The Constitution Of New Hampshire, As Altered And Amended By A Convention Of Delegates, Held At Concord, In Said State, By Adjournment, On the second Wednesday of February, M.DCC.XCII [1792], Printed At Concord, By George Hough, For The Convention, and the half title is The Constitution Of New Hampshire. The book is 3/4 bound, with gilt lettering on the spine, marbled boards, marbled endpapers with the bookplate of The John Crerar Library Chicago” on the front paste-down, “Withdrawn From Crerar Library” stamped on the first page of the text, but with no library pockets or withdrawal slips inside, 59 pages of text, and the top edge is gilt. John Crerar (1827 - 1889) was a wealthy American industrialist from Chicago whose investments were mainly in the railroad industry. He had a successful business career, but is most well known for his philanthropic efforts, his activism in the Presbyterian Church, and his investment in the John Crerar Library. He was a Republican throughout his life and made only one personal political venture: in 1888 he accepted a nomination and was elected a presidential elector for the Benjamin Harrison campaign. Although a successful businessman, Crerar never let business smother his love of books and his cultural concerns, and was instrumental in bringing William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair, to America for a lecture tour, and Crerar gifted two million dollars to the city of Chicago to build a library after he died, and two millions dollars was a hefty sum at that time. He also bequested $100,000 for a giant statue of Abraham Lincoln to be built in one of Chicago’s parks, and the statue was commissioned to the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens; in 1915 it was loaned to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and viewed by millions of visitors in San Francisco that year, and Crerar did this because of his admiration for Lincoln - Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States. The book measures 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. wide, the front cover is nearly detached, with light rubbing on the boards and along the edges of the spine, wear at the heel of the spine, a water stain on the half title, occasional offset, and the spine can be repaired, and the book was owned by John Crerar. At his funeral, a speaker said “He has set us an example of the right use of wealth”, and clearly a man himself to be admired. A constitution for the state was proposed in 1781, but was rejected, so a revised version was proposed in 1783 and approved by the state's delegates and citizenry. Further revisions were proposed over the years, and a final version with amendments was approved and published in September 1792, so this copy preceded the September copy by about half a year and would be a great way to see how the final copy was changed from earlier in the year. #56 #1714