[Rarebooks] FS: Kent's COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW, the most important American institutional legal treatise, INSCRIBED by the most influential man in public life after Lincoln at the end of the Civil War

[Charles Agvent]

[SUMNER, Charles] KENT, James. COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW. New York: 
Printed for the Author, 1840. Fourth Edition. Four octavo (5-1/2" x 
8-3/4") volumes bound in original sheep with modern sheep spines and 
gilt-lettered black morocco spine labels. Senator Charles Sumner's copy 
with his SIGNED PRESENTATION in the first volume: "This copy of Kent's 
Com-/mentaries, a present to me/from the Author, is offered/with 
pleasure to the Library/of Olivet College,/Michigan./Charles 
Sumner/Boston Dec. 26th 1847." Above the inscription Sumner has written 
the library number of this copy in his personal library. The other three 
volumes bear a signature that may be Sumner's along with his library 
notation. Sumner, an 1830 graduate of Harvard, was admitted to the bar 
in 1834. In 1850, he was chosen to the United States Senate from 
Massachusetts, in place of Daniel Webster, where he opposed the Fugitive 
Slave Law. Sumner was perhaps the most influential man in public life 
after Lincoln at the end of the Civil War and was a notable advocate for 
emancipation of the slaves and later for civil rights. James Kent's fame 
rests with his authorship of this text, a formative influence on 
American jurisprudence and legal education. During the Civil War Kent 
was one of the most perceptive commentators on law in antebellum 
America. An exceptional copy of the most important American 
institutional legal treatise, America's first legal classic, owned by 
one of this country's most famous senators. Light and scattered foxing. 
Some loss of leather to the boards, mostly along the edges. Clean, Near 
Fine set, neatly rebacked. (#012857)        $4,500.00

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