Chipman

1822 · ref. 86313 — 1822. Middlebury VT: Published by the Author 1822. Middlebury VT: Published by the Author 1822. The First American Treatise on Contracts Chipman Daniel 1765-1850. An Essay on the Law of Contracts For the Payment of Specifick Articles. Middlebury VT: Published by the Author 1822. xvi 17-224 pp. Octavo 8" x 5"; 20.3 x 12.7 cm. Full contemporary tan calf blind rules to boards blind fillets and maroon gilt lettering piece to spine. A few minor nicks and scuffs light rubbing to extremities corners lightly bumped. Moderate toning to extremities corner folds to a few leaves foxing and offsetting to endleaves some offsetting to margins of first and final leaves of text faint illegible early pencil signature to front pastedown. A remarkably well preserved very good copy. $750. First edition. Chipman's landmark work occupies a pivotal place in American jurisprudence capturing a moment of profound transformation in economic and legal thought. In his 1847 Legal Bibliography J.G. Marvin famously criticized Chipman asserting that the author "showed what the law of contracts ought to be rather than what the law of contracts is." However modern legal historians view Marvin's critique as a failure to grasp a rapidly evolving legal landscape demonstrating instead that Chipman's ideas were profoundly ahead of their time. As legal historian Morton Horwitz points out Chipman was the first American jurist to dismantle the traditional paternalistic "equity theory of contract"-which focused on the inherent fairness of an exchange-and submerge it in a modern "conception of contractual obligation based exclusively on express bargains" determined strictly by market values. Consequently this essay remains an indispensable primary source for understanding the development of early American commercial law and the unique marketplace practices of the young republic. Daniel Chipman was a distinguished Vermont attorney a professor of law at Middlebury College and a vital political figure in the state's formative years. He served as a representative to both the Vermont state legislature and the U.S. Congress and was a prominent delegate to several Vermont constitutional conventions. Marvin Legal Bibliography 189. Horwitz The Transformation of American Law 181. Cohen Bibliography of Early American Law 3621. unknown