Page:The Federalist (Ford).djvu/40

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INTRODUCTION.

Literature Relating to the Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, 1787-1788." Briefly, a collected edition of the newspaper articles, as revised by Hamilton, was printed in 1788, and a reissue of this was made in 1799. In 1802 a new edition with a preface by John Wells, who was slightly assisted by Hamilton, was issued, and this text was again printed in 1810 and 1817, both the latter editions adding the names of the authors from "a private memorandum" in Hamilton's "own handwriting."

In 1818 an edition, with a preface by Jacob Gideon, was printed with Madison's authority, "the numbers written by Mr. Madison corrected by himself," and with the assignment of authorship according to his views. Other editions of this text were printed in 1821, 1826, 1831, 1837, 1842, 1847, 1852, and 1857. In the edition of 1831 a brief and very inadequate index was added.

In 1863 Mr. Henry B. Dawson reprinted in collected form the original newspaper text, to which he added a learned, though biased introduction. There have been several reprints of this, but with the suppression of this introduction.

In 1864 Mr. James C. Hamilton edited an elaborate edition of Hamilton's revised text of 1788, with an introduction written from a Hamiltonian point of view; of this edition there have been several reissues.

In 1886 Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge reprinted the text of Dawson, with one or two slight modifications, and with an introduction rather favorable to Hamilton. He also included the index printed in the edition of 1831.

The present edition is designed primarily for the use of students, though it is hoped that certain new and improved features will make it the most serviceable as well for the lawyer and jurist. For the first time Hamilton's preliminary outline of The Federalist is included, and from the earliest edition his table of contents and his introduction, omitted in recent editions, have been added. In addition a new table of contents has been prepared, giving fuller treatment, and this has