1787 JOHN ADAMS. A Defence of the Constitution of the United States. First Edition.

  A very desirable first edition of John Adams' influential work on a constitutional separation of powers; a work which proved central to the multi-branch structure proposed in the Constitution of the United States of America. A cornerstone piece of Americana. Adams, John. A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. London. C. Dilly. 1787.  As America began emerging from the rubble of the Revolution, John Adams was acting as America's minister in Great Britain. Even with the Revolution ended, he wrote that he still "felt an urgency like that of 1776. Great events were taking place at home . . .  A constitutional convention was in the offing, and as he had been impelled in 1776 to write his Thoughts on Government, so Adams plunged ahead now, books piled about him, his pen scratching away until all hours . . . [and] By early January 1787, Adams had rushed the first installment of his effort to a London printer. Titled A Defence of the Constitutions of Go