David Ramsay's "History of the United States from their First Settlement as English Colonies, in 1607, to the Year 1808, or the Thirty-Third of their Sovereignty and Independence." Published by Mathew Carey, Philadelphia, 1816-1817. This First Edition is in very good condition, and one of the first complete histories of the new United States. Rare and complete in Three volumes. Condition: 8vo. 418pp [2] ads, 445pp [3] ads, 368pp [86pp appendix & index] [2] ads. Later full calf boards with leather spine labels stamped in gilt. Wear to the extremities, leather spine ends chipped and frayed, hinges cracking but solid, rubbing and scuffing to the leather boards, scattered foxing and toning, a tear to the lower corner of the blank rear flyleaf in volume one. A dampstain is visible along the upper edge of Volume 2 near the gutter but does not impact the text block. Provenance of Joseph Pritchard with his name on the title page of all three volumes dated April 19, 1817. Pritchard has also made several notations in ink throughout the three volumes. 
 
*David Ramsay was one of the first major historians of the American Revolutionary War. During the Revolution he served in the South Carolina legislature until he was captured by the British. After his release he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782–1786. He would go on to write the two volume History of the Revolutionary War in 1879. History of the United States was published posthumously, as Ramsay was murdered just a year earlier by a mentally ill man whom he had examined as a physician. He is the first American politician to be assassinated.