Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779. First edition. 8vo. (iv), 122 pp., with half-title (often wanting). 20th-century quarter tan buckram over brown cloth, red morocco spine label, stamped in gilt; all edges trimmed; abrasion on front paste-down from removed label; faint abrasion on verso of title-page and at foot of final page; scattered light soiling to text. Sabin 50830. Evans 16625; Howes M-829; Reese, The Revolutionary Hundred 57; Hildeburn 3907; ESTC W28706; Rachum, From "American Independence" to the "American Revolution" (in Journal of American Studies, Vo. 27, No. 1, April 1993)

Rare first edition of Gouverneur Morris's masterful account of the causes of the American Revolution, "a skillful and official resume of the American view of the question" (Sabin). Published in response British attempts at reconciliation, this first edition was printed in February 1779, at Congress's expense, in 1,300 copies. According to Ilan Rachum, it is possibly the first appearance of the term "American Revolution" at "the head of an official publication sponsored by the United States government" (p. 76).

According to RBH, this is only the third copy to come to auction since 1984.