Commentaries on the Constitution [Hardcover]

Joseph Story (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1995

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subtitle: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution; Volume: 1; Original Published by: C. C. Little and J. Brown in 1851 in 643 pages; Subjects: Constitutional history; Constitutions; Law / Constitutional; Political Science / Constitutions;

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Commentaries were tremendous achievements, and evidence immense industry and legal knowledge, and themselves entitled him to be ranked as a jurist of the first rank. --Walker, Oxford Companion to Law 1192

Taking the Federalist as the basis of his Commentaries, he advocates a liberal construction of the palladium of our liberties. --Marvin, Legal Bibliography 669

About the Author

Apart from James Kent, no legal scholar has had greater influence on American law than Justice Story [1779-1845], who was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1811.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 736 pages
• Publisher: Carolina Academic Press (September 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890893144
• ISBN-13: 978-0890893142
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,080,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent source for those interested in the Constitution, May 9, 2000

By 

Michael Farlow (Pittsville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Hardcover)

Joseph Story wrote some of the most important Supreme Court decisions during the early days of the country. This book explores, in detail, his views of the Constitution and it provides a fascinating view of how the Constitution was viewed in the early nineteenth century. Story borrows, liberally at some points, from the federalist papers and early Court opinions to back up his contentions. Each section is very carefully laid out, and the entire book is constructed to explain the Constitution passage by passage. The logical order and a good index make this book essential for Constitutional scholars and provide ease of use for the casual historian. Whether you are looking for the meaning of a single passage in the Constitution or if you just want to get a broad understanding of its meaning as a whole, I highly recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Areference at a fair price, May 19, 2011

By 

Mike Shaw (Lake Texoma) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution (Paperback)

I've run across quotes from this work for years. Now, at a fair price, I have a reference copy to check context and such. A welcome addition to my library.

39 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Historically Significant, But Contains False Theories of the Constitution, October 2, 2005

By 

Warren L. McFerran (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Commentaries on the Constitution (Hardcover)

Joseph Story began his political career as a Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican in a New England State dominated by Hamiltonian Federalists. When he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President James Madison, it was under the impression that Mr. Story would serve as a counter-weight to the nationalistic-minded Chief Justice John Marshall. Yet, after his appointment, Justice Story made a conversion to the Hamiltonian Federalist mentality, and became the protege of the Chief Justice. (In fact, he dedicated his Commentaries on the Constitution to Chief Justice Marshall.) While serving on the Supreme Court, Justice Story also served as a law professor at Harvard University, a position in which he was encouraged to produce works espousing the nationalistic point of view (in opposition to the States' Rights school of thought that emphasized the federal nature of our system of government).

Within the Commentaries, Justice Story bended the truth to suit his purposes, as, for example, in his explanation of the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. According to Justice Story, the Constitution was adopted by the American people as a single sovereign Nation over the States. The wording of the Preamble, "We the people of the United States," for instance, was offered to sustain this view, despite the fact that, in the Constitutional Convention, the Preamble had been worded as, "We the people of the States of," followed by the names of the thirteen sovereign States. The Convention's Committee of Style modified it to read "We the people of the United States" only because it was not known whether all 13 States would actually ratify it. Justice Story chose to ignore this historical fact in presenting his view of the Constitution, because the fact did not support his conclusion.

The fact that the Constitution was ratified by the States, as States, with each State being bound only by its own act of ratification, was deemed irrelevant by Justice Story. The ratification of the compact by States was simply a matter of convenience in his opinion. So, too, was the fact that the new government under the Constitution was inaugurated before North Carolina and Rhode Island had ratified the compact, and those two States were not even members of the Union when Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States. In fact, President Washington's first term was nearly half completed before Rhode Island finally ratified the Constitution and joined the Union. Nonetheless, Justice Story insisted that the Constitution was adopted by a single, consolidated Nation of Americans, because such a contention was requisite to sustain his theory that the States are not sovereign and had little or nothing to do with the establishment of our current political system.

Justice Story's Commentaries on the Constitution contributed significantly toward the developing Consolidating School of Thought that originated with Alexander Hamilton and was transmitted by Daniel Webster and other Whig politicians. That school of thought ultimately gave rise to the doctrines espoused by Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans that the States of our Union are not sovereign and cannot resist the supremacy of the centralized power or secede from the Union.

Considering the historical significance of Justice Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, I would recommend it to all serious students of constitutional history and political science. However, at the same time, I strongly recommend that the reader have alternative explanations of the Constitution available for reference and comparison. In particular, I recommend "A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States," by Alexander H. Stephens, and "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," by Jefferson Davis. In both of these books, the most glaring fallacies of Justice Story are identified and corrected by superior reasoning and historical fact.