Commentaries on Statute and Constitutional Law and Statutory and Constitutional Construction, Containing an Examination of Adjudged Cases on ... Constitution of the Respective States Conc

Smith, E. Fitch.

Commentaries on Statute and Constitutional Law and Statutory and Constitutional Construction, Containing an Examination of Adjudged Cases on Constitutional Law Under the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the Respective States Concerning Legislative Power, and Also the Consideration of the Rules of Law in the Construction of Statutes and Constitutional Provisions.

Albany: Gould, Banks & Gould; and New York: Banks, Gould & Co., 1848. xv, 976 pp. Reprinted 2007 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-769-4. ISBN-10: 1-58477-769-9. Cloth. $175.

* Reprint of the only edition. Written at the time of the Mexican War (1846-48), a period marked by intense debate about slavery, states' rights and "manifest destiny," this book is essentially a compilation of opinions by leading American and English judges on questions connected with constitutional and statute law. These are linked together with interpretive commentary by Smith. A strict constructionist, he is horrified by the "excess of legislation" of "doubtful constitutionality." It is "one of the greatest evils of our age which has engrafted itself upon our political institutions" (vi).