin 234 (citing first edition of 1787).  

John Adams first published this ambitious project supporting the American experiment in tripartite federal government in 1787. He began writing these books while working as an American diplomat in Europe.  It amounted to Adams' "Confession of Political Faith," and was partly addressed to European elites who Adams was trying to explain and defend new American political developments.