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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.

BY JOSEPH STORY, LL. D.,

DANE PROFESSOR OF LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

ABRIDGED BY THE AUTHOR,

FOR THE USE OF COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS.

"Magistratibus igitur opus est; sine quorum prudentiâ ac diligentiâ esse civitas non potest;
quorumque descriptione omnis Reipublicæ moderatio continetur."

CICERO DE LEG. lib. 3. cap. 2.

"Government is a contrivance of human Wisdom to provide for human wants."

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Entered according to the act of Congress in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three,

by JOSEPH STORY,

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

CHARLES FOLSOM,

PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY.

TO THE

HONORABLE JOHN MARSHALL, LL. D.,

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

SIR,

I ask the favour of dedicating this work to you. I know not, to whom it could with so much propriety be dedicated, as to one, whose youth was engaged in the arduous enterprises of the Revolution; whose manhood assisted in framing and supporting the national Constitution; and whose maturer years have been devoted to the task of unfolding its powers, and illustrating its principles. When, indeed, I look back upon your judicial labours during a period of thirty-two years, it is difficult to suppress astonishment at their extent and variety, and at the exact learning, the profound reasoning, and the solid principles, which they every where display. Other Judges have attained an elevated reputation by similar labours in a single department of jurisprudence. But in one department, (it need scarcely be said, that I allude to that of constitutional law,) the common consent of your countrymen has admitted you to stand without a rival. Posterity will assuredly confirm by its deliberate award, what the present age has approved, as an act of undisputed justice. Your expositions of constitutional law enjoy a rare and extraordinary authority. They constitute a monument of fame far beyond the ordinary memorials of political and military glory. They are destined to enlighten, instruct, and convince future generations; and can scarcely perish but with the memory of the constitution itself. They are the victories of a mind accustomed to grapple with difficulties, capable of unfolding the most comprehensive truths with masculine simplicity, and severe logic, and prompt to dissipate the illusions of ingenious doubt, and subtle argument, and impassioned eloquence. They remind us of some mighty river of

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