It is not surprising,therefore,that the work now under consideration should have been hailed with pleasure and received with every favorable disposition.Judge Story fills a high station in the judiciary of the United States,and has acquired a character,for talents and learning,which ensures respect to whatever he may publish under his own name.His duty,as a Judge of the Supreme Court,has demanded of him frequent investigations of the nicest questions of constitutional law;and his long service in that capacity has probably brought under his review every provision of that instrument in regard to which any difference of opinion has prevailed.Assisted as he has been by the arguments of the ablest counsel,and by the joint deliberations of the other judges of the court,it would be indeed wonderful,if he should hazard his well-earned reputation as a jurist,upon any hasty or unweighed opinion,upon subjects so grave and important.He has also been an attentive observer of political events,and although by no means obtrusive in politics,has yet a political character,scarcely less distinguished than his character as a jurist.To all,these claims to public attention and respect,may be added a reputation for laborious research,and for calm and temperate thinking.A work on the Constitution of the United States,emanating from such a source,cannot fail to exert a strong influence upon public opinion,and it is,therefore,peculiarly important that its real character should be understood.Whatever may be the cast of its political opinions,it can scarcely fail to contain many valuable truths,and much information which will be found useful to all classes of readers.And,so far as its political opinions are concerned,it is of the highest importance to guard the public mind against the influence which its errors,if errors they be,may borrow from the mere authority of the distinguished name under which they are advanced.
The plan of the work before us is very judicious.In order to a correct understanding of the Constitution,it is absolutely necessary to understand the situation of the States before it was adopted.The author,acting upon this idea,distributes his work into three great divisions."The first will embrace a sketch of the charters,constitutional history,and anterevolutionary jurisprudence of the Colonies.The second will embrace the constitutional history of the States,during the Revolution,and the rise,progress,decline,and fall of the Confederation.The third will embrace the history of the rise and adoption of the Constitution,and a full exposition of all its provisions,with the reasons on which they were respectively founded,the objections by which they were respectively assailed,and such illustrations drawn from contemporaneous documents,and the subsequent operations of the government,as may best enable the reader to estimate for himself,the true value of each."This plan is at once comprehensive and analytical.
It embraces every topic necessary to a full understanding of the subject,while,at the same time,it presents them in the natural order of investigation.
It displays a perfect acquaintance with the true nature of the subject,and promises every result which the reader can desire.The first part relates to a subject of the greatest interest to every American,and well worthy the study of philosophical enquirers,all over the world.There is not,within the whole range of history,an event more important,with reference to its effects upon the world at large,than the settlement of the American Colonies.It did not fall within the plan of our author to enquire very extensively,or very minutely,into the mere history of events which distinguished that extraordinary enterprise.So far as the first settlers may be regarded as actuated by avarice,by ambition,or by any other of the usual motives of the adventurer,their deeds belong to the province of the historian alone.We,however,must contemplate them in another and a higher character.
A deep and solemn feeling of religion,and an attachment to,and an understanding of,the principles of civil liberty,far in advance of the age in which they lived,suggested to most of them the idea of seeking a new home and founding new institutions in the western world.To this spirit we are indebted for all that is free and liberal in our present political systems,it would be a work of very great interest,and altogether worthy of the political historian,to trace the great principles of our institutions back to their sources.Their origin would probably be discovered at a period much more remote than is generally supposed.We should derive from such a review much light in the interpretation of those parts of our systems as to which we have no precise rules in the language of our constitutions of government.
It is to be regretted that Judge Story did not take this view of the subject.
Although not strictly required by the plan of his work,it was,nevertheless,altogether consistent with it,and would have added much to its interest with the general reader.His sources of historical information were ample,and his habits and the character of his mind fitted him well for such an investigation,and for presenting the result in an analytical and philosophical form.He has chosen,however,to confine himself within much narrower limits.
