Editor's Note

Francis Lieber's Legal and Political Hermeneutics was originally planned as a chapter in his Manual of Political Ethics. In 1837, while the larger work was in progress, this section was published under the title Political Hermeneutics, as a single, seventyeight page volume by the firm of Charles C. Little and James Brown. An expanded version, with modifications throughout and the addition of what is now chapter VII, then appeared as two articles in The American Jurist and Law Magazine in 1837 and 1838. After further additions and alterations, the articles were in turn published in book form by Little and Brown as a second edition in 1839.

A third edition appeared posthumously in 1880. It reflects changes made by Lieber in 1860 in anticipation of a new edition and includes extensive additional notes by William G. Hammond.