A Dissertation Upon The Constitutional Freedom Of The Press In The United States Of America, By An Impartial Citizen … Boston: Printed By David Carlisle, For Joseph Nancrede, No. 49, Marlborough Street. 1801, with an Advertisement by the Author, which reads in part “The freedom of the press is of vast importance to the United States; it depends, for its constitutional definition, upon natural, simple principles; there is no abstruse learning on the subject. It ought to be settled, and understood by the body of freemen, whose votes in elections, and whose verdicts as jurymen, are to maintain it, according to its constitutional principles. This essay is the first attempt of the kind in America …” The dissertation is a first edition that is 54 pages long, disbound (the front and rear boards are missing), with the original marbled endpapers, and although his name does not appear anywhere - he just calls himself an “impartial citizen” - this was written by James Sullivan (1744 - 1808), an American lawyer and politician from Berwick, Maine who contributed to the political discourse taking place in many newspapers in Massachusetts at the time. Berwick was then part of Massachusetts, and Sullivan wrote under a variety of pseudonyms, and he was very concerned about suppression of the press, especially after the efforts by the King and Great Britain to stifle dissent during the Revolutionary War - a familiar theme even now. Sullivan was an early and outspoken opponent of British colonial policies which led to the War. He was elected to the provincial assembly in 1774. When it first met in June, Sullivan was a leader in calling for a Continental Congress, and he was involved in drafting the state constitution of Massachusetts. Sullivan was a political partisan, supporting the Democratic-Republican Party and subscribing to Jefferson’s republican ideals. He supported John Hancock and Samuel Adams in their political careers and publicly expressed opposition to slavery, and his views expressed wide-ranging support for individual rights, including those of women, children, and minorities. When Massachusetts debated ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, Sullivan was one of a number of Massachusetts politicians who expressed reservations about the document, but generally supported ratification. On the other hand, he supported harsh laws confiscating the property of Loyalists who fled the country or fought on the side of the British, although he later represented personal friends who were Loyalists seeking to recover their property, and he was one of the most important legal figures of the time in Massachusetts. He strongly believed that freedom of printing is necessary to the maintenance of a free form of government - the liberty of the press is essential to a free government - and in no small way did he hint that to choke off dissent leads to tyranny and abuse of power. That was the lesson of the Revolutionary War for him, and those tenets are at the heart of his dissertation here. He was an early associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, served as the state's attorney general for many years, and ran unsuccessfully for governor several times before finally winning the office in 1807; he served in that office until he died a year later. Sullivan was well ahead of his time, and the document is only 8 1/8 x 5 in. wide, but it is a worthwhile document and a perfect candidate for rebinding. #1634 #23