The history of the administration of John Adams, esq., late president of the United States

New-York: [Barlas & Ward], 1802. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Octavo. 506 pp. Suppressed by Aaron Burr. Rare first issue with publisher's name excised. Handsomely bound in green moroccan leather. Gilt ruled, raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Soiling and minor chipping to margins, restoration to title page. Contemporary signature of Bell Mumford on title page. Scattered spotting. Pages 497-506 provided in facsimile. "Most copies bought up and destroyed by (Aaron) Burr." Howes W-632; Sabin 105044. <br><br> John Wood (ca. 1775 - 1822), political writer, educator, and cartographer, was a Scot who immigrated to New York City in 1800. He soon met Aaron Burr and wrote a series of pamphlets supporting his political positions. One of Wood's efforts was "The History of the Administration of John Adams" (Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, no. 506). Wood wrote this anti-Federalist and pro-Burr book in an effort to advance those causes, but Burr felt the book was five hundred pages, principally scurrility and illy-told private anecdotes with about thirty pages of high eulogium on A.B and suppressed it for fear that it was libelous towards the Federalists. Burr used John Wood to communicate his intentions with Barlas & Ward and William P. Van Ness to buy every copy of the History and suppress it. Van Ness bought all 1250 copies printed. After the publication of Cheetham's Narrative in May of 1802, Burr's supporters believed the suppression of the volume harmed the vice president's image. As a result, Van Ness sent the copies he had recently purchased to a New York bookseller where some were first sold with the Barlas & Ward imprint excised, as were the copyright holders. A second issue was later printed with a new title page. The controversy continued with the publication at the end of July of Wood's "A Correct Statement of the Various Sources from which The History of the Administration of John Adams" was compiled. Wood defended the suppression of his History of the Administration, noting that Burr and others had found numerous errors in the text. According to Wood, Brockholst Livingston gave a "decided opinion, that it was a libelous publication, and if published would be injurious to the community." Wood charged that the followers of DeWitt Clinton were responsible for the suppression controversy, because they wished to see Clinton replace Burr as the party's candidate for vice president in the next election (Kline, Burr description begins Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, Princeton, 1983, 2 vols. description ends, 2:697 8n, 724 7, 732n. "The secretive, cunning, and untrustworthy Burr, [Cheetham] argued, suppressed THE HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS both because he was unfriendly to Jefferson and the current administration and because his own inordinate ambitions required that he not antagonize Federalists whose support he might need in the future" - Sheidley. See Cheetham's A Narrative of the Suppression by Col. Burr, of the History of the Administration of John Adams, , 1802. Surviving first issues have the publisher's imprint excised, as this one is.