# The Federalist (Dawson)/front matter

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
Henry B. Dawson,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON.
TO
GEORGE LIVERMORE
OF DANA HILL, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, AN ENLIGHTENED MERCHANT AND A LIBERAL SCHOLAR, WHOSE EARNEST AND SUCCESSFUL
CULTIVATION OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL LITERATURE HAS BEEN NOBLY TURNED TO THE ILLUSTRATION AND SUPPORT OF
THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE COUNTRY, THIS EDITION OF “THE FŒDERALIST”
IS INSCRIBED BY HIS FRIEND,
THE EDITOR.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The publication of a new and carefully prepared edition of The Fœderalist needs no apology, nor will one be offered. It is due to myself, however, as well as to the reader, that the plan which has been pursued in the preparation of this edition for the press should be made known, and that wherein I have differed in opinion, concerning any portion of my editorial labors, from some of my friends, I should assign the reasons which have controlled my action.
In the first volume of the work, preceded by a historical and bibliographical Introduction and an analytical Table of Contents, will be found the entire text of The Fœderalist, with such notes only as the authors themselves appended to their productions; in the second will appear the Notes which have been prepared by myself, embracing the more important of the alterations and corruptions of the text which have appeared from time to time, many of the manuscript notes which have been found on the margins and blank leaves of the copies which were formerly owned by Mr. Madison, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Ames, Chancellor Kent, and other friends of the respective authors, and such other illustrative matter as I have supposed will be useful to those who may examine the text of The Federalist, together ​with a very complete and carefully prepared Index to the entire work.
The text which has been adopted in this edition is that which the distinguished authors themselves originally gave to the world, without addition, abridgment, or the least alteration, except where typographical errors were subsequently corrected by the authors themselves, or are apparent and unquestionable.
In thus rejecting, as unworthy of entire confidence, every collective edition of The Fœderalist which has hitherto appeared, I am sensible that I have carried out the decided preference of General Hamilton and Mr. Jáy, while a single exception only occurs in which the same original text appears to have been mutilated with the approval of Mr. Madison. At the same time, it is gratifying to know that the choice which I have made in the selection of a text has met the entire approval of many of the nearest friends of the writers ; and it is confidently believed that The Fœderalist, as the authors originally left it, and, with the exception referred to, desired it to remain, is now for the first time presented in book-form to the world.
The portraits which have been selected for the illustration of these volumes also merit attention. That of General Hamilton is from a faithful copy on Sêvres china of the celebrated Talleyrand miniature, which Hon. James A. Hamilton designates the best likeness of his father, and has kindly permitted to be used for the illustration of this work. That of Mr. Madison is from the celebrated original painting by Stuart which graces the fine collection of A. A. Low, Esq., of Brooklyn; and ​to the kindness of that public-spirited gentleman I am indebted for the privilege of submitting it in an engraving to the discriminating judgment of his countrymen. To John Jáy, Esq., of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, I am indebted for permission to copy the fine original portrait of Mr. Jáy, as a private citizen, also by Stuart, which has been carefully preserved at The Jáy Homestead, and which is considered the best of the many portraits of the distinguished statesman and jurist which have been preserved in different parts of the country.
It remains only for me to acknowledge, gratefully, the kind assistance, often accompanied with friendly suggestions, which I have received from time to time, for the purpose of adding to the interest and value of this edition of The Fœderalist, from Hon. James A. Hamilton of Dobbs' Ferry, in this county; from John Jáy, Esq., of The Jay Homestead, Bedford, also in this county; from James Kent, Esq., of Fishkill Landing; from Egbert Benson, Esq., of the city of New York; from A. A. Low, Esq., of Brooklyn, N. Y.; from Francis Howland, Esq., of Englewood, New Jersey; from George Henry Moore, Esq., the librarian of the New York Historical Society; from Frank H. Norton, Esq., the assistant superintendent of the Astor Library, New York; from S. Hastings Grant, Esq., the librarian of the Mercantile Library Association, New York, and from Mr. G. Hannah, his obliging assistant; from Wentworth S. Butler, Esq., the librarian of the Society Library, New York; from Alfred B. Street, Esq., the librarian of the State Library, Albany, New ​York; from John G. Stephenson, Esq., the librarian of the Congress of the United States; from Samuel F. Haven, Esq., the librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts; from Charles C. Jewett, Esq., the superintendent of the Public Library of the city of Boston; from Horatio Gates Jones, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and from Brinton Coxe, Esq., both of the city of Philadelphia; from Edward F. and William Heathcode De Lancy, Junior, Esqs., of the city of New York; from Professor Henry W. Torrey, of Harvard University; and, to an extent which few have equalled, from George Livermore, Esq., of Cambridge, Massachusetts; to each of them, and to all others who have lightened my burden, I can only return my heartfelt thanks.
HENRY B. DAWSON.
Morrisania, Westchester Co., N. Y.  July 18th, 1868.