1850-1877: Law and Justice: Publications

Horace Binney, The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus under the Constitution (Philadelphia: C. Sherman & Son, 1862–1865)—a defense of Lincoln administration policy that became the central publication in an extended debate among lawyers;

Joel P. Bishop, Commentaries on the Law of Marriage and Divorce (Boston: Little, Brown, 1852)—an analysis of contemporary morals as well as laws;

Thomas R. R. Cobb, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America (Philadelphia: T. ôcj. W. Johnson, 1858)—a treatise by one of the future drafters of the Confederate Constitution;

Thomas Cooley, A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union (Boston: Little, Brown, 1868)—a highly influential work contributing to more exacting judicial review in defense of economic liberty;

Cooley, A Treatise on the Law of Taxation, Including the Law of Local Assessments (Chicago: Callaghan, 1876)—defines the public purpose necessary to sustain taxation and in requiring equal and uniform, rather than progressive, taxation;

John Forrest Dillon, The Law of Municipal Corporations (New York: J. Cockcroft, 1872)—the eminent commentator, and later judge, establishes enduring principles of local government law;

Sidney George Fisher, The Trial of the Constitution (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862)—maintained that the Constitution provided Congress and the President with the powers necessary to sustain the Civil War;

Henry W. Halleck, Elements of International Law and Laws of War (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1866)—reflects the Union military commander’s recognition of the importance of the subject to the conduct of war;

Francis Hilliard, The Law of Torts or Private Wrongs (Boston: Little, Brown, 1859)—this first systematic treatise on torts marks the maturity of the subject;

Hilliard, The Law of Taxation (Boston: Little, Brown, 1875)—one of several treatises prompted by local tax initiatives during the middle decades of the century;

John Codman Hurd, The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States (Boston: Little, Brown, 1858–1862)—a Bostonian defends the legitimacy of slavery;

John A. Jameson, A Treatise on Constitutional Conventions; Their History, Powers, and Modes of Proceeding (Chicago: Callaghan, 1867)—a general survey prompted by the Illinois constitutional convention of 1862;

Christopher Columbus Langdell, A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts (Boston: Little, Brown, 1871)—the first casebook designed for use in law schools;

John A. Marshall, American Bastile (Philadelphia: T. W. Hartley, 1869)—a widely selling partisan denunciation of Lincoln administration policy on civil liberties;

John Belton O’Neall, Biographical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of South Carolina (Charleston: S. G. Courte-nay, 1859)—one of the best sets of profiles of contemporary lawyers;

Joel Parker, Personal Liberty Laws and Slavery in the Territories (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1861)—an analysis by a conservative Harvard Law School professor;

Theophilus Parsons, The Law of Contracts (Boston: Little, Brown, 1853–1855)—a critique of the prevailing theory of contract; one of the best-selling treatises of the era;

Isaac Redfield, The Law of Railways (Boston: Little, Brown, 1858)—railroads had by this point changed American life so profoundly as to become a distinct field of legal practice;

Theodore Sedgwick, v4 Treatise on the Rules Which Govern the Interpretation and Application of Statutory and Constitutional Law (New York: J. S. Voorhies, 1857)—a guide to reading legal enactments;

George Sharswood, A Compend of Lectures on the Aims and Duties of the Profession of the Law (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1854)—statement of principles that would be adopted by early bar associations;

Thomas Shearman and Amasa Redfield, A Treatise on the Law of Negligence (New York: Baker, Voorhis, 1869)—an update on the developing field of torts;

John N. Taylor, A Treatise on the American Law of Landlord and Tenant (Boston: Little, Brown, 1866)—reflects the increasingly typical living arrangements in American cities;

Emory Washburn, A Treatise on the American Law of Real Property, 2 volumes (Boston: Little, Brown, 1860–1862)—a survey of law relating to land ownership;

Francis Wharton, Commentary on the Law of Agency and Agents (Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1876)—establishes the principal-agent relationship as a concept distinct from the law of employer-employee relations;

Wharton, A Suggestion As to Causation (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1874)—an attempt to allocate liability for injuries with multiple causes through a principle of moral causation;

William Whiting, The War Powers of the President, and the Legislative Powers of Congress in Relation to Rebellion, Treason and Slavery (Boston: J. L. Shorey, 1862)—the solicitor of the War Department defends the Lincoln administration’s approach to the Constitution;

Theodore Dwight Woolsey, Divorce and Divorce Legislation (New York: Scribner, 1869)—Yale president and law professor denounces the laws facilitating divorce;

Woolséy, Introduction to the Study of International Law (Boston: J. Munroe, 1860)—the most current authority at the outbreak of the Civil War.