A Treatise On The Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon The Legislative Power Of The States Of The American Union

". . . the real source of his [Cooley's] fame. This book originated from the need of introducing a course on Constitutional Law in the school. . . . The text was developed as a basis for lectures. . . . His discussion attained immediate fame and his views and suggestions practically dominated American Constitutional Law. . . . Like Blackstone, Pomeroy and many other legal works, the influence of Constitutional Limitations rests partly upon literary qualities, upon clarity and grace of unaffected statement." --James G. Rogers, American Bar Leaders 70. "The most influential work ever published on American Constitutional law." --Edward S. Corwin, Constitutional Revolution 87. Thomas McIntyre Cooley [1824-1898] was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to serve on the Interstate Commerce Commission. He was a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University and dean of the University of Michigan Law School. First issued in 1870, his edition of Blackstone, popularly known as "Cooley's Blackstone," was the standard American edition of the late nineteenth century. Some of his other influential publications are A Treatise on the Law of Taxation (1876) and A Treatise on the Law of Torts or the Wrongs Which Arise Independently of Contract (1878). Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, founded in 1972, was named in his honor.

Excerpt from A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union IN the Preface to the first edition of this work, the author stated its purpose to be, to furnish to the practitioner and the student of the law such a presentation of elementary constitu tional principles as should serve, with the aid of its references to judicial decisions, legal treatises, and historical events, as a con venient guide in the examination of questions respecting the constitutional limitations which rest upon the power of the sev eral State legislatures. In the accomplishment of that purpo, se, _ the author further stated that he had faithfully endeavored to give the law as it had been Settled by the authorities, rather than to present his own views. At the same time, he did not attempt to deny - what he supposed would be sufficiently ap parent - that he had written in full sympathy with all those restraints which the caution of the fathers had imposed upon the exercise of the powers of government, and with faith in the checks and balances 'of -our republican system, and in correct conclusions by the \g'enbral public sentiment, rather than in re liance upon a judicious, prudent, and just exercise of authority, when confided without restriction to any one man or body Of men, whether sitting in legislative capacity or judicial. In this sympathy and faith, he had written of jury trials and the other safeguards to personal liberty, of liberty of the press, and of vested rights; and he had also endeavored to point out that there are on all sides definite limitations which circumscribe the legislative authority, independent of the specific restrictions which the people impose by their State constitutions. But while not predisposed to discover in any part of our system the rightful existence of any unlimited power, created by the Constitution. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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