Murat-Hopkinson Copy of the Revolutionary Constitution of 1848
Constitution de la République Française précédée des rapports et decrets qui y sont relatifs.
Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1848.
Price: $4,000.00
About the item
First edition, exemplaire nominatif. Inserted portrait engraving of Lucien Murat by C.A. Faber, 1849. [2], 127 pp. 1 vols. 4to. Murat-Hopkinson Copy of the Revolutionary Constitution of 1848. Original blue boards, upper cover stamped in gilt. Old repair to spine with dark morocco. Some foxing throughout. Very good plus.
Item #319110
The French Constitution written after the revolution of 1848, which ended the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and established the Second Republic: the exemplaire nominatif for lawmaker Lucien Murat (1803-1878), who represented the Lot district.
With a letter of conveyance, dated Paris, 17 April 1849, from Murat, to Mrs. Emily Hopkinson of Philadelphia, on letterhead of the French Republic: “On the adoption of the French Constitution, a copy of it was voted by the Chamber to each of those who had assisted at its formation. Permit me, Madam, to offer mine to you, who are so closely connected with the memory of one of the most distinguished patriots, who signed the Declaration of American Independence.” [signed:] Lucien Murat, Colonel de la 3e Legion, with the regimental ink stamp of the 3ème Legion de la Banlieue, Dept. de la Seine, below.
Emily Hopkinson, née Mifflin, was the widow of Joseph Hopkinson, author of the anthem “Hail, Columbia”, and daughter-in-law of signer Francis Hopkinson (1737-91). Her husband was the close friend of Joseph Bonaparte during his exile in the United States, and acted as his legal representative for American dealings when Bonaparte returned to Europe. Lucien Murat was one of the four children of Napoleon’s sister Caroline. His spendthrift brother Achille had braced Hopkinson during a visit to Bordentown in 1840, claimng a share of the Bonaparte fortunes, but Hopkinson maintained that there was no foundation in law. Murat lived in the United States until the fall of Louis-Philippe. Murat was first cousin to Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, who was elected president of the Second Republic in 1848 and overthrew the republic in 1851 to seize power and rule as Napoleon III.
A remarkable example of the transatlantic connections between the American and French Revolutions.
